Trying to raise my OG

[Jaša Ratkai]

So I'm quite new to brewing and I've made 4 batches of beer until now, first one was extract, other 3 are all grain with BIAB tehnique. My favourite kind of beer is IPA and I've already made 2 batches of it, one is already done and I really like the taste. Last two batches I've made I was more focused on OG and in Porter it was 1.037 all tho it was said it should be around 1.050 by the recipe, IPA was a bit better at 1.043 but it was my own recipe so I don't really know what OG I should expect. So what could be wrong that I don't hit the planned OG? I'm milling grain myself, maybe this could be a problem?

Thank you for all your anwsers.

 

[JimRausch]

Are you entering your recipes into an online recipe creator to see what the OG is supposed to be?
If you are doing AG and are hitting your volumes correctly and still running low on predicted OG, then the most likely cause is a poor crush. There are plenty of other potential causes from using an inaccurate thermometer to monitor your mash temps, to not mashing long enough to achieve complete conversion, to not sparging enough to get most of the sugars into the wort, to others I'm not thinking about now. But a poor crush is #1. So, I would try tightening up the gap on your mill. Also, it's a great idea to keep some DME on hand. Check your SG before starting the boil, do the calculations to see what your OG should be after boil and chill, and add DME if necessary.

 

[knotquiteawake]

Are you entering your recipes into an online recipe creator to see what the OG is supposed to be?
If you are doing AG and are hitting your volumes correctly and still running low on predicted OG, then the most likely cause is a poor crush. There are plenty of other potential causes from using an inaccurate thermometer to monitor your mash temps, to not mashing long enough to achieve complete conversion, to not sparging enough to get most of the sugars into the wort, to others I'm not thinking about now. But a poor crush is #1. So, I would try tightening up the gap on your mill. Also, it's a great idea to keep some DME on hand. Check your SG before starting the boil, do the calculations to see what your OG should be after boil and chill, and add DME if necessary.

This is great advice. Had I taken a pre-boil gravity reading I would have known I was 15 points short and would have added that spare pound of DME that I had laying around to bring it up a bit.

 

[Jaša Ratkai]

Thank you for your anwsers. I'm gonna certainly listen to your advice. So that means if I get low pre-boil I should add what? About crushing, I think it was okay I made sure that every grain was crushed, but not too crushed to look like flour. On friday I'm making new batch and I'm gonna try your advice. Thermometer is digital so it should be okay. Thank you for such quick anwsers.

 

[LittleRiver]

... About crushing, I think it was okay I made sure that every grain was crushed, but not too crushed to look like flour. ...

With BIAB you can and should use a very fine crush. In other techniques a fine crush can cause a stuck sparge, but BIAB doesn't have that limitation. Crushing your grains very fine will boost your conversion efficiency. You want to see a fair amount of flour in your crush.

You may want to narrow the gap on your grain mill. I use a roller type mill and have my gap set to .025" (.63mm) and get great efficiency. You'll need a set of feeler gauges, which are available at auto parts stores. If you don't have access to feeler gauges, a plastic credit or membership card is about the right thickness and will work fine.

 

[Jaša Ratkai]

My corn mill is set almost to narrowest gap, I think if I narrow it fully it will crush the grain so much they won't be recognizable and that is too much or not?
Anyway I'm brewing on Friday and gonna post some pictures.
Also how long do you recommend to mash? Is 60 minutes enough?

 

[LittleRiver]

It's hard to gauge without photos, but by your descriptions it sounds like you would see some benefit from grinding finer.

A 60 min mash should be fine. When you get your grains all stirred in, put the cover on the kettle and then put blankets or an old sleeping bag over it, to insulate it during the mash.

A good and free online calculator for figuring out your water volumes and strike temps is the Priceless Brew In a Bag Calculator.

 

[Jaša Ratkai]

Gonna try grinding it finer. Is covering the pot in blankets necessary? I don't have a lot of place so I just like to let the pot on the stove, I measured the temperature drop in 60 minutes and it dropped from 67 degrees celsius to 65.5. Is it too much?
Thanks for the calculator link, looks really nice.

