Missed my OG again!

[s2cmpugh]

Good day everyone. I brewed an IPA on Saturday with an estimated OG of 1.065 at the end of the boil per beersmith. However, after all was said and done, I only managed 1.050 ish. This is the second beer I've had miss the OG target by a decent amount.

What am I missing here? I mashed the IPA at 152F for 90 minutes and only lost one degree. Final volume was around 5.25 gallons. Recipe is here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f12/ipa-recipe-look-over-327548/

I've brewed about four all grain beers so far and purchased my grains from him. The first two did fine, but the last two ended up way off in the gravity department. My LHBS mills the grains for me, and I think his mill needs to be re-adjusted.

Please help! Thanks!

 

[brewmaster89]

Did you batch sparge or fly sparge? What was your efficiency?

 

[thomasben]

What kind of cooler? How big? Color?

 

[s2cmpugh]

Batch sparge.

10 gallon cooler from Home depot wrapped in an r-30 bat insulation blanket.

I even missed my pre-boil OG by about 10 points or so.

 

[thomasben]

I would check your crush

 

[duboman]

I would check your crush

+1 on the crush and also verify the calibration of your thermometer and hydrometer to be sure everything is spot on

 

[s2cmpugh]

+1 on the crush and also verify the calibration of your thermometer and hydrometer to be sure everything is spot on

Digital thermometer I verified when I purchased it using boiling water AND ice water. It's only a few months old. The hydrometer seems accurate, but I can test it in some tap water to be sure.

Sooooo what should I tell my LHBS to do about the crushing?

 

[Socalsuds]

Buy a Barley Crusher grain mill !!

 

[befus]

Sooooo what should I tell my LHBS to do about the crushing?

Double up.

 

[s2cmpugh]

Buy a Barley Crusher grain mill !!

Any recommendations on one?

Double up.

I feel bad telling guy he needs to crush his grains better. He's only been open for about six months now and I think he uses a typical consumer grain mill, not a commercial style one.

 

[MrTheKing]

Any recommendations on one?



I feel bad telling guy he needs to crush his grains better. He's only been open for about six months now and I think he uses a typical consumer grain mill, not a commercial style one.

Why feel bad? You'd be helping him improve his business. He works for you, if you're unhappy with something bring it up (in a constructive way) if he doesn't like it or is unwilling to change, take your business elsewhere.

 

[Dan]

Why feel bad? You'd be helping him improve his business. He works for you, if you're unhappy with something bring it up (in a constructive way) if he doesn't like it or is unwilling to change, take your business elsewhere.

Just a thought. A poor crush could improve his business to unsuspecting brewers. Brewers will need more grain to get the correct SG.

That at least seems to be the conspiracy theory around here. Me, maybe I'm inclined to believe it too. But it's a pretty cheap trick and with sites like HBT that trick is explained very quickly. Most AG brewers discover "possible trick" and buy their own crusher.

If LHBS are trying to screw us over, they'll find out it won't work because in these days there is much info on homebrewing which will end that practice.

On the other hand, I sure wish a LHBS would post on this site and explain why they crush grains the way they do. They might have a relevant reason most of us don't even consider.

There's always two sides to a story.

 

[djfriesen]

If he crushes it once for you, I really doubt he'll have a problem running them through again if you ask him to. He'd be stupid to refuse a simple, direct request from a paying customer.

 

[befus]

Any recommendations on one?



I feel bad telling guy he needs to crush his grains better. He's only been open for about six months now and I think he uses a typical consumer grain mill, not a commercial style one.

Make it easy on him, tel him you are using a special technique and if it works tell him about it and request he keep doing it.

 

[kafkasbug]

Any recommendations on one?

I feel bad telling guy he needs to crush his grains better. He's only been open for about six months now and I think he uses a typical consumer grain mill, not a commercial style one.

I bought my Barley Crusher from the website.

For me, having a way to mill my own grain was a natural progression in my brewing. It's one more variable in the process that I wanted to have complete control over. Experimenting with the milling process made more of a difference to my effeciency than sparging techniques or mash time.

That said, your LHBS guy should be more than receptive if you ask him to mill your grain twice. Just explain that you batch sparge and are not worried about stuck sparges, so you want it finer.

 

[dbhokie]

There is a lot of variables besides Crush. Water Chemistry, the program you are using to estimate. (for instance some programs when you calculate your recipes will give you a post mash SG that includes sacharide additions that you don't add until the boil). Crush many times is it, but there is a lot of other variables that could be affecting it as well.