lower OG

[Merlinus]

I brewed today an IS. It is an extract with partial mash. It had to come around 1100 OG but it came at only 1090. Beside the extract and the malts i used also 370 g cane sugar, transformed into a candi syrup (using water and calcium hydroxide, and boiled for 35 minutes)

I thought that i will have more volume than i want, so i took about a liter of the wort and put it separately in a empty pot, when i finished boiling the wort, i noticed that i have less than 9.5 liters (absorption by the hops,bigger evaporation rate...) , so i added the wort that i had separately in the pot (which was before adding the sugar, so it had only the sugars from the speciality malts). I took a reading but i had 1090 OG instead of 1100, and i was still missing 700 ml, so i boiled 700 ml of water with 100 rocks candi sugar and added it to the wort, i took again a reading and still it was 1090 !

- could it be possibly, or is it only an reading error ?
- what could go so wrong ? after all its a difference of 245g of sugars.... i mention that the candy syrup was made by me, i used 370g of cane sugar for it
- now i wont know for sure what is the abv of my beer
- tomorrow im brewing the quadrupel, i want it to be at least 10% abv, what can i do to not get it that low and if it does how can i fix it ?

thanks !

 

[Skiffy]

Recipe?

 

[Merlinus]

Here it is, sorry it's in Romanian but i guess you can figure it out (or google translate it), but please read also in the first post how i proceeded. |Thanks !

Imperial Stout 10.5% (OG 1100 - FG 1020) IBU 71 (79?) - SRM 40

Cantitate must in fermentator: 9.5 litri
Prima fermentatie: 3 saptamani - 19-22 grade (24-25 grade ultimele 3 zile)
A doua fermentatie: (wood aging) 1-2 saptamanai - 19-22 grade
Fermentatie in sticle: 1 luna- 19-22 grade
Conditionare in sticle: 4 luni - 10 grade
Tip reteta: partial mash – 30 min @ 65 grade
Nivel aparent de atenuare: 80%
Nivel de eficienta: 60%

Apa:
12 litri de apa (+0,5 ?)

Fermentabile:
1,93 kg extract malt light (60 min) – 61.8%
370 gr cane sugar (+20 gr – 40 gr) - transformat in sirop amber-brown (10 min) – 11,8%
70 gr zahar candel brun (priming)

Malturi: 825 gr – 26,4%
175 gr malt german abbey (mash 30 min) – 5,6%
150 gr malt german roasted barley (mash 30 min) – 4,8%
125 gr malt belgian special b (mash 30 min) – 4%
100 gr gr malt belgian chocolate (mash 30 min) – 3,2%
125 gr flaked barley (mash 30 min) – 4%
100 gr flaked oats (mash 30 min) – 3,2%
50 gr malt whisky (mash 30 min) – 1,6%

Hameiuri
28 gr hamei magnum 13,4 AA (amareala) (60 min)
15 gr hamei hallertau mittelfrueh 3,5 AA (flavor) (30 min)
13 gr hamei hallertau mittelfrueh 3,5 AA (aroma) (5 min)

Altele:
1 tsp Irish Moss (15 min)
5 gr anason stelat (15 min)
15 gr lemn dulce (15 min)
1 pastaie de vanilie (15 min)
50 gr boabe de cacao prajite si rasnite (15 min)
50 gr boabe de cafea rasnite (5 min)
50 gr oak chips tinute in bourbon (in bourbon 14 zile, la a doua fermentatie in saculet 1-2 saptamani)

Drojdie:
Wyeast 1762 - Belgian Abbey II™
Pitching rate: 1

 

[Skiffy]

I might be missing something due to the language "barrier" in the recipe but I think the problem is in your mash. Did you make this recipe up yourself? I ask because I don't think any of the malts in the mash have much diastatic power, so there was probably little to no conversion, especially in only 30 min.

 

[Merlinus]

I might be missing something due to the language "barrier" in the recipe but I think the problem is in your mash. Did you make this recipe up yourself? I ask because I don't think any of the malts in the mash have much diastatic power, so there was probably little to no conversion, especially in only 30 min.

yes, but this is an extract recipe. the malts are only for color and flavour.

there is a lot of extract and sugar in the recipe

 

[Skiffy]

I believe this is supposed to be a partial mash for a few reasons. I can explain the difference if you don't know.

1. You and the recipe called this out as a partial mash. Could be a confusion of terms but I don't think so ... was this a kit? or did you alter an existing recipe yourself?

2. The OG of just the extract and sugars puts you pretty close to where you are at 1.09. Without a mash only some of the grains will provide any fermentable sugars. Flaked barley and flaked oats have to be mashed to yield any sugar. Check out this link to Palmer's book. For example, Special B when mashed contributes nearly twice as much sugar as when it's steeped (27 vs 16).

The thing I don't get is that this recipe doesn't work as a partial mash. I don't believe there is a base grain there that can convert itself, let alone the other grains.

Summary ... I think your readings are correct and the issue is you steeped your grains when you should have mashed them with a base malt

 

[Merlinus]

I believe this is supposed to be a partial mash for a few reasons. I can explain the difference if you don't know.

1. You and the recipe called this out as a partial mash. Could be a confusion of terms but I don't think so ... was this a kit? or did you alter an existing recipe yourself?

2. The OG of just the extract and sugars puts you pretty close to where you are at 1.09. Without a mash only some of the grains will provide any fermentable sugars. Flaked barley and flaked oats have to be mashed to yield any sugar. Check out this link to Palmer's book. For example, Special B when mashed contributes nearly twice as much sugar as when it's steeped (27 vs 16).

The thing I don't get is that this recipe doesn't work as a partial mash. I don't believe there is a base grain there that can convert itself, let alone the other grains.

Summary ... I think your readings are correct and the issue is you steeped your grains when you should have mashed them with a base malt

its not a kit, its a recipe made by made.... i mashed them (if i know corectly) for 30 min at 63-68 celsius degrees, then sparged them with 72 celsius degrees water, the base malt should be the Abbey : https://www.brouwland.com/en/our-pr...-40-50-ebc/d/abbey-malt-weyerm-40-50-ebc-5-kg

also i noticed the mashed wort was very sticky, so it had sugars in it...

i did other recipes similar to this and they came at my expected abv...

 

[Skiffy]

Hmmm ... I don't know how to calculate if you have enough diastatic power, but based on the description, I'd imagine thats a pseudo-basemalt that doesn't have enough to convert that many other grains. For instance I don't think people count on a little bit of Munich malt to convert 3 or 4 times its weight in other grains. I don't do partial mashes anymore since I do smaller batches now, so I always have enough to convert.

Did your other batches have similar quantities of grains that must be mashed to the abbey malt?

 

[Merlinus]

Hmmm ... I don't know how to calculate if you have enough diastatic power, but based on the description, I'd imagine thats a pseudo-basemalt that doesn't have enough to convert that many other grains. For instance I don't think people count on a little bit of Munich malt to convert 3 or 4 times its weight in other grains. I don't do partial mashes anymore since I do smaller batches now, so I always have enough to convert.

Did your other batches have similar quantities of grains that must be mashed to the abbey malt?

they had a little less as they were dubbel and tripel. but today i brewed a quad, and it came at 1102 instead of 1105 (im pleased), but i added an extra 50 grams of sugar and 50 grams of malt extract to the recipe.