How does this sound?

[klowneyy]

I made my first beer today. I use BIAB method. Here is my recipe I used 10lbs 2 row 1 lb crystal malt 4 oz roasted barly 8 oz brown malt and 1oz chinook hops and yeast us-05. I stepped the grains for 60mins at 153f (what recipe called for) than I heated the wort at 170f added hops boiled for another 60mins cooled down pitched yeast into carboy added a little water and capped

 

[jmh286]

It sounds like you made beer. Now the hard part.....waiting

Did you take any readings? What kind of beer where you going for? With the roasted barley and brown malt, I assume its amberish, but I didn't run it through Beersmith so it could be darker.

 

[klowneyy]

It sounds like you made beer. Now the hard part.....waiting

Did you take any readings? What kind of beer where you going for? With the roasted barley and brown malt, I assume its amberish, but I didn't run it through Beersmith so it could be darker.

I am making a porter. The reading came out to about 1.013/1.014. I tasted it after I took the reading and it just tasted water down. So that's my biggest concern.

 

[chickypad]

Wait, your OG is 1.013?? That's either not right or something went very badly with the mash. Sorry if this is a dumb question, you did crush the grain, right?

 

[klowneyy]

Wait, your OG is 1.013?? That's either not right or something went very badly with the mash. Sorry if this is a dumb question, you did crush the grain, right?

Yeah I did crush the grain. I don't think any question you ask is dumb. If you think it will help please feel free to ask away!!! Their are something's I could of done to messed it up. I added water to the carboy after I added the wort. 2 my hydrometer is for 68f and my thermostat said it was at about 70ish and I tried to correct it but could of done it wrong.

 

[chickypad]

Okay, if you added water it could be partially a mixing issue. How much water are we talking? Usually with all grain you mash and sparge your whole volume to get as much of the sugars dissolved as you can. With BIAB the mash/sparge is often one step but still the whole volume. If you do top off you need to account for that in the recipe as you will lose efficiency.

Still 1.013 is really low unless you didn't mix at all. A hydrometer calibrated for 68 degrees would be very close at 70. Did you read it in plain water to check? And can you describe your whole mash process?

 

[klowneyy]

My mash process was I waited till water heated to 153f than added my grain boiled for 60mins removed the grains boiled wort for 60mins at 170f than waited 15mins for foam to go away than added hops in at beginning of boil than added more 15 mins in and again at 30mins

 

[klowneyy]

Okay, if you added water it could be partially a mixing issue. How much water are we talking? Usually with all grain you mash and sparge your whole volume to get as much of the sugars dissolved as you can. With BIAB the mash/sparge is often one step but still the whole volume. If you do top off you need to account for that in the recipe as you will lose efficiency.

Still 1.013 is really low unless you didn't mix at all. A hydrometer calibrated for 68 degrees would be very close at 70. Did you read it in plain water to check? And can you describe your whole mash process?

Do you think I could semi fix it if I turn it into a graff?

 

[chickypad]

If you added the grain to 153 water and let it sit there then you actually mashed quite a bit lower than you thought - might have been so low that this is the problem. With my system I need to heat the strike water about 12-13 degrees higher than the mash temp I am trying to hit (every system will vary).

Or did you really mean you boiled the grain? And what do you mean you boiled at 170?

 

[klowneyy]

So should I just dump it out or is it still good or can I still save it?

 

[klowneyy]

I boiled the wort at 153 and after I removed it I turned it up to 170 waited for it to get to temp waited another 15mins than I did the hops at 170 for 60mins. What a fellow brewer told me to do

 

[chickypad]

Well first, are you 100% sure of that reading? You need to really mix the crap out of it if you topped off. If you just pitched you can mix the crap out of it now and read it again. Did you calibrate the hydrometer, and are you sure you are reading the scale correctly? Again, don't mean to insult but you'd be surprised how many folks just aren't reading things right.

 

[klowneyy]

Well first, are you 100% sure of that reading? You need to really mix the crap out of it if you topped off. If you just pitched you can mix the crap out of it now and read it again. Did you calibrate the hydrometer, and are you sure you are reading the scale correctly? Again, don't mean to insult but you'd be surprised how many folks just aren't reading things right.

I could be reading it wrong it wouldn't surprise me. This is my first time ever using one but also when I tasted the wort it tasted pretty water down

 

[chickypad]

I boiled the wort at 153 and after I removed it I turned it up to 170 waited for it to get to temp waited another 15mins than I did the hops at 170 for 60mins. What a fellow brewer told me to do

You're confusing me with the boiling thing. Unless you are on Everest I don't think you're boiling at either 153 or 170. If you were doing your hops additions the water should definitely be boiling.

Regarding the mash part, did you take the temp after mixing the grain? Because it sounds like you heated the water to 153 but the grain would bring it way down, as per my previous post.

