Belgian Tripel OG

Mashing
1

Hello,

I just switched to doing AG brewing and my second AG batch was a Belgian Tripel kit from NB. I used a single step mash at 153 degrees (target was 151) for 60 minutes then sparged at 170 degree. My pre-boil gravity was 1.052 and I when into the fermenter at 1.063.

The target OG was 1.073 so what could I have done to reach the targeted OG?

Thanks
Don C.

2

Did you add the sugar?

3

yes, I added the 1Lbs Belgian sugar that came with the kit.

4

well alot of things could have happened…

  1. the crush may not have been fine enough
  2. water chemistry wasnt good so bad conversion of sugars
  3. batch sparge? fly sparge? both have pitfalls
  4. maybe you did everything right but your efficiency is lower than the kits estimated efficiency
  5. are you boiling off consistently?

there are more possibilities. you need to try and be consistent with your future batches, and you’ll figure out what YOUR average efficiency is.

the easiest fix for low efficiency is alittle extra grain. By crushing fine, and conditioning grain. i regularly hit 80% eff with batch sparging.

BREW MORE!

5

Good info, thank you.

I am fly sparging.
I filter the water but I would guess that I filled the pot too fast this time.

I also read that draining the mash should take about 30 - 45 minutes and I probably did it in 15 minutes, so I will slow it down…

thanks
Don C.

6

With that speed of sparging you likely left a bunch of sugar behind. It’ll take a few tries, but just get the flow rates matched & managed. A quart per minute is pretty standard.

I would look into some of the other possibilities as well, especially since you’re just getting started with AG. Don’t worry about water chemistry until you’ve got everything else dialed in. If you can drink the water & it tastes good, you can’t be too far off. It might not be the perfect water for the style, but you’ll get close enough. Definitely not a 10 point difference. If something’s that far out of whack it’ll be more than noticeable in the regular water flavor.