I brewed a hoppy pale ale yesterday with 8.8 lbs of grain. The OG was supposed to be 1.046 for 5.5 gallons.
I pre-heated my mash tun with 1.5 gallons of boiling water while getting my strike water ready. After the strike water reached temperature, I drained the mash tun of the warm water. Next, I began adding grain and water together in the mash tun, but forgot completely to close the valve that was attached to a hose for easy draining outside of the garage. It took me a minute to realize that my mash was getting thicker and that I was losing water and whatever else.
My question or point is this. I grind my grain until I have a decent mixture of flour and broken hulls. Could losing, lets say 1 gallon of liquid because of my mistake, cause my OG to drop 10 points?
After boiling, my OG was measured to be 1.036. The reason I ask is because my thought is that much of the flour was washed out. I ended with beer that was supposed to be small, but will now be much smaller. But hey, I still made beer
Any thoughts, or experiences similar to mine in the past? BTW, with my system, I usually get around 70 to 75 % efficiency.
1st, to avoid this happening, don’t drain your "pre heat " water. Just use that for your mash water. For me, I heat my water to 170-180. Allow it to heat the cooler. When the temp drops to 160, add the grain. By the time I’m done stirring the grain, the temp has stabilized at 150.
To your question. It’s possible you lost that much starch/sugar.
Hey Holiday, I think you just made a good small beer! Noth’in wrong with that! All summer long I make a 1.037 wheat just for mowing the lawn. Try not to be a glass-half-empty guy. Fill that dude up and toast yourself! cheers!
Added 8 oz of sugar boiled in a cup of water to boost the gravity a bit 48 hrs after fermentation started. Should raise the og up 4 points and help to dry it out a bit.
