Fess up Time; Can't Get OG on Target

[GABBA110360]

my first attempt at all grain was biab
I didn't get close to numbers.
did Andrews cpa recipe and only put 1.040 into the fv no chill.
but it went down to 1.007 so for first go and bottled is was happy with that.
tasted ok
might have to get a mill and grind a bit finer I think.
I bought my grain milled
done a double batch 46 l bottled 5 cartons + 1 stubbie so I must have the fluids close

 

[punkin]

My trouble is that i hit my numbers exactly for a year and then stopped hitting them.

 

[bum]

When you got a new mashtun, yeah? I may have misread the timing. Sorry if so.

I just changed my tun (and nothing else) and have dropped a few points also. Haven't done enough brews with the new rig to work out how to fix it yet so no help there. This tun is a bit bigger (all dimensions...even tiiiiime) but I'm doing the same batch sizes for now so the same grist sees a shallower bed. Probably where I'm going wrong.

 

[punkin]

Not sure on the timing myself. I changed my mash tun and went no chill, i'm thinking around the same time, and i'm thinking that's about , or soon after, when i started getting weirdo efficiencies. Not ruling out it's related for sure. If i can get 72% i'll just set it to that and be happy, but i want to be able to get repeatable numbers more than anything.

I buy grain ten to fifteen bags at a time, so a kilo here or there is pretty meaningless.

I do know when i first got the new mash tun my efficiency went UP from 74% to 80% (just entering the brewmate numbers as they are presented to me) but it must have been fairly soon after that i had problems.

 

[manticle]

Is your water source the same? Did anything else change over that time?

I agree is seems odd and would frustrate me too.

Might be a bit dull but try brewing exactly the same beer for a while and see if consistency starts to rear its head again

 

[vic45]

Looks to me like a pretty shallow grain bed, this could drop your efficiency.
Also is it possible that the new manifold is channeling with some grain bills and not others?

 

[punkin]

I'm going to do a little double batch and chill today so i can get a ph figure. I'm down to my last tight range strip, when should i be taking the reading? Start, middle or end of the mash?

Will be mashing in shortly so am very interested in a quick answer.

 

[manticle]

10-20 mins in should be fine

 

[punkin]

Thanks, just going to heat the strike water and grind the grist now.

Assuming no-one jumping up and down means my grist looks fine?

 

[punkin]

15 mins in, looks to be between 5 and 5.5 to me...



I don't know whether that is good or bad.

 

[Khellendros13]

From my heavy reading on water chem, 5.2-5.6 is the range you want, measured at 20c.

 

[AndrewQLD]

From my heavy reading on water chem, 5.2-5.6 is the range you want, measured at 20c.

And without the grist component.

 

[CosmicBertie]

15 mins in, looks to be between 5 and 5.5 to me...

mashph.jpg

I don't know whether that is good or bad.

Looks more like 6.0 to me

Try a $25 digital pH meter from eBay to be a bit more accurate.

Could it be that the grain you have specified in Brewmate has different values to the actual grain you're using? Try switching Ale Malt for Golden Promise or Marris Otter and you'll find that the numbers change. Not wildly, but I found for me it changed by 4 or 5 points.

 

[manticle]

Yes. Take a small sample of wort, let it cool a bit then measure. Does look like it could be towards 6 but hard to tell from the photo.

And without the grist component.

 

[Yob]

How many cubes is that Punkin?

 

[punkin]

Woe is me.

Did a 44l IPA chilled into two fermenters yesti.

pre boil should have been 1053, actual temp corrected = 1044

OG should have been 1058, actual temp corrected = 1053

I need to wait two weeks till i can brew again now, i have no empty cubes and no empty FV's.


I will do the same brew (got a hankering for IPA's after a 4 pack of Hop Hog) and change my grist to a finer crack.

I'll buy some more PH papers unless people tell me a PH meter is actually better, seems to me a cheap meter is not as good as good papers from what i've read.

The paper in the pic soaked up liquid well before i put a spoon of mash on there to show the grist.

 

[punkin]

How many cubes is that Punkin?

The grain purchases?
I have no idea, but it takes tween 18 and 23 kilos of grain to do 4 cubes. so pretty much 4+ cubes to a sack or say 10 cubes to two sacks.

10 sacks being 50 cubes or 1000 litres. 6-8 months of beer for me.

 

[manticle]

I'm sure it's been mentioned in the thread but did you take gravity samples at at
various points to see where you are coming up short?

Did you also measure actual OG to ensure your temp correction is accurate?

 

[punkin]

I don't understand the question mate.

I took gravity samples at the two times i had reference points to check, preboil OG and final OG into the fermenter. I didn't do any temp corrections except cooling the samples to 20C.

 

[CosmicBertie]

How accurate are you measuring your water? I've accidently used 35L instead of 33L and I've noticed a drop in SG. Also, when crushing, can you crush slower? Too fast seems to lower SG too.