Question about gravity

[JLubbert]

Greetings everyone:

Well yesterday i did my second amber ale 5 gallon batch. The recipe says that is abot 13,5 lb ob grain and should have 1052 gravity. I did the same steps and i got 1063 gravity. (this was a 5 gallon batch)
SAME THING happened last time.

The recipe is: (more or less)

12,5lb base malt
10 oz caramel malt
almost 1oz toasted malt (all national malts)


What do you think guys, im milling to thin or is too much grain?

 

[944play]

The gravity you get into the fermenter depends on your efficiency and volumes. The recipe might have been formulated for, say, 65% efficiency and 6 gallons at the end of boil. You'll need to adjust the recipe for your equipment if you typically get 75% efficiency and only 5 gallons at the end of boil. This is something that brewing software can help you to do.

 

[JLubbert]

Thanks! Well now that i think about it i dunno my efficiency, I'll check that out...

 

[barleyhole]

Based upon the grains and amounts above, your potential gravity is about 1.092 if you hit 100% efficiency. You hit 1.062, so that's about 67% efficiency. I guess that is what is called brew house efficiency since that's the gravity of the final wort. Typically I get good mash efficiency (around 80-85%) but I lose some sugars by the time I get to the fermenter and end up with 70-75% brew house efficiency. It's good practice to keep track of both and then pinpoint where you need to or can improve you efficiency...then you don't have to use as much grain! Of course you could always add water and bring up the volume which means more beer (not always recommended as it could throw off the balance between malt/hops depending).