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.

 

[TwoCrows]

I would look at the water. How much water to grain ratio in the mash. What size batch , 19ltrs?
Burton on Trent has high Cal Sulphate.
You do want your water to be sulphate forward , allow the hops/bitterness to shine 3 to 1 ratio would get you there. Trying to match Burton on Trent is not required, (that's my opinion). I bet the brewers change their water as they have ahigh alk presence.

 

[wide eyed and legless]

As above the batch size is important, as is grain crush mash temperature and as you are using an app what efficiency have you plugged in for it to give you an OG 1,063?

 

[blacktop™]

As above the batch size is important, as is grain crush mash temperature and as you are using an app what efficiency have you plugged in for it to give you an OG 1,063?

Agreed.

OP: You might not even be doing anything wrong apart from having the incorrect mash efficiency.

Are you using brewing software or this a recipe that you found? The recipe might assume 75% mash efficiency where as you can only achieve 65% on your system for example.

 

[Arealdrink]

Agreed.

OP: You might not even be doing anything wrong apart from having the incorrect mash efficiency.

Are you using brewing software or this a recipe that you found? The recipe might assume 75% mash efficiency where as you can only achieve 65% on your system for example.

I think you’re quite right. I just had an extra look and forgot to set it to BIAB for the equipment profile. Now the numbers are a lot closer, in fact I’m 2-3 points higher in my sugars than predicted. I’ll still look into the ratios and adjusting my crush size to see how that affects it. Thanks to everyone for the replies!

 

[TwoCrows]

I had to go an extra 20 mins to achieve conversion today, Iodine test is a must. 75 mins is an average for a mash (beta rest).

 

[philrob]

I agree with TwoCrows. I always mash at least 75 minutes, no matter what.