Missed target OG

[hopetobrewgr8]

I just boiled my first barleywine for 90 minutes (ran out of propane an hour in, but got some more and continued for another 30 minutes), cooled it to 68 degrees, and the OG that was supposed to be 1.112 ended up at 1.056. I desperately want to fix this. Can someone give some guidance?

Here is what I started with:

 

[hopetobrewgr8]

By the way, I mashed for 60 minutes at 152 degrees

 

[hopetobrewgr8]

Also, I put the kettle back on the heat to try to boil it longer

 

[hopetobrewgr8]

And I noticed the wort didn't smell sweet when I finished mashing. Possibly does that indicate something?

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

Several possibilities. 1 - Check thermometer and be sure you didn't mash higher. 2 - High gravity brews usually suffer from lower efficiency. So if 75% is your typical efficiency, you may have ended up more in the 60-65% range. My efficiency seems to drop about 4 points for every 10 points above 1.065. 3 - You also may have over estimated your boil off rate. 4 - You don't describe your mashing process but inadequate dough-in or dough balls can mess up efficiency. Also, a good sparge goes a long way.

Did you take a preboil SG?. That would help answer some questions. My first big brew (1090) came in over 10 points low because I didn't account for the loss in efficiency. I checked my preboil SG and the SG at the end of the planned boil time and found I was still low so I added another 30 min to the boil and got closer.

Sounds like it's too late for that. It won't be the beer you planned but it will still be beer and that's not a bad outcome. Good luck.

 

[shtoive87]

How did you crush the grain? Do you batch or fly sparge? That's a really low efficiency. To fix it, boil some malt extract and put it in the fermenter. You can use some of the wort you already made to boil it if you don't have enough space.

 

[WoodlandBrew]

My guess would be laughtering efficiency.

What were your volumes?

Assuming a single sparge and a grain absorption of 0.2 gal/lb:
The grain would absorb 2.2 gallons, so to hit the 4 gallon pre boil you would need to start with 6.2 gallons.

The efficiency would be 4/6.2=65%

If you mashed in with more or less water that could explain your low efficiency.

If you want to fix this one instead of just seeing how it turns out you could add DME directly to the fermenter. If the bag has remained sealed from the factory it's practically sterile.

 

[RM-MN]

I just made up a recipe yesterday and ran it through Brew Target which predicted an OG of 1.062. Then I entered that same recipe into Brewer's Friend and it predicted 1.098. The measured OG was 1.062, just as Brew Target predicted so I'm guessing that Brewer's Friend has an error in it.

 

[TexasWine]

I just made up a recipe yesterday and ran it through Brew Target which predicted an OG of 1.062. Then I entered that same recipe into Brewer's Friend and it predicted 1.098. The measured OG was 1.062, just as Brew Target predicted so I'm guessing that Brewer's Friend has an error in it.

Interesting. I use Brewer's Friend and am always within the range of what it predicts. I haven't found any errors.

To the OP, sorry about your brewing woes. This is late, but as someone mentioned, adding extract would be about the only solution at the point you were at.

Let folks know if you want/need help solving the mystery of why your efficiency was so low.

 

[A2HB]

Mash longer, sparge slower

 

[youngdh]

Interesting. I use Brewer's Friend and am always within the range of what it predicts. I haven't found any errors.

To the OP, sorry about your brewing woes. This is late, but as someone mentioned, adding extract would be about the only solution at the point you were at.

Let folks know if you want/need help solving the mystery of why your efficiency was so low.

I'm experiencing the same issue with brewersfriend recipe editor when Batch Target is set to "fermenter" and Brew Method set to BIAB, it predicts about 20 points high on OG. If I change Brew Target to "kettle" predicted OG is closer to actual. I've posted in brewersfriend forums inquiring on this but no response yet. My equipment profile is configured for losses and efficiencies based on over 10 successful BIAB batches using the BIABacus Excel spreadsheet. At the moment I'm going to set batch target to "kettle" until I understand what's going on with its calculations when Batch Target set to "fermenter"

 

[youngdh]

Removed duplicate post

 

[youngdh]

I'm experiencing the same issue with brewersfriend recipe editor when Batch Target is set to "fermenter" and Brew Method set to BIAB, it predicts about 20 points high on OG. If I change Brew Target to "kettle" predicted OG is closer to actual. I've posted in brewersfriend forums inquiring on this but no response yet. My equipment profile is configured for losses and efficiencies based on over 10 successful BIAB batches using the BIABacus Excel spreadsheet. At the moment I'm going to set batch target to "kettle" until I understand what's going on with its calculations when Batch Target set to "fermenter"

To clarify my last post, during my last AG brew session I hit all the predicted numbers from brewersfriend recipe editor for pre-boil volume, gravity and post boil volume. The predicted post-boil OG was approx. 20 points higher than predicted pre-boil OG and I wasn't adding a lot of late addition fermentables. This should have been suspect by me. For my recent batch post mash/pre boil OG was predicted at 1.027. I hit 1.032. I exceeded pre boil volume by 0.5G (I squeezed my BIAB bag). My actual post boil OG was 1.047 with boil off rate as predicted. Brewersfriend recipe editor predicted a post boil OG of 1.068 which was way off from my actual requiring me to add 2# of DME to get near my required OG. With hindsight being 20/20 I decided to use brewersfriend Dilution and Boiloff Gravity calculator to cross check the Recipe editor's calculation of OG. Using my actual numbers this tool predicted a post boil OG of 1.048 which is basically what I measured. This confirms something is amiss with the recipe editors predicted OG for batch type of "fermenter". User beware!

 

[youngdh]

I may have figured out the behavior with Brewersfriend Recipe Editor high OG prediction. I posted my findings in a Brewersfriend forum thread here: http://www.brewersfriend.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1820&p=11511#p11511

Basically the tool's current behavior is the Batch Target type selection has no affect on predicted OG but Batch Target Size does. As of today if I set batch target size to my post boil volume the predicted OG is correct. Toggling Type between "Fermentor" and "Kettle" leaving all other values as-is has no affect on predicted OG!

I'd still like to know what calculations are affected by Batch Target type selection.