Low OG help.

[Arealdrink]

Hello. I am relatively new to all grain brewing, and have attempted to make ESB style ales, however my OG is significantly lower than what the Brewfather app calculates. I presume some variance is to be expected from a calculator to real life, however these seem rather large discrepancies: predicted OG; 1.063. Actual OG: 1.052. Still quite respectable and the last batch tasted great, but I want to find out if my methods are wanting.

The recipe: ESB

Malts;
- Joe white traditional ale: 5.5 Kg
- Joe white medium crystal: 500g
- Voyager malts, biscuit: 200g
I usually do a 60 minute mash but this one I did a 75 minute mash to try and rectify this with no luck.

Hops;

East Kent goldings: 50g 60 mins
East Kent goldings: 20g 30 mins
East Kent goldings: 30g 15 mins

I’ve been sure to stir frequently and have no trouble with clumps of grain, I plan for about 1L over my target water because in my past brews I’ve ended up low, so I can just boil down if needed. I sparge from a seperate pot and tip the water over the suspended grains and let it drip (I’m running a digiboil setup with no sprinkler or pump). I use tap water but add brewing salts to achieve burton on Trent and use Campden powder for both sparge and mash water.

If anyone has any ideas what I might be doing wrong, I’m going to try a few different things and see if I can bring these numbers a bit closer.

 

[philrob]

What is your mash temperature routine?
How is your grain milled, and how fine do you mill it.
These are some of the variables which can affect your end results.
Beyond that, I am not familiar with the Brewfather, as I'm somewhat of a trogladyte brewing on an 18 years old budget 3V system.

 

[Arealdrink]

What is your mash temperature routine?
How is your grain milled, and how fine do you mill it.
These are some of the variables which can affect your end results.
Beyond that, I am not familiar with the Brewfather, as I'm somewhat of a trogladyte brewing on an 18 years old budget 3V system.

I generally mash at 65c but the heating coils can make it jump to 70c for a short while before it cools, I usually stir more often when it does this. As for the mill settings I have it set to 1mm coarseness.