what did I get wrong?!?

[stuartf]

Did my first ag brew today in my shiny new gf. 5kg pilsner in 17l mashed at:
63C for 30min
raised to 70C for 30,
mashout 75C.
Sparged 15l.
Hops (haller mit) added as fwh, 60min and 10min.
Calc OG from brewers friend 1.050 OG from reading post boil 1.026. Clearly I've messed up something here to miss my OG by that much, any ideas what I did wrong? OG sample tastes and smells great so happy to drink a mid strength pilsner as a light summer session beer but need to get my recovery up for future beers.
Any advice gratefully accepted

 

[Dan Pratt]

How many litres into the fermenter did you get?

What did you measure the gravity with ?

 

[Dan Pratt]

Did you crack the grain or did the homebrew store?

 

[stuartf]

Ended up with 22l in fv. Measured with my cheap hydrometer which does read .005 out from true (checked against the di water from work). LHBS milled grain for me, seemed ok not too much flour but was cracked 3 weeks ago.

 

[VP Brewing]

Hey mate, was your hydrometer sample still hot when you took your reading? They are calibrated to 20°C and the higher the temp of the sample, the lower the reading.
If it was 20°C or you used a refractometer then unfortunately I can't help you.

 

[paulyman]

Congrats on the first AG. I think I'm jumping across to the GF this week as well, need a simpler system that's quick and easy to setup and clean.

My first guess would be your grain crush, I noticed my efficiency improved when I started milling my own, I've even noticed a massive change since moving to another supplier.

See if the LHBS can adjust the crush for you, I know my local is really helpful and will do things like that for me.

 

[stuartf]

Reading was after the counter flow chiller so was down to 31C, my calc says that would make it 1.028 so including the correction for my crap hyrometer (which i hadnt done in OP) i suppose that makes it up to 1.033? Still well short of what i was expecting though.

 

[lmccrone]

Hey mate, was your hydrometer sample still hot when you took your reading? They are calibrated to 20°C and the higher the temp of the sample, the lower the reading.
If it was 20°C or you used a refractometer then unfortunately I can't help you.

Rookie mistake, in fact that's exactly the mistake i made on my first ag brew, actually one of the mistakes I made.

 

[stuartf]

Hi paulyman, would that be a finer or coarser crush though? Was thinking of ordering same grain from grain and grape to see if that makes a difference.
Other than the OG issue I can say the whole brew session went really well on the GF so with my limited experience I can recommend it.

 

[wynnum1]

Hydrometer no good testing with water manufacture know that brewer will test with water need to test 1040 or 1050 could be only accurate at 1000.

 

[xenon2000]

Have you thought about a refractometer? Pretty cheap from ebay nowadays and only takes a few mins to cool down an eyedropper of wort to test , which is all the volume it needs.

 

[Rocker1986]

Hydrometer no good testing with water manufacture know that brewer will test with water need to test 1040 or 1050 could be only accurate at 1000.

That's pretty much the standard way of testing them - in water at whatever temperature they are calibrated to, they should read 1.000. Unless one owns a refractometer as well, it's impossible to test it in a 1.040 or whatever solution and know if it's correct or not.

And if it's accurate in water, it'll be accurate in any solution. It's simply a weighted instrument for measuring liquid density, it's not gonna be accurate in one liquid and inaccurate in another, otherwise it would a completely useless piece of equipment for what it's designed for.

 

[Killer Brew]

How did your sparge go? Some reports with the GF of sparge pulling through really quickly because of channeling and effecting efficiency (wouldn't account for all of this variation though).

Looks like you hit around 40% efficiency. Could be a milling issue too.

 

[TheWiggman]

Hydrometer no good testing with water manufacture know that brewer will test with water need to test 1040 or 1050 could be only accurate at 1000.

:huh:
Assuming I accurately translated you, the hydrometer wouldn't be that far out. Certainly testing with another hydrometer wouldn't hurt.
stuartf, are you sure you had 5kg of pils malt? i.e. did the supplier accidentally give you 3kg?

 

[Blind Dog]

As I'm real

:huh:

stuartf, are you sure you had 5kg of pils malt? i.e. did the supplier accidentally give you 3kg?

Exactly what I was going to ask

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

The only thing that will change Hydro readings is if the scale comes loose and slips, But you can still use water as a reference point and adjust accordingly. If your scale says 1005 in water, then add the 5 to your wort reading

Hydo's are linear in the nature of the measurement scale. The only other thing that could affect readings is if the scale graduation is not correct.

I got talking to a glass blower about this very subject. He made scientific glass hydros that where calibrated in a salt water brine. There is a figure of how many mm per unit of gravity that the hydro rises and is a set constant

 

[Rocker1986]

If your scale says 1005 in water, then add the 5 to your wort reading

Or subtract it. If it's reading 5 points higher than the actual SG and you add another 5 then your end figure will be 10 points higher than the actual SG.

Mine reads .998 in 20C water, so I simply add .002 to each reading. I found this was causing my efficiency numbers to be lower than they should have been as I wasn't aware of it being out for a while. Probably should check it more often. h34r:

 

[wynnum1]

You can buy narrow-range Final Gravity Hydrometer The scale range is only .990-1.020, but the individual gradients are extra large allowing for an easy read. I have a brigalo hydrometer that only reads to 1040 cost 2$ clearance probably paid too much broke the better ones .

 

[Adr_0]

Have you tested the OG again now that the beer is (hopefully) at pitching temp, 20°C? The hydrometer should have the correction on it in tiny writing, i.e. calibrated to 20°C, but if it's calibrated to 15°C then the error would be greater (and actual SG higher).

The mash time could have been a touch short for conversion, as it would have been a very pale beer. Another 30min on your mash time might help in future as a first step (at least for pale beers).

You can mash out at 78°C without a drama. How long was this mashout time for? What was your sparge water temp? Sounds like volume was right which was good.

Time (longer) and temperature (slightly higher) around the mashout and sparge will both help efficiency, as they both help sugars mobilise into the runoff. The first point about a longer mash though... if all the sugars weren't there to start with you are already at a big disadvantage. If you only have 3 or 4kg of grain that won't help things either...

 

[welly2]

You can buy narrow-range Final Gravity Hydrometer The scale range is only .990-1.020, but the individual gradients are extra large allowing for an easy read. I have a brigalo hydrometer that only reads to 1040 cost 2$ clearance probably paid too much broke the better ones .

You seem to have a shortage of these:

, .

Feel free to have some of mine, I've got loads spare.

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