OG low

[cookmysock]

Brewed a 14 litre batch yesterday expecting OG of 1052 but got 1044. Used 2.5kg Vienna and 0.8kg pale. I realised during the sparge I read the wrong number off the software and used water at 78 deg C instead of 88 deg C. (ie a difference of 18 deg F for those of you deseprately trying to convert) I'm using a water to grain ratio of 3. Boil was for one hour

By screwing up the sparge water temperature, could this be the man reason for the low OG?

 

[MalFet]

No, it's probably not the sparge water. I often sparge with cold tap water and get consistent efficiency across the board.

 

[Golddiggie]

Too low of a sparge temp could be why you hit a lower OG... I find that when I hit my sparge temps properly, my OG is on target with what I figured I'd get. If it's lower than what I should have, then my OG is less. Only a few % less though. Last batch was 4% off the efficiency I figured I'd get.

I would work to get your temperatures correct for every batch. Whatever that entails, since it will be different for each person's hardware configuration. Personally, I'm working to get a keg converted into a mash tun that I'll be able to direct fire and recirculate (to avoid scorching the grains) to get to sparge/mash-out temps. I'll use my existing mash tun coolers as HLT's to hold the sparge water. I'll need to get a pump, but I was already planning on doing that. I hope to have this setup ready come my next batch (<2 weeks from now)... I expect to have a couple of batches to 'dial-in' the new hardware. Once I get a stable efficiency range (hopefully a tight one) I'll be able to formulate my recipes better. I'm not doing so bad right now, since I enter the average for the range. But I'd like to have a tighter/closer range to average. Plus, the 1/2 bbl mash tun will be good to have for when I go to 10 gallon batches.

BTW, how much water did you actually mash and sparge with?? I'll probably have to fire up the UK to US converter so that I can wrap my beer-soaked brain around the numbers...

 

[cookmysock]

with 3.3 kg (7.3#) of grain I used 10 litres (2.64 gal) of mash water. Sparge water anothe 10 litres. Next post I'll use some more metric units to confuse the heck out of everyone. Regardless I will continue my campaign to bring the USA into the realm of proper measurements