Missed my OG by 10 points

I brewed the Lakefront Fixed Gear kit by NB, OG was supposed to come in around 1.065, I got 1.055. Not sure what happened, I use the same water for all my beers, bottled 365 water from Whole Foods. I never have a problem hitting my target, my mash temp was spot on, my water volumes were perect. The only thing I can think of is that the crush was different from NB or that the water source changed, because my only issue with this water is having to add some chalk with darker beers.
Anyway, my question is regarding the hops additions. Too late for the boil, but should I taper back the dry hopping a bit? It cals for 2oz of hops. 1oz citra and 1oz chinook.

I also pitched this beer onto a cream ale cake (obviously expecting the gravity to be higher). It took off in 4 hours and dropped clear in 3 days…lol…

I don’t think water would have anything to do with it. I would guess crush and/or temp. What type of thermometer do you use? Have you calibrated it recently? Maybe the kit was short some grain. Mistakes happen.

If it were me, I would NOT cut back on the dry-hopping. If you knew ahead of time that your OG would be low, then you could cut back on your bittering, but I don’t think there’s a need to cut back on the dry-hopping. I’ll also add I’m a hop-head :smiley:

One of my favorite beers but they ruined it when they changed the dry hop from centennial to Citra. I don’t know why but it tastes like crap with Citra. My advice use centennial when you make it and don’t dry hop for over 7 days 5 is enough.

I have the arbor scientific traceable, it’s fairly new and calibrated at the factory. it’s .4 degrees off from a cdn thermometer that i have, so unless they are both bunk, it’s not the temps. thanks for the dh advice…
chuck, really? I have a bunch of centennial, I could definitely pull that off. I have a already have a citra pale ale in bottles, maybe i should experiment. we cn get lakeshore here in nj now, i’ll have to see if I can grab a bottle before dry hopping…

I think the NB crush is known for being kind of coarse sometimes. Usually you can compensate with a longer mash time. If you have a refractometer you can monitor when the conversion is complete.

I had the same problem on a couple brews, I missed a robust porter by 20 points.

Members here, our brew club that meets at a local micro, and the brewmaster there, all determined it was the crush.

I eliminated the mash out temp, changed to fly to batch sparging in 2 - 3 additions, depending on the volume I need, with an additional 15 minuite rest each. Now I am usually over target OG by a couple points.

My next purchase will be a grain crusher and do my own.

The best advice I got was from the brewmaster, “quit panicking, just call it a small beer” :lol:

Hope it helps and thanks again to all.

Scott

I believe after reading this I will also invest in a grain crusher in my next equip upgrade. It could explain why my efficiency is consistently below 70% (usually 60 or less).

[quote=“beerwench”]I brewed the Lakefront Fixed Gear kit by NB, OG was supposed to come in around 1.065, I got 1.055. Not sure what happened, I use the same water for all my beers, bottled 365 water from Whole Foods. I never have a problem hitting my target, my mash temp was spot on, my water volumes were perect. The only thing I can think of is that the crush was different from NB or that the water source changed, because my only issue with this water is having to add some chalk with darker beers.
Anyway, my question is regarding the hops additions. Too late for the boil, but should I taper back the dry hopping a bit? It cals for 2oz of hops. 1oz citra and 1oz chinook.

I also pitched this beer onto a cream ale cake (obviously expecting the gravity to be higher). It took off in 4 hours and dropped clear in 3 days…lol…[/quote]

I have used the crush from NB from the warehouse(online shipping site) and the retail stores and I find on average 75% efficiency. Before they replaced their rollers at the grand store last spring I was getting around 85%. So things do change but that being said I have never received under 75% unless it was a high SG. Which may explain things as anything over 1.060 I find I usually shoot for 60-70% so I average around 65% at best with any LHBS on a large grain bill. I know for a fact I could easily see 80-90% on any grain bill if I bought my own mill, but the expense and hassle is not worth it to me at this time. I can add a pound of grain for a buck and be done with it. That is if you know what effic to gauge the recipe at effectively.

I do adjust my municipal water source on each beer and always hit an optimal PH for the beer I am making and that will be within 5.2-5.4PH at mash temp. Also I always see complete conversion in 60 minute mashes, and as stated before in other threads I am fully converted after 30 minutes in most cases but let it go another 30 as I am in no hurry. 90 minute mashes may ekk out another point or two but I find it unnecessary unless doing step mashing that will by nature go over 90 minutes due to process time.

There is a curious factor here and that is why are you adding chalk? It has been shown that chalk will do little to nothing for your mash or water profile. And it is advised to use other salts like gypsum, calcium chloride or slaked lime to add calcium and/or sulfate, chloride or bicarbonate if needed. Have you ever looked at/ or heard of the bru n water suite yet? If not or if you don’t know how to adjust water fully yet. I can give you a small clue today regarding your mash PH possibly seen on your lakefront red PH will affect conversion greatly if you are too high. I am just guessing from the hip that you were maybe at a high of 5.7 at mash temp which is close enough for government work( optima is quoted at 5.3-5.5PH ), but if for some reason your alkalinity was sky high you could have been in the 5.8-8.0 PH realm which will be a huge factor. I know the grist from NB’ers site. If you tell me your type of water IE: spring/distilled etc…and/or a water report if available, mash volume, sparge/s volume, amount of chalk /other used etc… I can use bru n water to tell you with certainty what you were doing on mash in. The suite is that intuitive.

Regarding dry hopping do not cut back as you are adding big aroma and flavor with this addition and the beer will be the better for it. You are adding no additional bitterness whatsoever.