Want to make beer around 7%

[reggofcal]

I brewed my beer og 1.045 and fg is 1.005 so thats about 5.25% is there any way I can rack it again and add boiled down sugar or honey to get to 7%? Will the yeast awaking to eat the sugar or maybe honey? Or is there another way?

 

[beergolf]

Just leave this one be, and brew another beer that was designed to be a 7% beer.

Just adding sugar or honey will throw off the balance. (BU:GU ratio) of the recipe.

 

[reggofcal]

the reciepe is ag and the og was suppost to be 1.075 and fg was suppost to be 1.018 so it should come out to 7.5%, i dont know what i did wrong? I hit the target mash temp and time and the boil went smooth.So my grains must not have been right or what?

 

[Stocktonbrew]

Where is laton? Just kidding. Did you crush your own grains?

 

[reggofcal]

no had homebrewshop do it.

 

[Double_D]

How many lbs of grain did you have?

 

[reggofcal]

10 gal batch
34.82 pounds of grains
reciepe also added 2.5 pounds honey at flame out

 

[chickypad]

You had almost 35 lbs of grain plus 2.5 of honey and you only hit 1.045 for 10 gallons???? Are you sure your grain was crushed at all?

 

[reggofcal]

i watched them run it through the grinder machine, but after they crushed it I got called out to work for two weeks and couldnt brew it tell then.Will letting the grain sit in a bag crushed in a closet fo two weeks mess it up? my bad it was 25 pounds not 35.

 

[fluidmechanics]

If you're sure you had a good crush, hit your mash temp, and mash for the right time, my question is are you reading your hydrometer right? I'm not being condescending in any way but as I was reading your posts I was thinking you didn't compensate for temp with your readings. Here is a converter http://www.brewersfriend.com/hydrometer-temp/. If you put in your OG at your mash temp and your FG at your fermenting temp you may find you're closer then you think.

 

[reggofcal]

i watched them run it through the grinder machine, but after they crushed it I got called out to work for two weeks and couldnt brew it tell then.Will letting the grain sit in a bag crushed in a closet fo two weeks mess it up? MY BAD IT WAS 24 .82 POUNDS OF GRAIN

 

[beergolf]

Something is definitely wrong. With that much grain and honey you should be around 1.080 assuming 75% efficiency. If you are at 1.045 you only got 37% efficiency.

Are you sure of the reading?

 

[reggofcal]

Yes the readings are right, but I do mash in a ice chest and when I took temp reading to drain it the it dropped from 154 to 142 in a hour does that matter?

 

[fluidmechanics]

What I'm trying to explain is that your hydrometer is calibrated to one temperature. If your readings were taken above or below that temp you have to adjust by adding or subtracting what the hydrometer actually says. For example if you mashed at 153 and took the reading right out of your MT and got 1.053 on a hydrometer that is calibrated for 65 degrees then your actual gravity is 1.071 which is much closer to your target. Do you follow what I'm trying to explain?

 

[hoptualBrew]

Sounds like your efficiency is just really poor. Keeping your mash temp stable is going to help your efficiency and the profile of your beer. Perhaps all the starches were not converted because of the drop in temp.

What is your usual efficiency?

Many things can play in to efficiency; crush, fluid mechanics, rate of lauter, mash pH, mash temp stability, etc..

24 lbs of grain.. what was your grain bill? Depends on how much specialty malt you use as well. Roasted Barley, Caramel malts, etc.. typically will have much less sugar yield than base malts. If you list your grain bill, it'll help to trouble shoot better.

2.5 lbs honey in 10 gal of wort will only change the gravity by ~ 0.008.

 

[beergolf]

fluid mechanics. I understand what you are trying to say, but the OP mentioned OG not pre-boil gravity, so I assuming he checked gravity after cooling to pitch temp, so his reading would be pretty close, depending on how cool his wort was before pitching.

 

[fluidmechanics]

Yes the readings are right, but I do mash in a ice chest and when I took temp reading to drain it the it dropped from 154 to 142 in a hour does that matter?

This makes it seem like it was right out of the cooler.

 

[beergolf]

This makes it seem like it was right out of the cooler.

If that is the case then it makes a lot more sense. Pre- boil gravity reading, done at a high temp would explain a lot.

 

[reggofcal]

I took took the Og after I boiled and cooled to pitch the yeast is this wrong way to do it?

 

[reggofcal]

10.00 lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US 73.64 %
1.00 lb Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L 7.36 % (they use 45L, but i could only find 40L)
1.00 lb Wheat Malt 7.36 %
0.25 lb Special Roast 1.84 %
0.08 lb Roasted
1.25 lb Honey (Flame out) Sugar 9.20 %

 

[urbanmyth]

Uhh...That is nowhere close to 24 pounds of grain.

 

[beergolf]

I took took the Og after I boiled and cooled to pitch the yeast is this wrong way to do it?

No that is perfect.

Is the grain bill you posted in the next post what you did for your brew?

If so and you did 10 gallons, that explains everything. If you doubled it then you still got bad effifciency.

 

[reggofcal]

I doubled the amount, so how do I have such bad efficiency?

 

[reggofcal]

How can I get better efficiency ?

 

[reggofcal]

.

 

[IrregularPulse]

next time you get grain, post an up close picture of the crush. Sounds like a crappy crush. Just because you watched them run it through, doesn't mean their gap settings on their mill are any good. Or, just go buy a pound of Pale Malt and have them crush it so you have a pic to post. That way you don't waste a whole grain bill if they have a junk crush. Search this forum too for what grain should look like once crushed for comparison.

 

[hoptualBrew]

Looks like you had about a ~ 45% efficiency.

Top 3 things to look at;

Quality of crush

Mash tun fluid mechanics

Rate of lauter (slower the better)

also... Are you batch sparging or continual sparging?

 

[reggofcal]

The grains looked crushed to me

As for the mash tun I put grains in ice chest, pour heated water in there and bring it up to temp I want, stir it around, close lid cover with blankets and put anchor on top. After an hour I open drain plug striaght in to boil keg.rinse remaining grain with straight cold waterout of hose.
Bring to rolling boil etc...
After hour boil add honey cool wort put into carboy, aerate with air stone pitch yeast, install bubblers let sit for couple weeks.oh yeah I take Og when I put wort into carboy and gf after the couple of weeks.if I am doing something wrong, set me straight please.

 

[amandabab]

After an hour I open drain plug striaght in to boil keg.rinse remaining grain with straight cold waterout of hose.

so you cool the grain, making all the residual sugar stick to it instead of sparging it out with the second runnings.

that's why your efficiency is horrible.

 

[chickypad]

so you cool the grain, making all the residual sugar stick to it instead of sparging it out with the second runnings.

that's why your efficiency is horrible.

uh, yeah. that would probably do it.

OP read this

 

[reggofcal]

So I should run hot water over the grains

 

[reggofcal]

I will search and read up on sparging

 

[amandabab]

So I should run hot water over the grains

yes, 170ish, hotter than the mash to flush the sugar out of the grains.
with cold water, all your doing is taking your 1st runings and diluting it to your full volume.

 

[reggofcal]

Sweet thanks for the insight