Gravity much lower than expected

[mnstorm99]

I just finished brewing a Brown Ale that I expected to have a 1.050 OG. I put it in the fermenter and took a sample to check the gravity and it came in at 1.031.

What could I have done wrong? I created the beer on beertools and it seemed compliant with what I was trying to do.

Also I steeped about 3 lbs. of grain (30 min. 152*F). my fear is that I tried to steep to many grains in 1.5 gal. of water. Or is there something I missed when trying to steep that many grains for an extract beer?

[BrewDog]

if you topped up with water after the boil, did you mix it up really good before you took your sample to measure gravity?

[mnstorm99]

I did mix it, although I have considered that I may not have mixed it well enough.

If I didn't mix it well enough, what might happen? Will the co2 create a mix within the fermenting wort?

[BrewDog]

Yes, the yeast action during fermentation will mix it up very thoroughly.

As long as you didn't spill away most of your extract, and you added all the goodies you were supposed to, you will be in the ballpark gravity wise. It is the first few All-Grain batches where missing gravity can be a pretty big issue.

Can you post the whole recipe?

HTH-

[mnstorm99]

2 lbs. American Caramel 80°L
.5 lbs. Belgian Biscuit
.5 lbs. CaraMalt
3.3 lbs. Liquid Amber Extract
1 lbs. Dry Amber Extract
1 lbs. Oats Flaked
1 oz. Cascade (Pellets, 6 %AA) boiled 45 min.
1 oz. Amarillo (Pellets, 8.9 %AA) boiled 20 min.
1 oz. Centennial (Pellets, 8.5 %AA) boiled 2 min.
WYeast 1272 American Ale II


I didn't have an accurate scale for the DME, but it should at least be in the ballpark. The rest of the ingrediants I measured out at my HBS.

[Mill Rat]

Wow, that's a lot of unfermentables. If you count the oats, too (as you should), there's 4 pounds of grain and ~4 pounds of extract. The oats and the bicuit malt should have been mashed, there's a lot of unconverted starch in there. The amount of water in which you steeped your grain is alright, the usual AG mash water amount is 1 quart of water per pound of grain, followed by roughly twice that volume of sparge water. Best case scenario you'll have a thick, rather weak, light brown ale.

I'd modify the malt side of recipe as follows, if you really want to keep the oats (I'm at work already, so I don't have access to promash, so this is just a SWAG):

1 lb. American Caramel 80°L
2 oz chocolate malt
.5 lbs. Belgian Biscuit
1 lbs. Oats Flaked
2 lb 6-row pale malt
3.3 lbs. Liquid Amber Extract
1 lbs. Dry Amber Extract
1 lbs. Oats Flaked

Mini mash the 4 grains together in 3 quarts of water, keeping the water at about 150 F for about an hour. Check for conversion using an iodine test. Drain the wort from the grains, Rinse the grains with up to another 1.5 gallons of water, depending on your brew kettle capacity, adding the rinse (sparge) water to your brew kettle. Stir in your LME and proceed as usual.

[markaberrant]

Originally posted by Mill Rat
1 lb. American Caramel 80°L
2 oz chocolate malt
.5 lbs. Belgian Biscuit
1 lbs. Oats Flaked
2 lb 6-row pale malt
3.3 lbs. Liquid Amber Extract
1 lbs. Dry Amber Extract
1 lbs. Oats Flaked

Mini mash the 4 grains together in 3 quarts of water, keeping the water at about 150 F for about an hour. Check for conversion using an iodine test. Drain the wort from the grains, Rinse the grains with up to another 1.5 gallons of water, depending on your brew kettle capacity, adding the rinse (sparge) water to your brew kettle. Stir in your LME and proceed as usual.

I'd double the choc malt to 4 oz, and swap out the amber extracts for the lightest extracts available. And you can use 6-row or 2-row malt, not sure if the original poster knows this or not.

[Mill Rat]

Originally posted by markaberrant
And you can use 6-row or 2-row malt, not sure if the original poster knows this or not. I was specing 6-row just to get the diastatic power up there without making it more of a midi-mash than a mini-mash. Hell, once he realizes it takes nearly as much time to do a mini-mash as it takes to brew all-grain, he'll go AG in a few batches if he has the space to do so.

[BrewDog]

2 lb. 6-row pale malt
1 lb. American Caramel 80°L
1 lb. Oats Flaked
.5 lbs. Belgian Biscuit
2 oz chocolate malt

3.3 lbs. Liquid Amber Extract
1 lbs. Dry Amber Extract


Mini mash the 4 grains together in 3 quarts of water, keeping the water at about 150 F for about an hour. Check for conversion using an iodine test. Drain the wort from the grains, Rinse the grains with up to another 1.5 gallons of water, depending on your brew kettle capacity, adding the rinse (sparge) water to your brew kettle. Stir in your LME and proceed as usual.


I think 4lbs 10 oz of grain is a little too much to be only using 3 quarts. Go for 5 to 6 quarts of 152F water and that should do.

[Mill Rat]

Originally posted by BrewDog
I think 4lbs 10 oz of grain is a little too much to be only using 3 quarts. Go for 5 to 6 quarts of 152F water and that should do. You're right, I forgot about the biscuit. Again, too much posting and not enough coffee.

[mnstorm99]

Next time I will try a partial mash, I don't really have the room to do all grain in the house, but maybe next summer I will start doing it that way, I already have the burner from my Turkey fryer so I would just need a good kettle to brew it in.