Does OG only affect alcohol content??

Hi all,

I've been missing my OG's by quite a bit on my first few all grain, 1 gallon brews (trying to figure that one out) and I was wondering, does OG really only affect the alcohol content of the beer? or will it have an effect on taste? Do lower gravity beers have less malty character?

OG just measures the amount of sugar that's in the wort. It doesn't really have much to do with the taste. Two beers with the same OG can have very different alcohol contents. Say if the beer starts at 1.050, one could ferment to 1.020 and be very sweet and the other could ferment to 1.005 and be very crisp. One can be very bitter and crisp while the other is sweet and malt balanced. The taste of beer has less to do with OG than it does to do with the other things you do to make a beer like grain bill, mash temp, yeast strain, hops varieties and usage.

Uziyahu said:

Two beers with the same OG can have very different alcohol contents. Say if the beer starts at 1.050, one could ferment to 1.020 and be very sweet and the other could ferment to 1.005 and be very crisp.

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So in this scenario, if two beers start at 1.050, what factors would likely cause one to finish fermenting at 1.020 and one at 1.005? And the one finishing at 1.005 would have a higher alcohol content because more sugars have been eaten by the yeast, right?

durbo said:

So in this scenario, if two beers start at 1.050, what factors would likely cause one to finish fermenting at 1.020 and one at 1.005? And the one finishing at 1.005 would have a higher alcohol content because more sugars have been eaten by the yeast, right?

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Difference in mash temp and mash thickness.

kapbrew13 said:

Difference in mash temp and mash thickness.

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Also, yeast strains with high attenuation tend to make the beers finish dryer (i.e. with less residual sugar, like the beer with a 1.005 FG).

A high mash temp will create more unfermentable sugars. This results in a higher FG.

A thicker mash makes the wort less fermentable.

I think this is what you are looking for: http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.ph...ity_and_efficiency_in_single_infusion_mashing

You need to figure out what in your process is causing you to miss your OGs.

You can still make great beer, but ability to follow a recipe with predictable outcomes is the ultimate measure of a brewer.

Lots of good threads, especially the stickies, to learn this. Also many great books. Palmer's how to brew is an excellent resource if you don't have it.