 

[klowneyy]

You're confusing me with the boiling thing. Unless you are on Everest I don't think you're boiling at either 153 or 170. If you were doing your hops additions the water should definitely be boiling.

Regarding the mash part, did you take the temp after mixing the grain? Because it sounds like you heated the water to 153 but the grain would bring it way down, as per my previous post.

Sorry for the confusion. I mean heated not boiled. I kept the thermometer in the whole time to make sure I kept track of the temp

 

[chickypad]

Okay, so you actually had the grains and water well mixed and held around 153 for an hour, then brought them to 170 for 15 minutes (your mash out), then removed the grains and started your boil? If so that part sounds good. How much water for that, and how much water did you top off with?
If I were you I would try to confirm that reading. Maybe you pulled off mostly top up water.

 

[klowneyy]

Okay, so you actually had the grains and water well mixed and held around 153 for an hour, then brought them to 170 for 15 minutes (your mash out), then removed the grains and started your boil? If so that part sounds good. How much water for that, and how much water did you top off with?
If I were you I would try to confirm that reading. Maybe you pulled off mostly top up water.

I didn't measure how much water inadded

 

[acidrain]

I am completely confused on what you actually did.

You mashed (brewed) your grains with some water at 153 for 1 hr., then mashed out at 170 for 15 minutes, correct?

You then lautered (drained the wort) and collected some wort. Correct?

Did you sparge (poured additional heated water through the grains)? It doesn't sound like it.

After you collected the wort (no grains in it), you boiled for 1 hr. Correct?
During the boil, you added hops at various time intervals. Correct?

After the boil, you cooled the wort to >70, poured it in the fermentation vessel, and added the yeast. Correct?

The fermentation vessel was low (because you didn't sparge), so you added water. Correct?

Any part of that you did differently?

 

[klowneyy]

No that's it all together. So It seems like I didn't get all the wort I could of out of my grain by adding more hot water and diluted the wort too much with adding water and not measuring

 

[woozy]

Two possibilities:

1. You misread your hydrometer. My hydrometer has three scales to read. The specific gravity scale, the potential alcohol scale, and the balling scale. I don't actually know what the balling scale is but it goes from 0 to 35 (as opposed the the specific gravity scale that goes from 1.000 to 1.150 and the potential alcohol that goes from 0% to 20%) and a reading of 13 (about one third of the range) would correspond to a specific gravity of 1.052 or so which is pretty decent.

I did a misreading using the balling scale the very first time. I only caught myself later because I also recorded the potential alcohol reading as well.

2. Then again you might have messed up the mashing and undermashed. I just did that 'cause I didn't know what the heck I was doing and cause everything I got was from books and video and I was second guessing myself. But when I undermashed my gravity was 1.03 (instead of 1.052) whereas 1.013 is pretty darned low.

You say you did the BIAB? How tight were the grains in the bag? If they are tight then water won't get to them and the sugar won't get out. (That was my problem with my one attempt at all-grain so far.)

You didn't mention how vigorously you stirred. I'm no expert having only done it once and incorrectly, but I get the feeling you really want to stir them good. If you just let them sit in a tight bag for an hour you'd get less sugar than if you let the loose and whacked and rattled the shi... er, sugar out of them.

 

[klowneyy]

I stirred them every 5 mins. It seems more like I didn't double mash

 

[woozy]

Hmmm.... how 'bout the hydro readings? Any possibility you read the wrong scale, that the hydrometer stuck or rubbed the side of the measuring jar? Did you take a second reading yet?

 

[chickypad]

I stirred them every 5 mins. It seems more like I didn't double mash

I think you mean you didn't sparge. Many BIAB brewers don't, the difference is they use put all that extra water in with the mash. So we know you lost some gravity points there, but still if 1.013 is really the reading it's like you got no conversion at all.

Things I'm still wondering about:
1) is hydrometer reading correct in plain water, and did you take another reading after really mixing well
2) are thermometers calibrated - if you're off like 15-20 degrees that could be it
3) I assume the crush was at the LHBS, did you do it yourself or see them do it? And it look crushed - you could see the grains broken apart
4) I know you didn't measure but what were approximate water volumes? For example how big is your pot and how full when mashing and boiling? When you topped off are you talking a few quarts or was the fermenter like half empty?

 

[naga77777]

If you added greater than 10lbs grain to 153f water, you prolly got down into the 140's temp range of the mash. Not sure if conversion happens that low.

Also, when you stirred your mash every 5 minutes, that will cause you to lose a LOT of heat. People stir the crap out of their mash if they overshoot their temps and need to cool it down quicker.

Heck, I'm having trouble keeping my mash temps up, and I insulate the kettle with an old puffy coat, and just let it sit for an hour.

Oh that reminds me, was your kettle insulated at all? And/or did you light the burner at any point to keep mash temps up?

