Sugar Extraction?

[medleblute]

OK, so here is my grain bill:
7lbs 2-row barley
2lbs flaked maize
8oz carapils

What should I "expect" to get for an Original Gravity? I brewed my second batch this weekend taking into consideration a lot of tips/tricks/advice I read on here and the first time I came out with 1.028'sh and this time it was 1.032. Better but still not what I was thinking - I was thinking/guessing 1.04'sh. Here are my notes from the brew session:

3.25 gallons mash for 1 hour at 150
slowly drained the mash and ended up with a little over 2 galls of water - (I tested the gravity of this and it was showing roughly 1.052 - I thought WOW that is pretty good)
THEN I took 5 gallons at 170 sparge for about 10 minutes... slowly drained 1/2 out (transfer pot was small) slowly drained the other 1/2 of sparge (transfer took roughly 45 minutes or so to get all water from initial mash through sparge to brew kettle
Started heating up the kettle I had 7 gallons in the kettle and the brew pot when I took a gravity reading was showing roughly 1.022 (temps of the liquor were a little HOT so that 1.022 may be slightly low but not terribly off)
brewed down to about 6.5 (roughly 40 minutes) then started the hour boil!
When all was said and done I was left with 1.032

What did I do wrong? What else am I missing?

 

[C-Rider]

Don't know what the maize added, but I'm guessing you were way low on 2 row.

Have you used any brewing software? Really helps building a recipe.

 

[medleblute]

with that recipe - 7lbs 2-row what would your OG be? Assuming you chose your water amounts and temps... if you were going for efficiency. I understand that I could go to 9lbs of grains. I'm just curious what you AGrainers that have been doing it for sometime now could get on a homebrew setup with 7lbs of 2-row and 2 lbs of flaked corn?

 

[peterj]

I have my efficiency set at 77.5% on Brewer's Friend. With 7 lbs 2-row, 2 lbs flaked corn, and 0.5 lb carapils I am estimating a pre-boil gravity of 1.039 with a pre-boil volume of 7 gallons. I boil off ~2 gallons an hour so that would be 1.055 final for 5 gallons.

To get 1.022 pre-boil with 7 gallons you would have an efficiency of ~44%. That's really low. I would go back and examine your process. Make sure you grind your grains properly, stir your mash well, maintain proper temps, etc. Also, you should definitely use some sort of recipe calculator or brewing software. It makes things so much easier! I use Brewer's Friend, and I think they offer a free trial and then it's like $10 or so per year. Hope that helps.

 

[ajf]

A good place to start looking is:
http://www.braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Understanding_Efficiency
It might not be the easiest article in the world to understand, but it gives you a good idea as to what you ought to get.
You start with 9.5 lbs grain, and you mashed with 3.25 gallons water. That gives you a mash thickness of 1.37 qts / lb
According to the table it the referenced article, you should have achieved a gravity from the first runnings of about 1.087, but you only achieved 1.052, or about 60% of what you should have achieved.
You started with 3.25 gallons of water, and ended the first runnings with slightly over 2 gallons. Assuming a grain absorption rate of 0.12 lbs per qt, you could expect 2.11 gals of first runnings, so you appear to have collected everything.
I would expect that you either had a very poor crush, or you did not stir the mash sufficiently when doughing in.
Hope this helps.

-a.