low OG on all grain brew

[macewank]

So I brewed this recipe on Sunday night and had some issues with my mash.. New equipment setup and I made a few mistakes. I only got about 3 gallons out of my mash in and scrambled to save it with the mash out, ended up with 7 gallons but it was dirty.

Anyway, brew day ends.. Expected OG on this is 1.069-ish, and I ended up at 1.042 .. So, I'm way off.

The question is this. Should I throw some DME in to try and "fix" it, or just let it be? It's been bubbling a lot the past 3 days, so it doesn't appear as though the fermentation is stuck.

I'm just curious what the massive shift in gravity is going to do to the IPA. I have a feeling it's going to taste like liquid Citra.

(posted this in the beginners forum because I'm fairly new to all grain)

 

[BigB]

You could try to save it by adding some DME, but it won't be the same beer. I'm more interested in the getting 3 gallons out. That doesn't sound unusual. For example, my Maibock: 5 gal mash, I will get 3 gallons at mash out. Then batch sparge with 4 gallons to get my 7 gal preboil. So, I don't see where your process was any different. Don't forget about losses to tun design dead space(.5 gal in my case) and grain absorbtion (.1-.12 gal per lb of grain). Now, was your OG measurement taken post boil?

Also, you said your wort was "dirty." Don't forget to vorlauf. If you batch sparge, you will need to vorlauf at each step.

 

[macewank]

You could try to save it by adding some DME, but it won't be the same beer. I'm more interested in the getting 3 gallons out. That doesn't sound unusual. For example, my Maibock: 5 gal mash, I will get 3 gallons at mash out. Then batch sparge with 4 gallons to get my 7 gal preboil. So, I don't see where your process was any different. Don't forget about losses to tun design dead space(.5 gal in my case) and grain absorbstion (.1-.12 gal per lb of grain). Now, was your OG measurement taken post boil?

Also, you said your wort was "dirty." Don't forget to vorlauf. If you batch sparge, you will need to vorlauf at each step.

oh, yeah, i vorlauf'd.. when I said dirty i just meant "did not go as intended"

My OG was taken after I cooled it and racked it into the better bottle. It came out at about 1.042, and I'd imagine the wort might have been closer to 70 than it was to 60, so I figure, max, it's between 1.041 and 1.043. 10 degrees won't throw the hydrometer off that badly.

 

[stevehardt]

oh, yeah, i vorlauf'd.. when I said dirty i just meant "did not go as intended"

My OG was taken after I cooled it and racked it into the better bottle. It came out at about 1.042, and I'd imagine the wort might have been closer to 70 than it was to 60, so I figure, max, it's between 1.041 and 1.043. 10 degrees won't throw the hydrometer off that badly.

Was it well stirred before you took the readings?

 

[DocScott]

Sounds like your volumes are strange, or didn't sparge appropriately. Typical batch sparge will have you end up with equal volumes from your initial mash and from your sparge (rinsing the grains with hot water after you've drained your original mash) For a 5 gallon batch, usually you'll shoot for about 3 gallons from the mash, then 3 from the sparge. This then allows you 1 gallon of boil off. As already stated, you need to account for dead space and grain absorption in the volume of your original strike water.

Another thing to look at if your efficiency is bad is your tun design and perhaps more importantly your grain crush.