Yesterday was the first time I tried to brew 2 beers in one day. The first was a English Brown ale. No problems with that brew. The second one something went wrong. It was suppose to be an American Barley wine. It was small batch. I had everything calculated out. OG should have been 1.105. I missed my mash temp by 3 degrees on the low side. I wanted to mash at 149. I mashed for 1 hour. When I went to run off my preboil gravity was 1.044. My OG came out at 1.052. I have never done a bigger beer AG. Was it the lower temp that caused lower extraction? Should I have mashed for longer to make sure all conversion had taken place? Could it have been the crush of the grain? Could it have been my water profile. Please any help on this would be great. Now I am stuck with a overly hoppy Pale ale. I have not had this bad of performance since my first AG batch. I need to try to figure out what went wrong here.
Wow, somethings off! A lower mash temp would increase fermentables. Possibly your crush, but you would see that in your brown ale.
Maybe you missed a pound or five. I mash for 60 mins with no problems. Not much help. :oops:
Did you add all the hops with the lower gravity?
Were you monitoring Ph? What kind of water? What was the grain bill? Everybody knows alkaline water can suck out tannins, but it’s also true that an overly acidic mash (like Ph under 5) can stop conversion in it’s tracks. It might be tough to reconstruct unless it’s a major math/grain quantity issue, like mrv suggested. Two suggestions I would make is get a refrac and have iodine on hand to test conversion - at least then you’ll know your mash isn’t happening before you sparge. Small consolation, but I brew ridiculously hoppy IPAs on purpose. Oh well - you basically went 1.5 for 2 on the day.
I think it could well be your low mash temp. 146° is pretty low and the enzymes take longer at those temps. I typically do a 1-1/2 hour mash (or overnight) if the mash is on the very low end.
Diagnosing a low OG question without a recipe is like throwing darts at a target while blindfolded.
My “shot in the dark” is you over estimated you efficiency for a big beer, figure less than 60%. AND you didn’t add all the grain you thought you were.
You would have been better off making the BW first, then adding a little more grain to the MT to make the EB.
Could be any number of things but it’s hard to say without seeing your recipe. Did you check for conversion?
BeerSmith Recipe Printout - http://www.beersmith.com
Recipe: Barley wine
Brewer: Craig
Asst Brewer:
Style: American Barley Wine
TYPE: All Grain
Taste: (35.0)
Recipe Specifications
Batch Size: 3.00 gal
Boil Size: 5.00 gal
Estimated OG: 1.105 SG
Estimated Color: 18.3 SRM
Estimated IBU: 109.4 IBU
Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.00 %
Boil Time: 60 Minutes
Ingredients:
Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 65.57 %
2.00 lb Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 16.39 %
0.50 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 4.10 %
0.40 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) Grain 3.28 %
0.20 lb Special Roast (50.0 SRM) Grain 1.64 %
0.10 lb Chocolate Malt (400.0 SRM) Grain 0.82 %
0.30 oz Newport Hops [13.50 %] (60 min) (First WoHops 27.1 IBU
1.00 oz Newport Hops [13.50 %] (60 min) Hops 82.3 IBU
0.10 oz Mt. Hood [6.00 %] (0 min) Hops -
2.00 oz Sorachi Ace [15.10 %] (0 min) Hops -
0.20 oz Cascade [5.50 %] (0 min) Hops -
1.00 oz Centennial [9.70 %] (0 min) Hops -
1.00 lb Honey (1.0 SRM) Sugar 8.20 %
2 Pkgs Safale American (DCL Yeast #US-05) Yeast-Ale
Mash Schedule: Single Infusion, Full Body, No Mash Out
Total Grain Weight: 11.20 lb
Single Infusion, Full Body, No Mash Out
Step Time Name Description Step Temp
60 min Mash In Add 14.88 L of water at 159.0 F 149.0 F
Did you actually finish with 3 gallons in the fermenter?
The recipe is formulated for 70% efficiency. As mentioned above, that is high aspirations for a big beer.
Yes I did end up with 3 gallons in the fermentor.
Mash Ph was 5.4
[quote=“Nighthawk”]Diagnosing a low OG question without a recipe is like throwing darts at a target while blindfolded.
My “shot in the dark” is you over estimated you efficiency for a big beer, figure less than 60%. AND you didn’t add all the grain you thought you were.
You would have been better off making the BW first, then adding a little more grain to the MT to make the EB.[/quote]
I agree. Especially with a small batch size you wouldn’t need to sparge much so you’d leave a lot of sugar behind.
