Not such a good brew dy

[DustyDog]

Have just made AG#2 and my OG is way off, should be 1052 and i'm only reading 1040. Have double checked grain weights 3.1 maris otter, 84grams of dark crystal, 84 grams of chocolate and 84 grams of cara red.etc and have slightly less in FV than i should, batch sparged, initial mash volume; 8.4 litres top up 10.8 an second batch;121.8 litres, temps seem to check out, cut brew amount down from 23 litres to 17 litres but everything done correctly (i'm assuming) can anyone scratch their heads and give me possible probs, mistakes??? Cheers.

[seymour]

Possibilities:
simple math error, perhaps linked to US gallons vs. Imperial gallons or something
mash temp too high, check thermometer against some others
mash duration too short
stale malts
insufficiently crushed malts
inaccurate hydrometer, or perhaps you just need to make a temperature correction to the reading
perhaps you're mixing-up the after-boil gravity reading, which will be higher?

If the mash is still going on, raise the drained wort to 172°F/77.8°C and pour back into the mash tun, allow to rest 15 minutes or so, then slowly drain again. If the mash is over and done, then just boil extra long to evaporate more water out. No matter what, you're gonna have a tasty brown ale there. I know you're frustrated, but at the end of the day, there's nothing wrong with OG 1040.

Shhh...just between you and me...dump a kg of brown sugar into your boil, you'll thank me later.

[Eric]

How did you arrive at 1052 for the OG?
A quick calculation shows with that grain bill at 100% efficiency would only give 23 litres with an OG of 1043 or 17 at 1058. At 75% efficiency you might expect 17 litres @ 1044.

[Hogarth]

How did you arrive at 1052 for the OG?
A quick calculation shows with that grain bill at 100% efficiency would only give 23 litres with an OG of 1043 or 17 at 1058. At 75% efficiency you might expect 17 litres @ 1044.

Took the words out of my mouth. Sounds like you're getting about 70% efficiency which for batch sparging is reasonable. Next brew day you can adjust your grain bill accordingly.

[seymour]

How did you arrive at 1052 for the OG?
A quick calculation shows with that grain bill at 100% efficiency would only give 23 litres with an OG of 1043 or 17 at 1058. At 75% efficiency you might expect 17 litres @ 1044.

You're right. My best-guess is that he's referring to this: http://www.northernbrewer.com/documenta ... yBrown.pdf which is formulated to 5 US gallons (=18.9L), not 5 Imperial gallons (=22.7L). In reality, he shouldn't have reduced the grains so much.

DustyDog, I think you did a 24% reduction but a 10% reduction would've been correct. Given the grains you used, I'd say 1040 is excellent efficiency. Good job!

[DustyDog]

Thanks for replies as always, mashed for 90 mins, could have been slightly high on mash temp, after dough in, was about 68-69 c, grains are fresh and checked hydrometer reading with cooled wort. og was what recipe said it should be, if you look at my nukie brown recipe question the recipe is there (thanks to Seymour for listing for me) and i'm just going off what it says (only my 2nd AG brew, so just getting the hang of it) I know that the beer should be good to drink, just want to know why it is not what the recipe says, but i converted from pounds and ounces to metric, recipe is from Northern Brewer. Thanks for help ppl.

Just seen your updated reply, yes i did not allow for us gallons, that would explain it, i feel a lot better for seeing that, and good to know that i'm getting good efficiency, thanks loads ppl. Phew.

[DustyDog]

And yes Seymour, that is the recipe i used, thanks for all help.

[seymour]

Don't worry, you'll get the hang of percentage conversions. Thinking in terms of easily scale-able percentages will be very helpful to you as a brewer.

By the way, that basic template you used is infinitely adaptable: majority percentage base malt + small equal percentages of two or three specialty malts.

You'll see that pattern all over the place, for instance:

countless English Bitters and Scotch Ales are 90% Pale, 5% Crystal Malt, 5% Torrified Wheat or Wheat Malt
Anchor Steam is 90.5% Pale, 4.8% Crystal Malt 60L, 4.8% Crystal Malt 80L
Ballantine Burton Ale was 88.9% Pale, 5.6% Carastan Malt, 5.6% Crystal 40L Malt
Bitburger Pils is 94.4% Pilsener Malt, 2.8% Light Munich Malt, 2.8% CaraPils/Dextrine Malt
Green Flash West Coast IPA is 84% Pale, 8% Carastan Malt, 8% CaraPils/Dextrine Malt
Holden Black Country Mild is 90% Maris Otter, 5% Roasted Barley, 5% Invert Syrup
New Belgium Fat Tire is 50% Pale or Pilsener Malt, 20% Munich Malt, 20% Dark Munich Malt, 5% Cara 80L Malt, 5% Victory/Aromatic Malt
Schlafly Winter ESB is 82% Pale, 6% Cara 40L Malt, 6% Munich Malt 10L, 6% Rye Malt

the list goes on and on...

[Rookie]

The worst brew day is way better than the best work day.

[DustyDog]

That Rookie, is a very very good point, back at work today, cant really be ar**d. Can't wait to start AG#3