Missed my OG

[henson]

I always hit my OG. Sometimes even higher. Yesterday, I brewed my first pale ale with 24 lbs of grain. It was a 10 gallon batch and the OG was supposed to be 1.066 but mine was only 1.045. Does anyone know what could have caused this ? I'm hoping the recipe is off wishful thinking

 

[reinstone]

I'd be real happy to get that efficiency in my system (the high #). But do you often do pale beers? It's possible ph was off. Did you crush the grain? I have found that if I bought the grain precrushed the efficiency would vary based on where I got it.

 

[masskrug]

Crush?
Tun temps?
Are you sure about that 1.066? Sound a little bit high for that grain bill. What efficiency percentage were you expecting?

 

[henson]

My efficiency is usually almost 80. That's why I thought the projected OG for the recipe may have been off. Thus is my first pale. I usually do browns and Scottish.

 

[rklinck]

I'm not in front of my BeerSmith, but the 1.066 sounds about right to me. I can't think of a reason that a pale ale should result in lower efficiency. Did you do anything different? Use any new equipment?

 

[henson]

No. Everything's the same

 

[CA_Mouse]

I know that I always plan for 72% efficiency on my mashes, even though I know my system is dialed in pretty close and I will get about 82%. I figure that if I get a higher SG from my MT than I'm good to that side. As they say 'Hope for the best, but plan for the worst' is always a good plan.

Mouse

 

[stpug]

At quick glance, it seems the higher OG should have been close to 74% efficiency (i.e. a good norm). The lower OG is close to 50% efficiency (terrible). Something was definitely off. With such a low OG I would wonder about the crush. If you still have the spent grains around then take a good look at them and see if there seems to be a decent amount of uncrushed grains (squeezing individual grains helps to determine if they were crushed very well).

I prefer to have a predictable efficiency rather than plan low and end high. I would not like to end up with a 6% lawnmower beer when I was aiming for 4.5%. Luckily my lhbs uses a MM3 and I get pretty consistent 73-74% efficiency when batch sparging.