Sweetchuck
Well-Known Member
Hey - newbie to the forum here.
Started brewing maybe 20 years ago and got away from it when kids came along. Work, school, soccer practice. Getting back into home brewing and I'm pleasantly surprised at how far the hobby has grown. I like to think I was one of the trailblazers.
Anyway, I dug out all of my old stuff. Bought a spare fridge for the draft system, filled the Co2 tanks, got my soda kegs and grolsch bottles out and bought a sack of grain and some hops and liquid yeast that I'm re-cultivating.
I have two 5 gallon batches going now and should have another two going in the next couple of weeks.
Here's my issue - I'm having low SG. Had to cut those two batches with brown sugar to get the SG up to a decent level. I don't think I forgot how to brew but I'm doing something wrong.
Each batch has ~ 11lbs of grain. Pale ale malt and maybe 2lbs of light caramel. Went heavy on the grain in case I fouled something up but I still did I guess. Infusion mash, strike heat ~ 170 & 165 respectively. Checked and kept the mash temps to ~ 145-155 for each batch for 2 hours. Pint of water per pound of grain.
Recycle sparge (used a false bottom and repoured the wort back into the grain bed a couple times each, stirred it up occasionally, lauter tun isn't conical but it's v-shaped sort of - I didn't do that 20 years ago and still had respectable SG's with lesser malt). 170 on liquor water.
Drained off 6 gallons of wort for 5 gallon batches.
Here's one thing I did that escapes my memory - I tested the SG by putting the hydrometer straight into the hot wort. I don't think that makes a difference but maybe it does. I couldn't find the glass wort stem that I used to use.
SG started out in the 1.025 range, way low, so I added the brown sugar.
I used the same grain from a source, it didn't look that good IMO. Crushed it myself - it was uncrushed but looked pretty beat up. I have a new source of grain and will be using it in my next batch. Standard 2-row pale.
What could I be doing wrong?
Thanks in advance for your comments.
:fro:
Started brewing maybe 20 years ago and got away from it when kids came along. Work, school, soccer practice. Getting back into home brewing and I'm pleasantly surprised at how far the hobby has grown. I like to think I was one of the trailblazers.
Anyway, I dug out all of my old stuff. Bought a spare fridge for the draft system, filled the Co2 tanks, got my soda kegs and grolsch bottles out and bought a sack of grain and some hops and liquid yeast that I'm re-cultivating.
I have two 5 gallon batches going now and should have another two going in the next couple of weeks.
Here's my issue - I'm having low SG. Had to cut those two batches with brown sugar to get the SG up to a decent level. I don't think I forgot how to brew but I'm doing something wrong.
Each batch has ~ 11lbs of grain. Pale ale malt and maybe 2lbs of light caramel. Went heavy on the grain in case I fouled something up but I still did I guess. Infusion mash, strike heat ~ 170 & 165 respectively. Checked and kept the mash temps to ~ 145-155 for each batch for 2 hours. Pint of water per pound of grain.
Recycle sparge (used a false bottom and repoured the wort back into the grain bed a couple times each, stirred it up occasionally, lauter tun isn't conical but it's v-shaped sort of - I didn't do that 20 years ago and still had respectable SG's with lesser malt). 170 on liquor water.
Drained off 6 gallons of wort for 5 gallon batches.
Here's one thing I did that escapes my memory - I tested the SG by putting the hydrometer straight into the hot wort. I don't think that makes a difference but maybe it does. I couldn't find the glass wort stem that I used to use.
SG started out in the 1.025 range, way low, so I added the brown sugar.
I used the same grain from a source, it didn't look that good IMO. Crushed it myself - it was uncrushed but looked pretty beat up. I have a new source of grain and will be using it in my next batch. Standard 2-row pale.
What could I be doing wrong?
Thanks in advance for your comments.
:fro: