Low % of grain in bill drastically affecting FG?

[playoldgame]

Every time I've tried to brew a stout or porter, I've ended up a good 10 points away from my target FG. The Imperial I tried was about 30 points off its OG too (I put some of that down to an inefficient sparge, though!).

The common ingredient in all of them has been chocolate malt from the same batch. In each case, it hasn't made up more than 10% of the grain bill, but it's the only thing that all of them have in common. I've used the other malts in the recipes in other brews which have been fine and dandy.

So can such a low percentage of a grain in a bill actually affect FG so drastically? Or am I missing something about darker malts?

 

[CreweBrewer]

What's the total amount of your grain bill? The size of your mash tun can really affect your efficiencies when the grain bill gets big.

Dave

 

[Cwrw666]

I've brewed the `dry stout' recipe in Greg Hughes' book several times and found it always comes out way lower gravity than the recipe states. Personally I think it just doesn't have enough pale malt in it to get anywhere near the stated OG. Have always had to add sugar to bring it up.

 

[playoldgame]

What's the total amount of your grain bill? The size of your mash tun can really affect your efficiencies when the grain bill gets big.

Dave

Grain bill etc for Imp was:

Estimated SG*: 1.103
Actual SG: 1.060
Estimated FG*: 1.027
Actual FG: 1.027
Estimated ABV*: 10.0%
Actual ABV: 5.1%

For yield of ~3.8 litres / 1 gallon:

Fermentables (1,470g):
1158g Pale*malt
118g Chocolate*malt
89g*Carafa Type 3 Special malt
89g Crystal 60 / Caramel 60 / CaraMunich III*malt
16g Flaked Oats

Total Weight = 1,470g
Water Required for Mash 3.68 litres

Looking back at this, it hit the original FG perfectly - it was the starting gravity that was off. So maybe I'm just not sparging efficiently. I just presumed a lower OG meant a lower FG. Now I come to write it out, I realise how daft that sounds

 

[CreweBrewer]

Crikey, 1 gallon? Looks like your yeast copped out way too soon!

 

[playoldgame]

Crikey, 1 gallon? Looks like your yeast copped out way too soon!

Yep, this was to be a big one! Planned to add rum soaked raisins and whisky cask chunks to the secondary - which I've still done. Just won't be as ****-kicking as I wanted it to be :)

Used Safale US-05 first off, then tried all the remedies for stuck fermentation - warming, swirling, repitched with S-04 - all to no avail.

 

[Dads_Ale]

I wonder if your mash water was a little light. I usually use a 3 to 1 ratio which would require 4.41 litres of water for the mash. This ratio was also confirmed by the head brewer on a recent home brew club meeting at the West Berkshire Brewery.
This coupled with a poor sparge may be the cause.

 

[CreweBrewer]

Yep, this was to be a big one! Planned to add rum soaked raisins and whisky cask chunks to the secondary - which I've still done. Just won't be as ****-kicking as I wanted it to be :)

Used Safale US-05 first off, then tried all the remedies for stuck fermentation - warming, swirling, repitched with S-04 - all to no avail.

A good starter with WLP001 would've pulled the FG down to something like.

Dave

 

[playoldgame]

I wonder if your mash water was a little light. I usually use a 3 to 1 ratio which would require 4.41 litres of water for the mash. This ratio was also confirmed by the head brewer on a recent home brew club meeting at the West Berkshire Brewery.
This coupled with a poor sparge may be the cause.

Possibly - I've always gone 2.5 to 1 - maybe I'll up it next time :)

 

[playoldgame]

A good starter with WLP001 would've pulled the FG down to something like.

Dave

My mistake - I actually used Wyeast 1272 in this one - but a direct pitch, not a starter. But at the volume I work at, 1/3 - 1/2 of one of those has usually been fine.

But still, the repitch did nowt.

 

[Leon103]

Grain bill etc for Imp was:

Estimated SG*: 1.103
Actual SG: 1.060
Estimated FG*: 1.027
Actual FG: 1.027
Estimated ABV*: 10.0%
Actual ABV: 5.1%

For yield of ~3.8 litres / 1 gallon:

Fermentables (1,470g):
1158g Pale*malt
118g Chocolate*malt
89g*Carafa Type 3 Special malt
89g Crystal 60 / Caramel 60 / CaraMunich III*malt
16g Flaked Oats

Total Weight = 1,470g
Water Required for Mash 3.68 litres

Looking back at this, it hit the original FG perfectly - it was the starting gravity that was off. So maybe I'm just not sparging efficiently. I just presumed a lower OG meant a lower FG. Now I come to write it out, I realise how daft that sounds

What recipe builder told you you would get that OG? Just checked and it shouldn't be anywhere near that.

 

[cheapbrew]

It looks to me like you did well to hit 1060 with that grain bill.

 

[CreweBrewer]

I'm still correct in thinking that the grain bill is for one gallon, yes...?

Dave

 

[playoldgame]

I'm still correct in thinking that the grain bill is for one gallon, yes...?

Dave

Yes, you are. People don't seem to be reading things properly...

That bill is for an approx 3.8l yield. So it's monstrous!

 

[Leon103]

Yes, you are. People don't seem to be reading things properly...

That bill is for an approx 3.8l yield. So it's monstrous!

This was a quick check on a recipe builder. 3.8l entered, still not enough grain. Ignore the yeast choice and hops.

 

[Covrich]

According to my calcs at 4 liters you should have ended up with a SG of around 1077 (whether thats achievable with taht quantitiy I do not know) based on 70%..

Based on 1060 that sounds like 55%

The recipe sounds wrong but I think you might want to look at your efficiency

With the grain bill you have you could add 200 grams dme to it

 

[playoldgame]

Aha. I thought I'd checked this on Brewer's Friend, but it's possible this is the one recipe I didn't do that with.

Thank you all for your advice :)