PatsFan1985
Member
Hello everyone. I have been brewing for about a year, and this summer I decided to start doing all grain brews. My issue is that I haven't had one turn out correctly until now (it was a city water problem). However, my OG is only 1033 which is extremely low. I used 5 pounds each of Munich and Vienna malts, and a pound of 60L crystal. I'm making a bock, and I was hoping to get up into the 1050's at the least.
I use a picnic cooler for the mash. I usually use a step mashing method I found on a website. I use 120F-130F degree strike water, then add the grains. About an hour later I add boiling water to bring the temperature up to 150's. I then let it sit there for about 2 hours. Then I drain the contents into the brew kettle, and use fresh boiling sparge water. I let this sit for about 20 minutes then collect it and vourof (spelling?) that a few times to be certain I got as much sugar as possible.
Can anyone tell me where I'm going wrong? I've read Vienna and Munich are both acceptable base malts, is this not true? Am I heating the grains too much and deactivating the enzymes to break down the starches? Please someone let me know, I need to have a beer finished for a competition in December and I can't even get a decent gravity!
Thanks!
Brendan
I use a picnic cooler for the mash. I usually use a step mashing method I found on a website. I use 120F-130F degree strike water, then add the grains. About an hour later I add boiling water to bring the temperature up to 150's. I then let it sit there for about 2 hours. Then I drain the contents into the brew kettle, and use fresh boiling sparge water. I let this sit for about 20 minutes then collect it and vourof (spelling?) that a few times to be certain I got as much sugar as possible.
Can anyone tell me where I'm going wrong? I've read Vienna and Munich are both acceptable base malts, is this not true? Am I heating the grains too much and deactivating the enzymes to break down the starches? Please someone let me know, I need to have a beer finished for a competition in December and I can't even get a decent gravity!
Thanks!
Brendan