Low Gravity!

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Water is another thing never thought of. I've posted this many times about the BNE floods of 2011, my efficiency dropped 10-15% because the water changed, got a bit softer. Ended up figuring it out and adjusting by putting acidulated malt in to adjust the mash pH and it fixed it.

In Tas, it was water salts. I'm too lazy to measure pH, but used the water board's numbers instead. But knowing ball park figures helps.

 

[Reman]

I remember reading an article (perhaps on craftypint) where some breweries were dumping JW for BB, due to quality control issues. Perhaps you can take the rest of the bag back and get a refund?

 

[Xander]

I remember reading an article (perhaps on craftypint) where some breweries were dumping JW for BB, due to quality control issues. Perhaps you can take the rest of the bag back and get a refund?

They do orders to size, so I can't do that now.
As mentioned, I'm pretty sure this is my fault. Something to learn from!

I boiled some last night, and threw in 1KG of light DME. Hopefully it still turns out alright...

 

[Xander]

People!

I brewed another batch on the weekend - same recipe etc except I left the lid off for the boil, which was very slow and gentle!
My gravity was 1.045! Still too low. Frustrated, i decided to go through the motions and hopefully come up with a night mid strength?


The catch is I just checked the gravity again after pitching the yeast on Sunday night (now being Thursday night) and the gravity is at 1.014.

This seems very low! I used a packet of US-05 in about 15L of wort.

In doing some Quality Control, I have tested plain tap water and it came in at just under 1.000

Question is - Is my Hydrometer not accurate, and my beer not as bad as I thought, or is this a mixture of errors??

Any help would be appreciated!

Cheers

 

[Rocker1986]

What was the actual reading of the hydrometer in tap water (just under 1.000 is a bit ambiguous), and what was the temperature of the water? It should be 20C.

It's not unusual for US-05 to ferment down to that sort of gravity in 5 days.

Wouldn't exactly call 1.045 a mid strength unless your FG is way high though... most of my beers are around this OG, finishing around 1.007-1.010 for somewhere between 4.6% and 5.0% ABV, give or take.

 

[paulyman]

I had my latest batch of Blonde go from 1.052 to sub 1.020 in 36 hours, down to 1.014 in that time frame is a good thing, healthy and active yeast get the job done efficiently.

My original thought was the temp you took your reading at, taking it at mash temps would be pretty well exactly 20 points out, but you mentioned you read it at 30 so it's not that. Next would be crush, but you said the LHBS does that for you, I know my local is pretty consistent, but it is something to keep in the back of your mind. My money is on the batch of grain, I also remember the article Reman mentioned. Does the LHBS have some non-JW grains you could test out? Once you go Gladfield you will never go back.