Rosshedley
Active Member
Hi Brewers,
Some issues I had with my first all-grain brew, and some observations. Any pointers greatly appreciated.
-Pre-boil SG was only 1.022 (should have been 1.060)
Observation: Need to crush grain more. Also, temp kept dropping below 75 during steeping. Someone suggested I should put pot in oven on low during this phase. Will also have some extract on stand-by during this phase next time, so raise SG if needed.
-Post-boil SG was only 1.024
Observation: The boil didn't reduce down the volume of water (and thus raise SG) as much as intended. Not sure what to do here. Could put lid on pot to try and keep temp higher (I noticed temp was not at 100 whole time) and watch for boil overs.
-Final SG was only 1.019
Observation: This means final alc vol is only 0.7%! I was expecting the yeast to hungrily eat up the little sugar and ferment out to dry. Why did this not happen? It was first time I have ever used only half the yeast (as instructed) instead of full sachet. Maybe the cold weather affected the fermentation. I did notice that there was not the usual scuzz on top of the liquid and on sides on tub, but there was a fair bit of sediment in bottom so something happened. Have added a couple of carbonation drops to each bottle as is my usual process. Will that raise alc vol?
-I only got 4 500ml bottles from this
It was a 1 gallon brew so I expected to get about 8. I had an issue with getting all the liquid into the bottling tub as (manual) siphon stopped and I could not seem to get it flowing again. Also, there was at least one bottle in bottom of bottling tub below tap which I just couldn't get at even at angle. Was thinking I could have just poured this into a measuring jug and transferred to bottle - but would that have added too much oxygen? Maybe I should have tried as it was just thrown away. Marbles is another option.
Kind regards,
Ross
Some issues I had with my first all-grain brew, and some observations. Any pointers greatly appreciated.
-Pre-boil SG was only 1.022 (should have been 1.060)
Observation: Need to crush grain more. Also, temp kept dropping below 75 during steeping. Someone suggested I should put pot in oven on low during this phase. Will also have some extract on stand-by during this phase next time, so raise SG if needed.
-Post-boil SG was only 1.024
Observation: The boil didn't reduce down the volume of water (and thus raise SG) as much as intended. Not sure what to do here. Could put lid on pot to try and keep temp higher (I noticed temp was not at 100 whole time) and watch for boil overs.
-Final SG was only 1.019
Observation: This means final alc vol is only 0.7%! I was expecting the yeast to hungrily eat up the little sugar and ferment out to dry. Why did this not happen? It was first time I have ever used only half the yeast (as instructed) instead of full sachet. Maybe the cold weather affected the fermentation. I did notice that there was not the usual scuzz on top of the liquid and on sides on tub, but there was a fair bit of sediment in bottom so something happened. Have added a couple of carbonation drops to each bottle as is my usual process. Will that raise alc vol?
-I only got 4 500ml bottles from this
It was a 1 gallon brew so I expected to get about 8. I had an issue with getting all the liquid into the bottling tub as (manual) siphon stopped and I could not seem to get it flowing again. Also, there was at least one bottle in bottom of bottling tub below tap which I just couldn't get at even at angle. Was thinking I could have just poured this into a measuring jug and transferred to bottle - but would that have added too much oxygen? Maybe I should have tried as it was just thrown away. Marbles is another option.
Kind regards,
Ross