OG too low

[mjanderson]

I boiled my second batch the other day and the OG came out a bit low. The recipe calls for 1.050 and mine came out at 1.030.

The kit came with 4 lbs of grains and I think I could have used a little more water for steeping but other than that I felt things went pretty well. I'm not too worried about it. I'll just wait and see what comes out, I'm sure it'll be tasty.

But in an attempt to figure out where I went wrong I thought I'd ask for advise. The first batch I made has a low OG too but I think that was due to not mixing the wort and top off water well before taking the reading. This time I'm not sure.

The instructions for the beer is here.

Thanks, Mike

 

[Clonefarmer]

I'm pretty sure the 6 row and flaked maize need to be mashed.

 

[mjanderson]

I'm pretty sure the 6 row and flaked maize need to be mashed.

If you look at the pdf I linked, I did step C which is a mash and sparge right.

 

[Clonefarmer]

If you look at the pdf I linked, I did step C which is a mash and sparge right.

Step c. is a steeping method witch is used to extract flavor from specialty grain.

Mashing is activating enzymes to convert the starch in the grain to sugar.

Sparging is the process of rinsing the grain after conversion is complete.

 

[TheTower]

The recipe had a type of mash and sparge, but it was probably rather poor efficiency. It was basically a half hour mash with a quick rinse sparge. Unless you were did a full boil, the culprit is probably mixing in the top-off water. Partial boil are notorious for getting inacurate OG readings.

 

[JuanKenobi]

Those are some strange instructions for the ingredients. If you were to follow the mini-mash instructions without changing the ingredients at all it would have been fine. That step C is weird. It's like they want you to do a really inefficient mash. I don't have a ton of mashing experience. Maybe some of the veterans can shed some light on how this recipe is supposed to work.

 

[mjanderson]

The primary difference between steeping and mashing, other than the purpose, is the length of time the water/grain mix is held at the specified temp? When I read the instructions I thought I was mashing the grains.

I suppose I have a lot left to learn, which is what I'm enjoying most about this hobby. That and the beer. Sweet sweet beer.

Thanks.

 

[Clonefarmer]

The primary difference between steeping and mashing, other than the purpose, is the length of time the water/grain mix is held at the specified temp? When I read the instructions I thought I was mashing the grains.

I suppose I have a lot left to learn, which is what I'm enjoying most about this hobby. That and the beer. Sweet sweet beer.

Thanks.

The temp is what activates the enzymes witch convert the sugar. The time allows them to do their thing.

 

[JuanKenobi]

If I saw those instructions when I first started, I would have thought I was mashing as well. Following those instruction should have converted some starches but probably with very low efficiency. A proper mash uses specific ratios of water to grain to maximize the conversion. Also, the method of sparging has a large impact on efficiency.

Check out DeathBrewer's easy partial mash sticky. As I said, I'm not nearly as experienced with mashing as the veterans around here, but I would think this recipe would be a lot better using his technique.

 

[mjanderson]

So what should I expect out of this batch? What should I be looking for as far as FG?

What will the taste be like? Low alcohol content?

 

[Clonefarmer]

So what should I expect out of this batch? What should I be looking for as far as FG?

What will the taste be like? Low alcohol content?

It's hard to say what the FG will be but the FG that the recipes give are usually a pretty close estimate. As for ABV you still have 4 pounds of extract that will ferment, so it won't be too low on alcohol content.

 

[mjanderson]

So even though my OG was low I should still be looking for something close to the specified FG?

 

[Clonefarmer]

Should be close maybe a little lower.