Help with 1st All Grain Brew

[liambaxter]

Just done my first today and I've struggled with the water quantities as I think as my OG is very low.

Recipe:
Pale Malt: 4,480
Start of boil: 27 fuggle and 16 northdown.
Last 10: 3 Irish moss
Post: 9 Golding

I put 11.2l of hot water in the mash tun and got 66c.
I sparged, can't remember how much water I used but got 27l afterwards. Could have been 28l?
This then went in the boiler which after 1hr only gave me 20l with a OG of 1.03 which I calculate giving me 2 very weak beer!

Any ideas where I've gone wrong on my first attempt?

 

[dennisking]

Did you batch or fly sparge and did you test the gravity towards the end of sparge. When you say you had a gravity of 1.03 I take it you mean 10.30.

 

[Belter]

1.030 surely? Which is the same as 1.03

 

[bobsbeer]

I would think 1.030 was more correct. I does seem a bit low. Did you check your wort as you sparged as Dennis suggests?

 

[EskiBrew]

Something not adding up here :wha:

For that amount of grain, assuming an efficiency of 70% then ending up with 20 litres should give an OG reading about 1.047. In order to get an OG of just 1.030 then your efficiency must have been more like 45% :shock:

It sounds likely therefore that you got something seriously wrong with the sparging and did not recover all the available sugars from the grain. Either that or perhaps you did not mast at the optimum temperature and did not convert enough starch into maltose.

When you say you got 66C, was that measure after you had stirred the mash thoroughly or before you added the grain to the water?

 

[31bb3]

What temperature did you check your final gravity ?

 

[EskiBrew]

What temperature did you check your final gravity ?

Good point Eddie - but surely if he measured it at a high temperature that would make his actual gravity less than 1.030 and therefore efficiency even lower :wha:

 

[BigYin]

How long did you mash for?

If you did a fly sparge, did you run the wort off fast or slow? If you did a batch sparge, how ling did you leave the 2nd mash for?

Also, during the mash, how much temperature did you lose?

 

[EskiBrew]

If you did a batch sparge, how ling did you leave the 2nd mash for?

Taking this thought further, DID you do a second sparge step or just a "single" batch sparge?

I remember years ago there were some members who were deliberately only doing half of the batch sparge process in order to be sure of avoiding extracting any tannins in order to get a very polished beer - they had to use a lot lot more grain to ensure they reached the desired gravity though and I can't recall what the results were.

 

[liambaxter]

Well thanks for all the responses and so quickly - comforting to know for future brews!
I think i've made a newbie error which someone pointed out - taking the temp before the wort had cooled down. I haven't yet got an immersion chiller so the FV was in the sink cooling down very slowly. Finally late last night the OG was about 1.042.
I fly sparged and yes the gravity was about 1 towards the end.
The mash tun held the temp well it was still about 65c after 90mins.
I think i mashed for about 30mins ish, tried to do it slowly.

I wasn't aware you are supposed to do a 2nd sparge or mash?

I don't think therefore the result was too bad, although not sure why i only ended up with 20l. I stopped sparging as the gravity was 1 - i assume that was the correct thing to do?
I think i ended up with 27l which is what i was aiming for, as taking off 4l for loss to boil, hops and dead space i thought i'd end up with 23l but maybe it was boiling too much?

Appreciate all your responses, sorry for the false alarm.

 

[EskiBrew]

I think i've made a newbie error which someone pointed out - taking the temp before the wort had cooled down. I haven't yet got an immersion chiller so the FV was in the sink cooling down very slowly. Finally late last night the OG was about 1.042.

Ah - fair enough - Eddie was spot on - not sure what I was thinking last night, I was getting it back to front. Assuming you measured 1.030 at say 54C then that would equate to 1.042 :thumb:

I fly sparged and yes the gravity was about 1 towards the end. I wasn't aware you are supposed to do a 2nd sparge or mash?

No, if you fly sparged then only you only do it once :thumb:

I don't think therefore the result was too bad

With the figure of 1.042 it all looks a lot more sensible :thumb:

Well done on your first all grain brew :clap: :clap: :thumb:

 

[BigYin]

Sounds like not too bad a result, well done :mrgreen:

There's no harm in stopping sparging when the SG of the runnings hits 1, but you can keep going until the runnings hits 0.990 - this is assuming you are taking your SG reading from the hot runnings.

This will give you a few more litres of volume, although a very slightly lower starting gravity.

You were absolutely right to try and sparge slowly - not something you should rush :thumb:

 

[Vossy1]

Well done on your 1st AG Liam :party: Your 1st brew will never be perfect, neither will your second or third :lol: ...it takes time to get to know your system. The odd few points of an OG are not the end of the world and unless you have a trained tongue you probably couldn't tell the difference anyway ...
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.relax...don't worry...have a home brew :drink: