Alright just finished my first all-grain brew about an hour ago. I undershot my gravity by about 10 points. I was doing a 3 gallon batch of pale with a target gravity of 1.053, but I got 1.042.
Recipe was:
5.75 lbs of 2-row pale malt
0.5 lbs or crystal 60L
Batch sparged target at 153 for an hour, actual of 152.
Sparged with 180 degree water to get a grain bed temp of 168ish.
I did 1.5 qts per pound of grain.
Used an absorption rate of 0.12 gallons per pound.
Cooler dead space of 1 qt.
Used 3.5 gallons to do the initial hour mash (was supposed to 3.35 I think but I rounded up).
Then I sparged with 2 gallons, left about 2 qts or so in the mash tun.
I collected about 4 gallons in my kettle and did a 60min boil.
Hops:
.25 oz Magnum - 60min
.25 oz Perle - 30min
1 oz Cascade - 10min
.5 oz Cascade - 0min
Chilled to 75 degrees in about 12min.
Lost about 1 qt to hops and crap in the bottom of the kettle.
Ended with about 3 gallons of wort, I didn’t really measure it though.
My efficiency was 56% if I calculated correctly, which is terrible even thought it was my first AG. What can I do to fix this for next time?
How fine the grain is crushed can have an effect on the efficiency. If you mill your grain at your LHBS you may have to run it through a second time to be sure it is milled fine enough to get a better efficiency The pH of the mash as well as the mashing time can also have an effect. Increasing the mashing time to 90 minutes could help a bit although I’m not sure that it would increase your efficiency more than a few points. Hope this helps.
I got it crushed at the LHBS yesterday. The crush looked great like a lot of pictures I see and the owner helped me since it was my first time. He seemed confident that it was a good.
Yes, the hydrometer was calibrated and I corrected for the temp during the readings.
I got about 2.5 gallons from the first sparge, and about 1.5 gallons from the second. Neither are both super accurate measurements but are fairly close.
Lack of room in the kettle, was worried if I collected to much more I was just setting myself up for a boil over. I was doing this in a 5 gallon kettle.
I kind of ignored my ph and water chemistry this first round. The water I use is a bit hard but I made some solid extract and mini-mash batches with it, so I just went with it.
Just the plain 60min boil. I thought about going longer but then I’d have less beer! :D
Can you boil longer say 90min, and then top up in the end to raise the gravity, that doesn’t make any sense in my head at all. But I already am relaxing with a homebrew so I could be compromised.
Sounds like some of your loss was during the lautering but I’m wondering how well you converted. One way to determine that is by measuring the gravity of your first runnings. Knowing that number and the volume collected will give your answer next time.
On a similar note I did mash in a BLUE coleman xtreme cooler. Maybe my cooler was too dark a blue? I should probably leave it out in the sun for a few days so it fades to a lighter more brew friendly blue.
