PranK
Active Member
Hi Guys!
Finally, after 6 months of equipment collecting, I made the move last night to AG from PG/Extracts.
I was brewing the Brown Oak Ale in John Palmers 'How to brew' book.
I thought it all went beautifully, but, after the mash I only has an OG of 1.020. The mash temp was perfect, dropping from 68 ish to about 65.5 over the hour. Lots of stirring, I *may* have had a 'dough ball' or two because I am using twin bazookas which sit about 1" off the bottom of the cooler (which you cant get under when stirring.)
Then, I found the limit of my electric stove top, it barely reached a boil and when it did "boil" there was no surface breaking... It was more like like water movement, but it wouldn't get any hotter. (A burner is on the cards for the next brew.)
BG was 1.030 (though, I left the wort in the hydro jar over night and this morning it was more like 1.040.)
Then, if that wasn't enough, I used a Whyeast activator thingo, but couldn't break the packet inside, so I assumed it had already been broken and thought I'd use it anyway, which I did, but after pouring the yeast in, I noticed that the packet inside had not been broken.
I have limited bottles at my disposal and I'm wondering if I should just ditch this batch and do another one. I'd hate to spend the time bottling and aging only to find it is crap. Fermentation *seems* to have started, but its not going strong by any means (Yeast only went in about 3hrs ago though, so early days).
Why would my OG have been so low? I used the same volume of water as John in the book, 18.5L of water to mash, then sparged with 13L. I had a perfect amount for my fermenter after boiling. Volumes seemed good. The grain was crushed and sent to me last week by Grain and Grape - did I wait too long before mashing? I heard you have about 2 weeks to use the crushed grain.
Any help, opinions, feedback, anything, is welcome!
Thanks!
Christian
Finally, after 6 months of equipment collecting, I made the move last night to AG from PG/Extracts.
I was brewing the Brown Oak Ale in John Palmers 'How to brew' book.
I thought it all went beautifully, but, after the mash I only has an OG of 1.020. The mash temp was perfect, dropping from 68 ish to about 65.5 over the hour. Lots of stirring, I *may* have had a 'dough ball' or two because I am using twin bazookas which sit about 1" off the bottom of the cooler (which you cant get under when stirring.)
Then, I found the limit of my electric stove top, it barely reached a boil and when it did "boil" there was no surface breaking... It was more like like water movement, but it wouldn't get any hotter. (A burner is on the cards for the next brew.)
BG was 1.030 (though, I left the wort in the hydro jar over night and this morning it was more like 1.040.)
Then, if that wasn't enough, I used a Whyeast activator thingo, but couldn't break the packet inside, so I assumed it had already been broken and thought I'd use it anyway, which I did, but after pouring the yeast in, I noticed that the packet inside had not been broken.
I have limited bottles at my disposal and I'm wondering if I should just ditch this batch and do another one. I'd hate to spend the time bottling and aging only to find it is crap. Fermentation *seems* to have started, but its not going strong by any means (Yeast only went in about 3hrs ago though, so early days).
Why would my OG have been so low? I used the same volume of water as John in the book, 18.5L of water to mash, then sparged with 13L. I had a perfect amount for my fermenter after boiling. Volumes seemed good. The grain was crushed and sent to me last week by Grain and Grape - did I wait too long before mashing? I heard you have about 2 weeks to use the crushed grain.
Any help, opinions, feedback, anything, is welcome!
Thanks!
Christian