What Went Wrong?

[dabre4]

Hi all,

I brewed up a Weizen today, pretty close to this recipe linky

I have been brewing all grain for quite a while now, and have been getting my final gravities pretty spot on based on the efficiency of my system (80%).

This is the recipe I put down, I hit all temperatures in the mash schedule spot on and had no problems in the brew process.

15-A Weizen/Weissbier

Size: 21.0 L
Efficiency: 80.0%
Attenuation: 73.0%
Calories: 166.9 kcal per 12.0 fl oz

Original Gravity: 1.050 (1.044 - 1.052)
Terminal Gravity: 1.014 (1.010 - 1.014)
Color: 12.49 (2.0 - 8.0)
Alcohol: 4.79% (4.3% - 5.6%)
Bitterness: 14.3 (8.0 - 15.0)

Ingredients:
2.75 kg Pale Wheat Malt (Weyermann)
0.8 kg Pilsner Malt (Weyermann)
0.8 kg Vienna Malt (Weyermann)
0.18 kg Caramunich TYPE I
26.0 g Hallertau (5.2%) - added during boil, boiled 30 min
9.0 g Hallertau (5.2%) - added during boil, boiled 15 min
0.0 tsp Irish Moss - added during boil, boiled 10 min
1 ea Weihenstephan Weizen 3068

Schedule:

00:03:00 Mash in - Liquor: 9.77 L; Strike: 55.36 C; Target: 50.0 C
00:23:00 Enzyme Rest - Rest: 20 min; Final: 50.0 C
00:24:00 Infusion 1 - Water: 5.53 L; Temperature: 93.3 C; Target: 64 C
01:24:00 Protein Rest - Rest: 60 min; Final: 64.0 C
01:25:00 Infusion 2 - Water: 5.65 L; Temperature: 96.3 C; Target: 72 C
02:25:00 Sparge - Sparge Volume: 18.9 L; Sparge Temperature: 73 C; Runoff: 18.91 L

Results generated by BeerTools Pro 1.5.12


So everything is fine and dandy, the wort is cool, and I take the final gravity reading. Its 1.035!!! What the hell! That comes out as a 56% efficiency. I have no idea how this happened. I added about one litre of water before I took the reading because the amount in the fermenter was a bit low (I often do this, and still normally get the correct FG, its normally because I boiled the kettle too low)

Firstly, does anyone know where I went wrong? This is my first wheat beer, does a lot of wheat result in lower efficiencys?

Secondly is there anything I can do to fix the brew? I don't really want a light weizen. Only thing I can think is to add some wheat extract, but who knows what that would do to the beer!

I'm massively pissed, I hate going to all that effort if the results are shithouse.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Cheers

 

[raven19]

What was your sparging method?

A quick fly sparge could lead to lower efficiency, something I have been guilty of in the past.

 

[~MikE]

yeah, when you've got a high % wheat malt beer it's a good idea to use rice hulls in your mash.

 

[sink cut]

your topic is funny, Low FG is great for home brewers. you have low OG...

 

[NickB]

your topic is funny, Low FG is great for home brewers. you have low OG...

Why is this funny? :huh:

The OP has obviously had an issue with some part of the brew process, as pointed out in the OP.....

Some constructive feedback on the problem would probably be a better post than 'it's funny'.

Personally, I would check your gravities again if possible, after you've mixed your wort a bit. I've found on occasion my readings are off either due to temperature or because the wort has 'settled' a bit, and I've taken a sample from the top, which had a slightly lower sugar content.

Cheers

 

[MHB]

There are several other possibilities

But I would bet your wheat was poorly cracked, if you or whoever cracked the grain used the same mill setting used for barley, this is exactly what I would expect.

MHB

 

[goomboogo]

I agree with MHB. Doog, you say that everything has been consistent with your system until now. The obvious difference is the wheat malt. It's not that there's necessarily less extract potential with the wheat malt but as MHB points out, it may need to be milled differently. A recent thread showed a grain bill that had both barley and wheat malt and the different mill gaps used for each.

 

[amiddler]

I make a wheat beer every 3-4 months and have never had a loss of efficiency like that. I mill all my grain on the same setting regardless of what it is. (barley wheat rye) What was your pre boil SG? With a recipie like that I would have expected 1.042-1.044. I like NickB's theory. Sanatize a spoon and give a gentle stir and re-do your reading. Putting in the water, you could have taken a skewed sample.

Drew

 

[MHB]

Sorry maybe it has to be explained, if your mill setting is fine enough for a good crush on barley it might be too coarse for a good crush for wheat. If you are crushing your barley very finely then it might well be fine enough for the wheat to.
BIAB brewers for instance often crush very fine, wouldn't make much change to the efficiency what you cracked, by saying you crush Rye at the same setting (considering the corn size) without a loss of efficiency, then I suspect your mill gap is under 1mm, more likely in the 0.5-0.75 range.
Really under crushing is the most obvious explanation for what happened. It's the one I would check first, just throw a handful of wheat in the mill and have a look; William of Ockham was a pretty smart guy.

MHB

 

[Tony]

other options could be that there was a kilo of grain missed in the weighing process (ive dont that before) or the sparge water chanelled through, or went around the mash if it was cracked rather fine.

 

[dabre4]

Thanks for all the responses.

Whoops, yes by FG i mean OG.

I used a fly sparge method, wouldn't say it was quick though, quite slow like usual.

I had the grains pre crushed for me at Grain and Grape, they are pretty good there and I would assume that they would know the correct settings to crush wheat malt.

I didn't take a reading pre boil, is this something you should normally do?

I just took another SG reading after it was fermenting overnight, its now down to 1.028. I did give the wort a good mix after adding the water, so I'm pretty sure the reading was correct.

I guess either Grain and Grape didn't crush the grain properly, or they somehow buggered up my order.

Cheers