Biggest thing to me sounds like temps started too low, and got even lower, causing little to no conversion. That and when you topped off the fermenter with regular water, if you didn't stir it at the time, your hydrometer was sitting in the "mainly water" part atop the actual beer/wort.

Dunno if I got anything correct with those guesses, but just throwing them out there in case they cause an "aha!" moment in hopes of helping you determine what went wrong. Good luck

 

[klowneyy]

If you added greater than 10lbs grain to 153f water, you prolly got down into the 140's temp range of the mash. Not sure if conversion happens that low.

Also, when you stirred your mash every 5 minutes, that will cause you to lose a LOT of heat. People stir the crap out of their mash if they overshoot their temps and need to cool it down quicker.

Heck, I'm having trouble keeping my mash temps up, and I insulate the kettle with an old puffy coat, and just let it sit for an hour.

Oh that reminds me, was your kettle insulated at all? And/or did you light the burner at any point to keep mash temps up?

Biggest thing to me sounds like temps started too low, and got even lower, causing little to no conversion. That and when you topped off the fermenter with regular water, if you didn't stir it at the time, your hydrometer was sitting in the "mainly water" part atop the actual beer/wort.

Dunno if I got anything correct with those guesses, but just throwing them out there in case they cause an "aha!" moment in hopes of helping you determine what went wrong. Good luck

I didn't mix the carboy after I added the water to the wort

 

[woozy]

Let's get some specific answers.

Did you check the temperature during the 60 minutes mash? Was the temperature at 153 the entire time? Did you check? Not merely at the beginning but during the mash and at the end of the mash as well. (By the way, how was the temperature maintained? Was the mash over a flame the entire time?)

Have you had a chance to do a second reading? If not take one now.

What's the brew doing now? Any sign of fermentation?

 

[acidrain]

I mean this with the utmost respect...
Your one-line answers are killing me.
Almost every response has been a well thought out set of questions to help us understand where you may have gone wrong (if at all).
Almost every one of your answers has been a one-line response.

It could very well be that you just didn't stir the water/wort mix, and you measured mostly water. We may never know.

I suggest you study up on beer brewing and terminology: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Beer

Next time you'll be able to describe the problem and EXACTLY WHAT YOU DID better, and that way we can help you.

 

[klowneyy]

Let's get some specific answers.

Did you check the temperature during the 60 minutes mash? Was the temperature at 153 the entire time? Did you check? Not merely at the beginning but during the mash and at the end of the mash as well. (By the way, how was the temperature maintained? Was the mash over a flame the entire time?)

Have you had a chance to do a second reading? If not take one now.

What's the brew doing now? Any sign of fermentation?

I kept the thermometer in the whole time to maintain temp it was never higher than 160f and no lower than 150f according to my thermometer. I use an electric counter top stove. I did not put a lid on it.

 

[klowneyy]

Let's get some specific answers.

Did you check the temperature during the 60 minutes mash? Was the temperature at 153 the entire time? Did you check? Not merely at the beginning but during the mash and at the end of the mash as well. (By the way, how was the temperature maintained? Was the mash over a flame the entire time?)

Have you had a chance to do a second reading? If not take one now.

What's the brew doing now? Any sign of fermentation?

It is fermenting very strong for being 1 day in I am getting bubbles in the airlock at my count every 1 to 2 seconds

 

[klowneyy]

Let's get some specific answers.

Did you check the temperature during the 60 minutes mash? Was the temperature at 153 the entire time? Did you check? Not merely at the beginning but during the mash and at the end of the mash as well. (By the way, how was the temperature maintained? Was the mash over a flame the entire time?)

Have you had a chance to do a second reading? If not take one now.

What's the brew doing now? Any sign of fermentation?

Here is a 2 pictures I just to try and show fermentation. Sorry if it doesn't help

 

[woozy]

I mean this with the utmost respect...
Your one-line answers are killing me.
Almost every response has been a well thought out set of questions to help us understand where you may have gone wrong (if at all).

I didn't want to say, but .... yeah.

I kept the thermometer in the whole time to maintain temp it was never higher than 160f and no lower than 150f according to my thermometer. I use an electric counter top stove. I did not put a lid on it.

See? Now all the people who were accusing you of starting your temperature too low and never maintaining the proper temp have been proven wrong! You were right, they were wrong. Doesn't that feel good?

Here is a 2 pictures I just to try and show fermentation. Sorry if it doesn't help

I'm not experienced enough to conclude but... It is sounding more and more that nothing is wrong and you misread the hydrometer. What say the rest of you? Could a wort with only 1.013 Original Gravity ferment this strongly and this well (and this quickly)?

 

[chickypad]

Yeah, I think it's looking more and more like a bad reading.

 

[klowneyy]

Yeah, I think it's looking more and more like a bad reading.

Thank you