first batch bottled

[shawnstr71]

Well I got my belgian wit bottled saterday. I should have never moved it to a secondary. (Way clearer than I wanted.) Flavor of hydrometer samples were good. When I used the online calculator to figure abv it came out at 3.94. And I recently got a cpl bottles of hazelnut brown from a buddy that was 3.5. My question is... why r the abv levels that low? I did a 50 min. Fly sparge on this batch. I don't think I could have gotton much more sugars from mash. Any comments appreciated.(as always)

 

[JSager89]

How much grain were you using? Also, how long did you take getting your runnings and sparging? I had an issue like this on my first brew and I think it was at least in significant part because I rushed the lautering.

 

[unionrdr]

Mash temp also governs how much fermentable sugars you get. What was it? Any decoctions done?

 

[shawnstr71]

I used roughly 10.5 of grain. Mashed at 150 for an hour. Sparged between 175 And 155 degrees. For 50 min.s. I boiled for 50 mins. Not sure exact temp. The wind was blowing a bit and had to keep my burner on high to keep a rolling boil

 

[shawnstr71]

I am reading Papazian's book, the "the joy of homebrewing". In the section on yeast he talks about the time that the yeast stay in suspinsion have a portion to do with alcohol levels. I am wondering if fermenting at 73 degrees had a part to play in this?

 

[unionrdr]

I could see if it was at 73F the whole time,rather than ramping up the temp towards the end to get good attenuation. Maybe need more grain to raise the OG?

 

[JSager89]

Personally I boil for 90 minutes. This wool evaporate more water and increase the gravity, although on the same token you won't have as much beer. You could also try step infusion mashing (which is what I do) and also make sure to keep the temp tight as you can.

These are just a few suggestions, there are a lot of other factors as well, these are just some of the easier ones to try.

 

[shawnstr71]

Thanx guys. All your info is helpful. I did a dunkelwiezen. A cpl wks later.. it called for a 90 min boil but I didn't like the amount of wort I was losin so I did 75. I will see in a bit if this one maybe has a slightly higher abv

 

[RM-MN]

Well I got my belgian wit bottled saterday. I should have never moved it to a secondary. (Way clearer than I wanted.) Flavor of hydrometer samples were good. When I used the online calculator to figure abv it came out at 3.94. And I recently got a cpl bottles of hazelnut brown from a buddy that was 3.5. My question is... why r the abv levels that low? I did a 50 min. Fly sparge on this batch. I don't think I could have gotton much more sugars from mash. Any comments appreciated.(as always)

My Belgian Wit was surprisingly clear in the bottles.....until I refrigerated it. Then it turned cloudy.

Give us a complete recipe so we can decide just what the level of alcohol should have been. I got better efficiency than expected and ended up with about 7% alcohol.

 

[shawnstr71]

All grain recipe. 4.75 lbs. Belgian pilsner, 3 lbs. White wheat malt, 2.5 lbs. Flaked wheat. 1 oz. Of cascade halved, added at 30 and 45 mins. .50 oz bitter orange peel and .50 oz corriander added @35 mins. Boiled 55 min.s. mashed 60 min.s@ 164 f., sparged 168 to 176 for 55 min.s. OG 1.045. FG 1.012. 10 days in primary. 11 in secondary

 

[JSager89]

My first instinct is that the temp is too high for mashing. I do steps at 122 and 156. 162 is almost like doing an hour long mash-out. I would definitely try and hour at 122ish (if memory serves, that is a good temp for a single step mash).

 

[unionrdr]

I do single step @ 152F-155F depending on the recipe. works pretty well for me.

 

[shawnstr71]

I will try a lower mash temp. Next batch and see what happens. Right now I'm outa bottles. . And still workn on getn all my own equip. Sigh. Thanx for the great suggestions!