I have made my first brew, a black IPA, and went all grain. Long, tedious, and fun. I answered a lot of questions I had along the way. I realize what will make my next batch easier and better. A couple of things I realize I did incorrectly after the fact (and more studying) were:
-I used too much water. In all, probably around 7.5 gallons. This lead to a low OG (1.018)
-I pitched Wyeast 1332 before trying to remedy this low OG (I didn’t understand that there were avenues to take to try and fix this before pitching)
Now, the recipe I was using called for a second fermentation and dry hopping.
My questions are:
-Is there a way to bump up that OG DURING fermentation to get closer to what a BIPA should be?
-If not, is secondary fermentation even necessary?
Your OG was 1.018? That’s almost impossible! How big a batch was it and how grain did you use? And not to be insulting, was the grain crushed?
5 GAL BATCH? OG has to be typo unless this is a really smal batch diluted with water…or very poor conversion.
Haha, you’re not being insulting at all. Believe me, I’m very, very aware that I’ve got a couple of batches that I will have to stomach by myself or feed to the plants outside.
As for the grain, I did mill that at the brew store. That much I know I did correctly.
I batched 5 gallons, but, like I said, I used waaaay too much water to achieve the wort, which assuredly fouled up my goodies to water ratio.
As for the reading, yeah, it was 1.018. I’m glad to know that I can achieve the impossible. I’ve pretty much got nonalcoholic, bread soup at this point.
Now, do I have an effed up hydrometer? I guess that would be a cheap investment to find out. But, I’m pretty self aware that my first go was an experiment gone wrong. Is there any thought on salvaging it, or chalk this one up to a lesson learned?
Probably all of the above, ha.
Let’s hear details of your brewday.
Mash temps, times, and volumes, grain bill, etc.
7.5 gallons of water in the mash for a 5 gallon batch is not overdoing it at all. I do no sparge regularly and have that ratio roughly.
It’s more likely a measurement error somewhere along the way. If you go over your brew day we can maybe help figure out what it was.
Exactly, my ipa that I’m making this weekend calls for 10.23 gallons of water to finish with 5.5 in fermenter after 90 minute mash and 90 minute boil and losing close to a gallon for 12 Oz hops in the boil kettle. Give us more details as everyone else has already stated and we can all pitch in to try to trouble shoot with you
I went with:
11 lb California Select 2 row
1 lb carafa II
1 lb German Munich
1 lb Crystal 20
Mashing may have been the process with the most questions. I put the mash in at 130, and then pulled it at 170. Now, this is most likely where part of my problem is. From what I understand, it’s not to get too hot, and interpreted that as, when it reaches 170, yank it rather than maintain that temp for a duration of time (sounding like and hour). I had it clocked at 25-30. That’s not right, right? 
That was just for the mash. I did a 60 minute boil with 1 oz simcoe, 1 oz. citra, 1 oz. amarillo.
And my sparging techniques was to heat water in a separate kettle and run it over the grain and back into the mash. I’m seeing that technique isn’t very effective. Also, I didn’t reserve any amount of the recipe call water, and added more water in the sparge to the mash. So, like, 9 gallons in total.
I’m pretty much chalking this batch up as a lesson learned, but, maybe you guys can help me with number 2.
Were you trying to batch sparge? If so, I think you missed some of the important stuff like hitting an appropriate mash temp. How long did you mash for? I’m guessing you are not using a plastic cooler as you heated up the mash. Tell us more about your equipment.
if you can explain the mash- did you use electric kettle and start at 130F and step up…if so what exactly was temp and time schedule.
When and how did you take your hydrometer reading ? Wort temps stratify pretty quickly after flameout. This seems like a possibility for inaccuracy , too. And what was the final volume of wort you took the OG reading on ?
It may be that this is a brew in a bag mash that did not stay in the correct temperature range long enough. I’m not sure I understand the sparge comments.
What equipment is being utilized?
I have the same question as John, if he wort sample wasn’t cooled then the og reading will be way low, that could be the issue with the crazy low of.
To ensure your hydrometer is accurate take a reading of plain or distilled water at 60oF, it should read 1.000
You’ve got a lot of explaining to do! ;D
Feels like we are all asking and explaining …OP where are you!
To me it sounds like he steeped rather than mashed. Constant heat and when it hit 170, he pulled it. No real reat, and through temps too fast. No time to convert before hitting 170 and being denatured? Just my rookie guess…
it’s all good. lesson learned.
When mashing grains you want to stabilize the temperature of the full mixture at a temp ~155. This is the mid point of the range that goes ten degrees in either direction and a decent place to start. Now leave it there for an hour.
You also have to make sure you stir everything really well and all the grain is saturated with water. Your volumes were fine. you mashed with 7 gallons and sparged with 2 not ideal but not the problem. You would get about 7-8 gallons into the kettle which is fine. check out http://dennybrew.com/ for a very easy to follow explanation of the process and a nice and cheap way to get the equipment together.
Sorry for the delayed response, had to work.
So, I scrapped the entire first batch. I was really winging it there. I went back over my mash temps and times and say that I was far too loosey goosey and proud (see: clueless) with the entire process.
So, I went back to work. This morning I tried it again, but, I set my sights just a bit lower and went with a light malt extract. I did a single infusion of 1 lb of Crystal 20L, 1 lb of Carafa II, and 1 lb of German Munichn at 150-155 at half an hour. Batch sparged with water at 172. Took the flame off, stirred in the extract. Then continued a 60 minute boil with simcoe, citra, and amarillo. Cooled from 210-70 in about an hour. This reading was 1.080., pot. alc. 12.5, BRIX at 20. Now, whether I nailed this baby or not is to be determined, but, I definitely feel much better about it.