Low OG in whiskey beer

[whalesniffer]

Hello.

I'm new to this forum so sorry if this is posted in the wrong place.

I just made a beer last night. I have a fairly good understanding of All Grain brewing but I am still in the experimentation stage a little bit.

The beer I made was a dark almost scottish ale with quite a high grain bill to it. I also soaked French Oak Chips in some whiskey for 2 weeks and added that to the fermenter.

Everything seemed to go to plan (apart from a minor boil over but nothing too drastic) however the OG was less than I expected. Would the whiskey have done it or was there something else in the process that could have gone wrong?

This is the recipe if its any help. Perhaps there was something in the recipe that could have caused it. (Also any comments on how I could amend the recipe would be appreciated).

Thanks in advance.



MASH: 10.3L @ 69 degrees C for 90 mins.

Grist: Pale Malt (Maris Otter) - 3400g
Crystal Malt - 250g
Chocolate Malt - 130g
Cara Red - 200g
Torrified Wheat - 400g
Flaked Oats - 300g

Sparge: 20L @ 77 degrees C

Boil: Fuggles - 33g - 75mins
Fuggles - 10g - 10mins
Irish Moss - 1/2 Tsp - 10mins

Fermenter: Add 2oz oak chips in 500ml of whiskey (soaked for 2 weeks)


Thanks.

 

[duboman]

I will assume you are speaking of a low starting gravity. The first place to look is the quality of your crushed grain. If you got this from an LHBS or on line you probably got a very poor crush and thus got less efficiency out of your mash. Have them mill twice. The next place to look is the Ph and water quality being used.

As for adding the Oak/Whiskey, no IMO that would not have had an effect on a lower reading at OG. In addition, FWIW, Oaking is typically recommended to be done in a secondary vessel after fermentation has completed, not in the primary during fermentation. Your finished product may be questionable as to how this turns out.

 

[axeman9182]

Some details in terms of anticipated vs. actual starting gravity would be helpful. If you're off by only a couple points it may be something as simple as ending up with more wort than you anticipated or not correcting your gravity reading for temperature. Regardless, the oak/whiskey shouldn't have impacted your gravity reading.

 

[whalesniffer]

Thanks both for your replies.

I'm pretty certain now that it was down t the quality of the grain. I did leave it a few months after buying the grain to make this batch.

It also fermented well for about a day and then all activity stopped. So perhaps the ingredients wee not as fresh as they should be. I'll plough on though and see what it tastes like. Perhaps I'll try this recipe with fresh ingredients again.

Thanks again.