 

[Chadzilla]

So I'm quite new to brewing and I've made 4 batches of beer until now, first one was extract, other 3 are all grain with BIAB tehnique. My favourite kind of beer is IPA and I've already made 2 batches of it, one is already done and I really like the taste. Last two batches I've made I was more focused on OG and in Porter it was 1.037 all tho it was said it should be around 1.050 by the recipe, IPA was a bit better at 1.043 but it was my own recipe so I don't really know what OG I should expect. So what could be wrong that I don't hit the planned OG? I'm milling grain myself, maybe this could be a problem?

Thank you for all your anwsers.

After reading a little bit of the thread, it kind of sounded like the grain was being crushed nice to start so id check that off. My best guess is going to be the mashing process. I am not sure how you are doing it, but if you don't get a good extraction then ur not going to get good gravity results because you are not exacting enough sugars, the boil will only get you a few points in gravity. For IPA's try mash at like 154 then sparge with 168 degree water.

edit. sry I see you are using a BIAB setup. I would just change the steeping method, if you have like 3 burners, soak the bag with the initial strike to get u to 154 then soak for a bit. While this is going on get the sparge water ready, when ur done with the initial, move it to the kettle u plan on boiling in, then just add the water u heated up to the pot ur mashing in and do the soak for little bit then move it to the boil kettle and you should be good to go. There is more steps but u will make some awesome brew, cheers

 

[Jaša Ratkai]

I usually mash right at 154, in 1 hour that temperature drops to 150 if that is the problem since I don't cover it in blankets due to lack of space. About sparge water, I don't sparge I add more water at start depending on batch size, but after 1 hour mashing I do a mash-out at 170 degrees.

 

[Lefou]

This is great advice. Had I taken a pre-boil gravity reading I would have known I was 15 points short and would have added that spare pound of DME that I had laying around to bring it up a bit.

This is why a refractometer is much faster and worth having moreso than a triple scale hydrometer.
It can be a pain trying to get a good, accurate gravity reading using a hydrometer on a sample that hasn't quite cooled yet. I recommend having both a refractometer and a hydrometer.

 

[Lefou]

Gonna try grinding it finer. Is covering the pot in blankets necessary? I don't have a lot of place so I just like to let the pot on the stove, I measured the temperature drop in 60 minutes and it dropped from 67 degrees celsius to 65.5. Is it too much?
Thanks for the calculator link, looks really nice.

If you use wheat malt up to 10% and a thin mash, it is fine to grind your wheat to almost flour. It converts faster and will not make your mash sticky. If you have time, extend your mash to 90 minutes or even two hours.
I mash on the stove, grind my grains well, mash thin, and extend the mash time. Mashing out and sparging has increased my mash efficiency almost 5-10 gravity points.

 

[RM-MN]

My corn mill is set almost to narrowest gap, I think if I narrow it fully it will crush the grain so much they won't be recognizable and that is too much or not?
Anyway I'm brewing on Friday and gonna post some pictures.
Also how long do you recommend to mash? Is 60 minutes enough?

I don't think your mill has the ability to crush the grain too fine. With BIAB the finer the better. My grains look like corn meal with the husks ripped to shreds. With that fine grind my conversion is over long before 60 minutes are up so I usually only mash for 30 minutes and still overshoot the predicted OG.

Gonna try grinding it finer. Is covering the pot in blankets necessary? I don't have a lot of place so I just like to let the pot on the stove, I measured the temperature drop in 60 minutes and it dropped from 67 degrees celsius to 65.5. Is it too much?
Thanks for the calculator link, looks really nice.

If your grains are milled fine the conversion will be over before your mash loses one degree. I don't want to steer people into trying to mash too short but the limitation on the conversion isn't the activity of the enzymes, it's how long it takes to gelatinize the starch (get it wet through) so the enzymes can work.

I usually mash right at 154, in 1 hour that temperature drops to 150 if that is the problem since I don't cover it in blankets due to lack of space. About sparge water, I don't sparge I add more water at start depending on batch size, but after 1 hour mashing I do a mash-out at 170 degrees.

You don't need a mash out at all with BIAB. It sounds like you are doing a full volume, no sparge batch. That works great if your grains are milled fine enough as you can get up to 80% brewhouse efficiency that way. However, there will always be some fermentable sugars still stuck to the grains so by adding a sparge step, even a small sparge, you capture more of the sugars. That can be done by pouring water over a hanging bag of grains, dunking the bag of grain in a bucket with water in it, or any other way to get the water to go through the grains to rinse off more sugars.