First All-Grain

[mechanic_23]

I did my first All-grain batch today. Was lots of fun and everything went fairly smoothly Aimed at making a Red IPA - only issue was that my OG by a fair bit. Was meant to be 1056 and I ended up with 1036. I'm worried that this will throw out the balance massively as I hopped fairly aggressively. Can anyone please explain why my efficiency was so low at 45% and how to fix it next time? Here was my process:
5kg pale malt
.5kg crystal 60
.5kg carared

25g citra, 20g Amarillo @ 60
20g galaxy @ 45
10g each galaxy,amarillo @ 15
30g citra @ 5

Heat 18L strike water to 72C and pour into mashtun (converted eski with SS braid) and mash in grains for 67C mash.
Mash for 60 min then vorlauf and drain first runnings (SG=1070).
14L sparge water to 67C and add to grains vorlauf and repeat (SG=1034). It was at this point i realised I'd forgotten to account for grain absorption - so i quickly heated 5L water and did a 2nd sparge.

Post boil I had 23L compared to the 20 I had aimed for which would have brought down the OG, but not my 20 points I assume?

Cheers for the Help!!
Mechanic

 

[krausenhaus]

Are those hop additions right? Seems like it would come to well over 100 IBU. I would consider that way too aggressive for an OG of 1.056, so with 1.036 I don't think this is gonna be pretty..

This recent thread might be of some use:

[URL="http://aussiehomebrewer.com/t...brewer.com/topic/75698-what-the-hell-happend/[/url]

 

[Dunkelbrau]

Your sparging gravity was still pretty high, what was the gravity at the end of sparge? I usually mash with 11L and sparge with 20L ish and not at mash temp, the higher sparging temp allows the sugars to be more soluble and come through the grain bed.

We're your thermometers accurate? Hydrometer used post chill as well as refractometer post boil?

Edit: spelling

 

[yum beer]

Have you taken your hydro reading at an elevated temperature and not corrected for this.
Going off your post mash gravity-1070- I don't see how you've dropped to 1036 final.

Look to sparge with a higher temp, 72-75c not at mash temps.

If those numbers are right, boil 1kg LDM in 2 litres of water and add to your your fermenter. Will get your gravity uo to a better place to counteract your IBU.

Are you using software of some kind?

 

[mechanic_23]

Thanks for the replies guys. I was looking for an extremely hoppy beer, but in retrospect I probably should have left the 45 min additions out! The first runnings hydro reading was at mash temp so that would mean it was actually higher than I recorded? But the post boil was out of the fermentor and at 22C so thats pretty much spot on.

Thermometer is accurate - could the issue be too much mash water and not enough/not hot enough sparge water? Also I couldn't measure pH - should I get some pH stabiliser?

I will put the LDME in, I just need to get some. Is it alright if I put it in in two or three days time?

Might try a tried and tested recipe next time!

Cheers for the help guys,
Mechanic

 

[Dunkelbrau]

Get your sparge readings to get an idea of sugars left behind.. You can go down to 1.008 without extracting tannins from the grain, id be surprised if you got anywhere near that with 1.034 for second runnings.