What did I do Wrong

[leemorgan]

I just finished a brew with my Father and Brother, on my deck on a beautiful summer night! Can't beat it! However, I missed my OG... Grains include 14lbs of 2-row pale, and 2 lbs of Crystal 60. I mashed with 4 gallons at 152 then batch sparged using 1.3 and 3.3 using 185 degree water to bring the grains up to 168. My final gravity after boil was around 1.061, way lower than my anticipated OG of 1.083. Any ideas? Did I use too much water? I skipped the mashout, did that make a difference? I am really annoyed that I missed my OG, hopefully my beer tastes good. Below is the original recipe..

http://love2brew.dreamhosters.com/vspfiles/love2learn/kitinstructions/americanimperialipa(ag).pdf

 

[giraffe]

Not enough info. Could be bad mash ph, bad grain crush, bad volume measurement, bad sparge (channeling). Started sparging before conversion was complete. Could be anything. What efficiency do you usually get? What was the recipe assuming?

 

[leemorgan]

My efficiency usually comes in around 75-80%, beersmith said it should have hit 82.8. The grain was crushed about a month ago, my first runnings had a refractometer reading of about 1.08, which seems low. 1st and 2nd runnings were around 1.060. After boil I hit around 1.062 or so.. I think I used a little too much water, would that make a huge difference?

 

[retheisen]

I've done some crazy stuff with my mash ... low temperature mashes, three day sour mashes, cooked rice in the mash, decoction mashes, 45 minutes mashes, overnight mashes, conditioned grain, unconditioned grain, batch sparge, fly sparge, ph adjusted, no ph adjustment ... I cannot seem to get less than 90% mash efficiency. What is the common factor in all of these? I crush my own grain right before dough in. Invest in a mill, set it properly, mill slowly and I suspect all of your issues will clear up.

Mash tun is a 5 gallon igloo extreme drink cooler with a bazooka tube. 36 inch $7 mash paddle from amazon to stir a few times during the mash to make sure everything from the bottom gets pulled up to the top.

I generally shoot for 7.5 gallons at the start of the boil and boil down to 5.5 gallons (though I did overboil my last batch when I moved up to a 15 gallon boil kettle from my previous 8 gallon BK ... debating topping up with a half gallon of water before kegging)

 

[acidrain]

then batch sparged using 1.3 and 3.3 using 185 degree water to bring the grains up to 168

I skipped the mashout

That was a mashout.

my first runnings had a refractometer reading of about 1.08, which seems low. 1st and 2nd runnings were around 1.060. After boil I hit around 1.062 or so..

How does 1.080 first running mixed with 1.060 second runnings PRE-BOIL equal only 1.062 post boil? Something is not adding up.

I think I used a little too much water, would that make a huge difference?

What exactly do you mean "added too much water"?

 

[brewkinger]

I agree with the crush as a likely culprit but at first glance, something else catches my eye.
16# of grain mashed with 4gal of water???
That"s only 1.0 qts per pound of grain and that's a little too thick IMO.
Go with another 1-2 gallons in the mash and you will probably get better numbers.

I also agree with the numbers that you gave being a little "wonky"
Something is not quite adding up with your measurements and gravity readings.

Need......... More............ Info........


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[Shawnylocks]

do not trust beersmith unless you have gone through the steps of calibrating it to YOUR equipment. it took me a few batches and alot of reading but i just got there. i was having similar issues with low OG. i do agree with the low mash water volume. i mash in around 1.5 qts/lb. have you gone through and REALLY calibrated your dead spaces and boil off rates and such

 

[Gunfighter04]

With a mash that thick, I can't imagine that you got any more of a Gallon out of it at 1.08, if you then continued to sparge and got 1.06 until you got to your 5 Gallon, then I can see why your og was that low. I'd agree with the previous posts stating that the mash was to thick, and potentially the crush was too course.

 

[leemorgan]

I know I had too much water because there was water left in the tun after I brought my boil kettle up to 6.5 gal. Pre boil was around 1.055, which after an hour boiled down to about 5.5 gal at 1.062. I think my mash was too thick, since I only used 4 gallons of water. I have not calibrated beersmith to my equipment, that could be part of the problem.

 

[boydster]

...my first runnings had a refractometer reading of about 1.08, which seems low. 1st and 2nd runnings were around 1.060. After boil I hit around 1.062

Pre boil was around 1.055, which after an hour boiled down to about 5.5 gal at 1.062.

I can't reconcile these numbers and it's hurting my brain. How did you collect runnings of 1.080 and 1.060, but end up with a preboil gravity of 1.055? Unless you added plain water to your brew kettle in addition to your wort, those numbers don't make sense. If you watered down your wort, then we have our answer as to why your OG came in low - that would mean you diluted it. What am I missing?

 

[leemorgan]

I checked my log again... My first runnings of the 4 gallons I used was a little lower than 1.08 (1.078), my batch sparge used 4.5 gallons and that came in around 1.05. It seemed as though I had much more 1.05 running than in the 1.07 range. My OG after boil was 1.061. I basically didn't use enough water for the initial mash and used too much water to sparge. I had the water ratio set to 1.0 in Beersmith, probably should have been 1.5. That would have resulted in me adding 6 gallons of mash water and 2.5 sparge. Does this make more sense? I also think I drained my first runnings too fast. Thank you for any advice.

 

[boydster]

That makes more sense. Yes, mashing at 1.25-1.5 quarts per pound of grain will probably get you a much better efficiency, that's definitely the place I would start. Grain crush, like was mentioned before, is another common factor in efficiency issues, but you might want to just change one variable at a time.

 

[leemorgan]

Do you think instead of an Imperial IPA I will have more of a regular IPA?

 

[Gunfighter04]

sometimes on this board we get a little acronym happy. SMASH is a "single malt and single hop". Basic two row and the hop of your choice, or if your like me Marris Otter and the hop of your choice. I'd stick with a simple hop schedule and keep the IBU's under 30.

This won't be the beer that you give all your friends and says I've come up with the greatest thing since the invention of beer, but it will allow you to taste anything that maybe impacting those things that are giving you problems.

when it's all said and done and you say This is a plain beer, no astringency, no tannins, etc. Then start with the modifications, but only make small adjustments. i.e. keep the recipe exactly the same and do some water modifications, or keep the water the same and change the grain bill. then keep working back to the beer that you want to make. when you go from on stage to the next and something makes you go yuck, you know what caused it.

step down to smaller batches if you don't want 5 gallons of beer that you may not enjoy.

 

[boydster]

Call it a session IIPA, for those times when you would really like to drink 2 bombers instead of just 1. The bitterness looks pretty assertive, certainly worthy of calling it a IIPA, but the gravity and ABV will be a little lighter. Not actual session-beer light, but certainly more quaffable than the 8%+ monster it was intended to be.

 

[leemorgan]

I like that boydster! That's a great way to turn my mistake into a positive! I'll let you know how it turns out.


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