Two brew weekend

[CelticBrew14]

So I started drinking my first batch Friday night while making a Bass Ale clone and boy was it good. An Irish Red Ale that a few friend who came by to help brew nearly wiped me out of already. Both were partial mash and the Bass is really active. My friend are already advance planning a beer raid on that batch when it is conditioned properly. So my question is this, I did an all grain Irish Stout Saturday and my OG was 1.042 when it should have been 1.050 or better. My initial mash temp was a little low at 148* so I am wondering if I did not release enough sugars. Do you think this will be ok and besides having the right mash temp next time, any suggestions for salvaging before getting to sparging? I sparged with 177* water.

 

[1KD1]

For me (noob with 7 batches under my belt), I use a little DME to boost the gravity of my AG batches.

Some of the software tools can tell you what pre-boil gravity should be and then you can determine how much DME you need to add to get the proper OG.

I haven't mastered the sparging thing so I'll let one of the experts help with that...