OG way of on custom brew/Lesson Learner

[eryk4381]

Ok so nothing fancy but I did work with a lot of different hops and calculations to try to make my first custom batch and stop using all the kits. SO I had a mash that lead to about 4-5 gallons which I started boiling and then added a pound of extract on top of that and then a series of hop additions through the hour boil. Due to not having big enough pots and over boiling it went down a bit but finished with over 2 gallons of wort and filled to 5.5 gallon.
My calculations said it should be around 1078 for an og but my reading says 1055!!!! What!! Did I mess something up?

Also if I'm going to dry hop this, when should I add them? Now, or about a week prior to bottles?

P.S. I stirred and mixed the #$%$ out of it which i notice is some advice I have seen if reading are off, just wondering if maybe still i got it wrong.
Thanks guys!!

 

[boist]

Assuming that your reading is accurate and that you know how to use a hydrometer (...) most likely your calculations are based on a certain efficiency (usually 70-75%) and you didn't hit that. How did you mash?

Dry hop: wait for fermentation to end, transfer to secondary if you're going to (you can also dry hop in primary) then add dry hop for as long as your recipe calls for (7-14 days, typically).

Stirring the wort (after it's cooled) is not only fine but a good idea, it aerates it and helps the yeast grow.

 

[eryk4381]

Assuming that your reading is accurate and that you know how to use a hydrometer (...) most likely your calculations are based on a certain efficiency (usually 70-75%) and you didn't hit that. How did you mash?

Dry hop: wait for fermentation to end, transfer to secondary if you're going to (you can also dry hop in primary) then add dry hop for as long as your recipe calls for (7-14 days, typically).

Stirring the wort (after it's cooled) is not only fine but a good idea, it aerates it and helps the yeast grow.

Yes it was about that efficiency which I'm judging i didn't hit because of the addition of water at the end and not a full 5 gallon boil correct??
I Mashed with a mash tun cooler I made and used sparge water to drain through the grains after I ran off the cloudy stuff at the bottom.

 

[eryk4381]

Does this also mean that with decreased efficiency, it will taste watery?!?!?!

 

[boist]

Generally, adding water after the mash doesn't effect efficiency (efficiency refers to the ability to extract sugar from the mash, after the mash is over, this is no longer an issue.) basically, once you are done with the mash, the total amount of sugar you will have in your wort is already present. Let's say you have 100 gravity points worth of sugar in your wort. if you have 1 gallon of wort, that will be 1.100, two gallon will be 1.050, etc.

So, when you calculate efficiency for a recipe you calculate the total amount of sugar in the malt, and you take a percentage of that as the amount you think you can draw out (70% in your case). When you mashed, you either didn't extract as much sugar as you expected, OR you did extract the amount of sugar but you have too much water diluting it.

I would take a wild guess that your problem was either an equipment issue (this is the first time you work with this mashtun, right?) or a process issue. By process issue I mean a wrong water-to-grist ratio, wrong mash temperature, or something like that.

The other option is of course, that your calculations may be wrong.

 

[eryk4381]

I would take a wild guess that your problem was either an equipment issue (this is the first time you work with this mashtun, right?) or a process issue. By process issue I mean a wrong water-to-grist ratio, wrong mash temperature, or something like that.

The other option is of course, that your calculations may be wrong. [/QUOTE]

It could be possible that I used to much water in the mash tun yes. I believe I put in about 4.5 gallons. So maybe too much.

Thanks for the comments. I guess i can work on the water to mash ratio and find a good calculator to do so.

 

[BamaRooster]

I use 1.5 qt water to 1 pound of malt grain. Here is a resource:

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter18-4.html

 

[eryk4381]

So I used 13 lbs of grain in my mash tun. Was the 4-5 gallons of water at 155 deg. for an hour too much???