Short of my target OG.

[gamekeepa]

I've just done my first all grain brew. I'm really happy with how everything went and worked. No stress, but when I took a gravity reading at the end it was only 1.044. The recipe says target OG of 1.050.
What are the possible reasons that I came short of the target? Any ideas what I need to do differently next time?


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[Dutto]

I've just done my first all grain brew. I'm really happy with how everything went and worked. No stress, but when I took a gravity reading at the end it was only 1.044. The recipe says target OG of 1.050.
What are the possible reasons that I came short of the target? Any ideas what I need to do differently next time?


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A number of possible reasons:

o Mashing in properly or at too high or too low a temperature.

o Not mashing long enough.

o Not sparging properly or at the right temperature or long enough.

o Not adding the correct grain bill.

o Exceeding the design volume when topping up the boil or when in the FV.

There are probably plenty of other reasons but these are the ones that spring to mind. (Mea culpa on most of them!) :thumb: :thumb:

 

[gamekeepa]

I had a feeling it was going to be one of many possibilities or a mixture of all. My guess is not Sparging for long enough. I'll try Sparging for longer next time and leave everything else as I did it this time and see if that has an effect. If not I'll start working down the rest of the list.


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[Sandimas]

What was the efficiency of the original recipe? Sometimes this can be ambitious, just work out what efficiency you got (use some brewing software) and compensate for it with a bit more grain next time.

When I started AG my software came with a default 75% and my OGs were too low, worked out I was only getting 68% so needed more grain for the target OG.

One thing that did improve my efficiency: adjusting the mash pH towards the magic 5.4, also giving it a good stir mid-mash.

 

[gamekeepa]

I don't have any brewing software. Will have to look into that. The wife bought me ingredients from Brewdog. It was to make a 5 am Saint.


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[Cwrw666]

I've been AG-ing for 18 months or so and to begin with my OGs were a bit poor, but what I did notice was that when I bought a 25Kg bag of crushed pale malt, my OGs were quite reasonable to begin with, but by the end of the bag they were really poor. Looks like crushed malt goes stale pretty quickly and loses it's enzyme activity - hence poor OGs.
Last time I ordered, however, I made a mistake and bought whole malt instead of crushed. The result was phenomenal efficiency - brews that should have come out at 5% were coming out at 6. In the end I got 7 23L brews out of a 25Kg bag.
Never going back to crushed malt...:twisted:

 

[Sandimas]

The wife bought me ingredients from Brewdog. It was to make a 5 am Saint.

And that's why AG kits make no sense in my book: unlike kits or Extract which produce repeatable predictable results, the AG kit supplier has no idea of the mash efficiency which can vary from method to method, so the OG is an estimate at best which many of us would be lucky to hit.

Plug the recipe (or just the mash ingredients) into something like Brewers Friend then adjust the efficiency to give the OG you got
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator

 

[Grizzly299]

Take notes of all water quanties used etc and temps and you will eventually be able to dial in exact inputs and outputs of your system.

Ive just completed AG batch NO.4 and my efficiency has risen pretty significantly and my water volumes are much closer to target.

Do a brew, make adjustments then brew again. Repeat until you're hitting targets.


You're always going to get some fluctuations in;

Grain water absorbtion
Hop water Absorbtion
Boil Evaporation Rate

Mash PH is also a factor, but there are plenty of other things to get right first.Hope this helps.

 

[Grizzly299]

Hi

And that's why AG kits make no sense in my book: unlike kits or Extract which produce repeatable predictable results, the AG kit supplier has no idea of the mash efficiency which can vary from method to method, so the OG is an estimate at best which many of us would be lucky to hit.

Plug the recipe into something like Brewers Friend then adjust the efficiency to give the OG you got
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator

I agree entirely with this, you could give two brewers the same kit and end up with two entirely different beers. Which is why I taught my self to make my own recipes.

Granted you can get pretty close if every parameter is specified, repeatability is the holy grail of brewing in my book.
If you can make the exact same beer over and over you're doing pretty well.

 

[Dutto]

........
If you can make the exact same beer over and over you're doing pretty well.

Doing pretty well?? :whistle:

In my book you're a bloody genius ... :thumb: :thumb:

... or telling fibs!

 

[Robin54]

Doing pretty well?? :whistle:

In my book you're a bloody genius ... :thumb: :thumb:

... or telling fibs!

I think your spot on. Replicable results are the bane of life in industry as well.

 

[Grizzly299]

Doing pretty well?? :whistle:

In my book you're a bloody genius ... :thumb: :thumb:

... or telling fibs!

This made me chuckle 😂