Why is my OG crazy low?

[Jaustink83]

This is my first brew, I know I probably should have started with something a bit less crazy but I gave this a shot: BCS Clone

Everything seemed to go well durring the brew, no surprises. I'll list what I did below, however when I took an OG with my hydrometer it was only 1.048 no where even close to the target OG of 1.135.

What might I have done wrong?


Steps
- 2.5 gallons tap water in kettle (clean chicago water, nothing gross or tainted)
- Added the grains in muslin bag to the water.
- Brought it up to 170F and immediately cut the heat
- Left the grains in for 15 mins, drained (no sqeezing)
- Brought to boil, removed from heat added 3.3 lbs LME and 5lbs DME, stirring vigorously to prevent scorching and clumping.
- Returned to decent boil and started 60min timer. Maintained decent rolling boil throughout the 60mins.
-Added 1oz millenium hops @60 and 1oz again at 45
-Added wort chiller @10
-Added 1/2 tab whifloc @ 5
- At flame out removed kettle from heat and added 5lbs DME stirring vigorously to prevent clumping.
- Cooled to 75F using wort chiller and racked to fermenting bucket w auto syphon.
- Topped off w chilled spring water to 5 gallons.
- Shook bucket for 4-5 mins to combine and aerate.
- Took sample and tested OG.
- Added yeast to fermenter and added bung and airlock.

I skipped all the cleaning and sanitizing steps but I did sanitize everything that touched the wort after the boil was complete w starsan.

OG Testing temp was 67F.

With 10lbs DME and 3.3lbs LME i don't understand how my OG can be this low.

Thanks in advance for any advise.

 

[VikeMan]

With an extract recipe, it's pretty hard to not hit close to the target OG. When you get a reading significantly lower than planned, here are several possibilities, alone or in combination (some may not apply, based on your post)...

- You didn't get all the extract into the kettle (LME stuck in the jug?)
- You topped off with water to more than the target volume
- You didn't mix the top-off water with the wort thoroughly before measuring the OG
- You measured the OG while the wort (and top off water) was still hot, and didn't adjust the reading for temperature.
- Some wort was left behind in the bottom of the kettle, so more water was used to top off to reach the target volume.
- Your hydrometer is inaccurate (try checking it with plain water)
- Operator error on the gravity reading
- Recipe/Software problem

ETA: Also, there was probably a significant amount of specialty grains. They were crushed, right? If they were not, that could explain some (but not all) of the discrepancy.

 

[Jaustink83]

Yes the grain was milled and all combined together by the place I bought them.

Thank you for the check list, I will definately add it to my notes as a reminder to be aware of them as I brew.

It was annoying to try to add 5lbs of DME into the kettle at flameout with the wort chiller in the kettle. I will have to find a better way to do that in the future.

However, I think my issue was the mixing of the topoff water. The instruction suggested a 2nd aeration at 12 hours. I just did that and (carefully with sanitized tools) took another sample after a 5 min workout shaking the bucket. The new OG reading from that was 1.120. I am much happier with that reading being closer to the target 1.135.

If I can get the target FG of 1.030 I'll end at almost 12%. Versus their target of 13.8%. For my first attempt I think that would be pretty good.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

The new OG reading from that was 1.120.

That's looking like a good number.

I did a 'back of the envelope' calculation to get a rough estimate of OG. With a steeping efficiency around 35% (see How to Brew, 4e for specific malt estimates), I get around OG 1.120. At 80% efficiency, I get around 1.135. So it may be that the recipe was (incorrectly?) estimated using an estimated efficiency (80%) for a mash.

Brought to boil, removed from heat added 3.3 lbs LME and 5lbs DME, stirring vigorously to prevent scorching and clumping.

Another way to add DME is to make a slurry in a side dish using a small amount of water, then add the slurry to the kettle. This has been discussed in a couple of recent topics. I can provide a link if you are interested.

 

[madscientist451]

This is my first brew, I know I probably should have started with something a bit less crazy but I gave this a shot: BCS Clone

Welcome to HBT!
Brewing a high ABV beer has some challenges. Most important is to use a proper amount of healthy, active yeast. I usually brew a regular strength beer and then toss the high abv wort on to the existing yeast cake.
Keep an eye on how your fermentation is going. You can swirl the fermenter a few times a day to rouse up the yeast, but don't shake it anymore.
I'm not a fan of mostly extract brews, I just don't like the taste of extract. Some people don't mind it. I'm just mentioning it in case this brew doesn't come out like you hoped, keep on brewing and next time try a smaller batch size with a BIAB all grain mash.

 

[Bobby_M]

To deal with flameout extract additions, leave the chiller out. Chillers do not need to boil for any length of time unless they are fill with water already. Add the extract, stir, once dissolved drop the empty chiller in and let it sit for 2 minutes before turning the water on. That's plenty hot to sanitize.

Extract kits never miss gravity targets unless you mess up the dilution volumes.

The biggest concern right now is mostly about the yeast and the fermentation temperature. For that big of a beer, I would usually suggest at least 2 packs of dry yeast, but 3 packs would be better. A beer that big, given a healthy enough yeast pitch is going to ferment a minimum of 10F above the ambient temps for the first 5 days or so. That means ideally ambient temps would be in the neighborhood of 55-58F. Being summertime, I'm guessing you're 20 degrees high. I'm only telling you this in case you're disappointed with beer. It may taste a little "hot" on the alcohol side.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

FWIW, the online kit instructions list a couple of steeping grains twice. Might be good to double check other areas of the recipe.

​

 

[Jaustink83]

To deal with flameout extract additions, leave the chiller out. Chillers do not need to boil for any length of time unless they are fill with water already. Add the extract, stir, once dissolved drop the empty chiller in and let it sit for 2 minutes before turning the water on. That's plenty hot to sanitize.

Extract kits never miss gravity targets unless you mess up the dilution volumes.

The biggest concern right now is mostly about the yeast and the fermentation temperature. For that big of a beer, I would usually suggest at least 2 packs of dry yeast, but 3 packs would be better. A beer that big, given a healthy enough yeast pitch is going to ferment a minimum of 10F above the ambient temps for the first 5 days or so. That means ideally ambient temps would be in the neighborhood of 55-58F. Being summertime, I'm guessing you're 20 degrees high. I'm only telling you this in case you're disappointed with beer. It may taste a little "hot" on the alcohol side.

I will add the 2nd package of yeast. I knew it was a possibility so I got a 2nd pkg.

My fermentation setup is that I have the bucket in a cleaned fridge and I have the fridge controlled by an external thermostat set to keep it between 65-67F. The termostat probe is taped to the outside of the bucket and wrapped in bubble wrap to insulate it from the ambient temperature of the air. This should be good enough to keep it cool, yes?

 

[madscientist451]

Yup, thats a great setup. If the yeast that's already in there is doing OK, there's no need to add the extra pack.
Also, for future brews, look into how to make a yeast starter.

 

[homebeerbrewer]

Yup, thats a great setup. If the yeast that's already in there is doing OK, there's no need to add the extra pack.
Also, for future brews, look into how to make a yeast starter.

I disagree. With that OG, I would recommend using 2, if not 3 packs.