What did I do wrong?

[Jordan Logo]

Hello All!

I was wondering what I did wrong and why I missed my gravity readings/why my brewhouse efficiency is so low! (Ignore the pH - I used regular filtered water)

Here's the brew I did today:

 

[Jag75]

So est OG was 1.045 and your actual OG came out 1.040? Are you usually 70% efficiency ? You hit lower so it's less then 70 on this . Check your grain mill , maybe your crush wasnt fine enough .

 

[Jordan Logo]

So est OG was 1.045 and your actual OG came out 1.040? Are you usually 70% efficiency ? You hit lower so it's less then 70 on this . Check your grain mill , maybe your crush wasnt fine enough .

What's weird is that I'm usually much higher than this thus my confusion. I'm usually at high 70s if not low 80s! I brew this beer quite often and my only thing that I thought might have caused this is that I changed the water I use. I used a different brand of bottled water who's pH is reported at around 6. Could this be it? I grind at .025 so I doubt its my mill.

 

[Jag75]

What about your mash temp. What was your grain bill? If you have brewed this before and everything is exactly the same except for water then it could be that . Maybe the grain was old

 

[Jordan Logo]

What about your mash temp. What was your grain bill? If you have brewed this before and everything is exactly the same except for water then it could be that . Maybe the grain was old

I actually did have a little trouble keeping mash temp - my mash is at 150 but it kept fluctuating in the range of 147-149. Everything was the exact same as my past brews except for water and I get my grains from MoreBeer as I live right next to their store location here in California so I doubt its the quality of the grain.

Heres a pic of my grain bill:

 

[FatDragon]

I don't know about your efficiency, but there's a problem with your data. 3.66 gallons of 1.034 pre-boil wort won't boil down to 2.5 gallons of 1.040. Water goes, sugar stays. If your pre-boil numbers and post-boil volume are all correct, then your post-boil gravity should be 1.045 as predicted. You've got at least one volume or gravity error in there. Either that or you boiled down to more than 2.5 gallons and discarded the leftover wort, in which case you chucked out the rest of the sugars that would have gotten you to your intended OG.

 

[Jordan Logo]

I don't know about your efficiency, but there's a problem with your data. 3.66 gallons of 1.034 pre-boil wort won't boil down to 2.5 gallons of 1.040. Water goes, sugar stays. If your pre-boil numbers and post-boil volume are all correct, then your post-boil gravity should be 1.045 as predicted. You've got at least one volume or gravity error in there. Either that or you boiled down to more than 2.5 gallons and discarded the leftover wort, in which case you chucked out the rest of the sugars that would have gotten you to your intended OG.

This is what really is confusing me! I hit my pre-boil gravity but not my boil gravity? Odd! I did get a little more than 2.5 gallon post boil but I left some in the pot when putting it into the fermenter to minimize trub. Maybe my refractometer was off, or I measured the wort while it was a little too hot/cold?

 

[FatDragon]

There's a decent chance that it's a combination of those things. You may have left a couple points worth of sugar in the kettle and gotten a slightly wrong reading somewhere in there.

How's the East Bay these days? I lived in Concord until just before I turned six then again for most of my teens, but I've only been back a couple times in the last few years, and then only for a day or so at a time. Last time I went through I wanted to stop at MoreBeer to see what a giant LHBS looks like, but I didn't think about it until I was rolling out of town on 680 so I had to give it a miss.

 

[Jordan Logo]

There's a decent chance that it's a combination of those things. You may have left a couple points worth of sugar in the kettle and gotten a slightly wrong reading somewhere in there.

How's the East Bay these days? I lived in Concord until just before I turned six then again for most of my teens, but I've only been back a couple times in the last few years, and then only for a day or so at a time. Last time I went through I wanted to stop at MoreBeer to see what a giant LHBS looks like, but I didn't think about it until I was rolling out of town on 680 so I had to give it a miss.

Yeah, I’ll have to brew it again but revert back to my old water I used to see what is really going on. Do you suggest going with RO water then adjusting my water that way?

The East Bay is ever growing nowadays! It’s awesome! Concord is booming along with Walnut Creek, Pittsburg, Brentwood, etc...! I am so blessed to live 20 minutes away from MoreBeer Concord and the staff there is awesome. They even have a store cat, and a dog named Coco whom I have to visit every so often which gives me a good reason to window shop!

 

[Jag75]

Have you had your water checked ? Sometimes I go with 100% RO water , sometimes I dilute with RO and some beers I dont use any RO water .

I didnt know you could actually go into morebeer . That place has to be awesome. Next time I'm up north I'll check it out . I'm near Bakersfield.

 

[kh54s10]

I suspect a bunch of small errors adding up to bigger.. I always shoot for the predicted OG and usually get very close. But .005 +/- is within my "oh well?" range. If more than that I will use some DME to increase the OG.

 

[Jordan Logo]

Have you had your water checked ? Sometimes I go with 100% RO water , sometimes I dilute with RO and some beers I dont use any RO water .

I didnt know you could actually go into morebeer . That place has to be awesome. Next time I'm up north I'll check it out . I'm near Bakersfield.

If you go with 100% RO water how do you know what to bring the levels up to? Like how do you know what a certain style needs?

 

[Jag75]

If you go with 100% RO water how do you know what to bring the levels up to? Like how do you know what a certain style needs?

I use Brun Water . There are multiple programs out there . I would check onto them .

 

[Bubbles2]

I love my Aquasauna R.O unit with re-mineralizer. My beers come out Great! Never a complaint. Change all filters once a year.
You of course know that your meter is temp sensitive, if you measure at 70º f your gravity measure will be off 1 there about.
Could be as simple as "Check your Meter and see what it was calibrated at"; there is a calc to figure the diff.