Need help with SG

[BrewinSoldier]

Hey guys.. Back again and need some help.. I'm a little bummed out right now after seeing my SG on a Pliny the elder batch...should have been 1.070 and I only hit 1.057 which is wayyyy off..

I have been having a lot of problems getting 5.5-6 gallons into the fermenter on hoppy beers.. The last batch I did was a Heady topper clone.. I hit my starting gravity, actually a little over, but by the time I got the wort into the fermenter and then from fermenter to keg, I only ended up with 3 gallons of beer.. That was very dissapointing.. So on today's batch, I decided to get 8.75 gallons of wort into the boil kettle for the 90 minute boil.

I ordered my grains from more beer and have never had a problem.. Well this time right away during my recirculating mash, I noticed a ton of grain pieces making it through the false bottom and into my pump and sight glass. I have never seen that before.. That makes me wonder if morebeer put way too fine if a crush which affected my gravity. It is either that or the fact I should've maybe used more grain in the mash to makeup for the amount I wanted in my boil.

The actual recipe said it was for a 6gallon batch. So I thought 8.75 gallons into BK would be fine.

1-where did I go wrong?
2-is my beer still going to taste like Pliny? Is the only thing going to be affected the ABV%?

Thanks guys

 

[doug293cz]

A finer crush normally improves conversion efficiency, which leads to higher SG's, all else being equal. So, a finer crush in very unlikely to be part of your problem. If you had a stuck sparge due to the finer crush, that would be another matter, but you don't mention anything about that.

I suspect you are being affected by hop absorption, since you are brewing recipes with "tons" of hops. Remember, the wort held by the hops contains the same concentration of sugar as the rest of the wort (the hops don't selectively absorb water only from the wort.) If you add additional water to make up for the volume lost to hop absorption, you also need to add more grain (or DME/LME) to keep the SG from being lowered due to dilution. If you use more water with the same amount of grain, your SG's will be lower.

One thing you might consider is using hop bags, and squeezing the bags to minimize the amount of wort lost to absorption. If you don't want to use hop bags in the boil, you could scoop the hop trub out of the BK, place it in a bag, and then squeeze (be sure to follow good sanitation protocols.)

Brew on

 

[BrewinSoldier]

Thanks for the input Doug.. I actually did have a stuck sparge for the first time ever today.. I don't know how long it lasted for because I stepped away for a bit.. I fixed it with about 35mins left in the mash.. I did do an iodine test after 60 mins and starch conversion was complete.

If a recipe only has a starting gravity, how would I know what the preboil gravity would be? Mine was 1.044.

 

[doug293cz]

Pre-Boil Volume * (Pre-Boil SG - 1) = Post-Boil Volume * (Post-Boil SG - 1), or

Pre-Boil SG = 1 + (Post-Boil SG -1) * Post-Boil Volume / Pre-Boil Volume

Brew on

 

[BrewinSoldier]

So I guess my next question is, if I ended up with a SG of 1.057 instead of 1.070, is my finished beer still going to taste the same? I know the ABV will be lower which I don't really care, I just really hope the flavor of finished beer stays the same.

 

[BrewinSoldier]

Oh and I just ordered a Barley Crusher 15lb malt mill. I'll start ordering my grain uncrushed and doing it all myself to stay consistent.

 

[doug293cz]

So I guess my next question is, if I ended up with a SG of 1.057 instead of 1.070, is my finished beer still going to taste the same? I know the ABV will be lower which I don't really care, I just really hope the flavor of finished beer stays the same.

The beer is likely to taste a little thinner/have less body than expected, and malt flavor is likely to be lower as well. Could still be a very good beer. You'll just have to wait it out.

Oh and I just ordered a Barley Crusher 15lb malt mill. I'll start ordering my grain uncrushed and doing it all myself to stay consistent.

Good move. My Barley Crusher is serving me well.

Brew on