So i just brewed my second batch today, i bought a brand new hydrometer and tried to measure my SG before adding the yeast. I assume that the temperature of my water was higher than suppose cause i got a SG of 1.034, I mean im assuming cause i have no idea of what is my OG. This is why im here: 5.5 lbs of Pilsner grains malt. (60 minutes on 175-180f) 2.2 lbs of super light dry malt. And US-05 yeasts. Any idea of how to calculate my OG? How do i know what supposed to be my final gravity?
If you are familiar with spreadsheets, check out @VikeMan 's BrewCipher. It's free, and a lot of the folks on here swear by it. If not, I like the calculator at Brewer's Friend. It costs $5 a month if you want to store more than 5 recipes, but if you're a regular brewer, it's money well spent.
I hope that temperature is a typo. If not, that's much too hot, and you got nothing (or almost nothing) fermentable from the malt. For dry malt, figure about 44 points per pound per gallon (PPG). So, lets say this was a three gallon batch... (2.2 lbs x 44 PPG) / 3 gallons = 32 points = 1.032 OG Figure maybe 80% attenuation for US-05 and Light Dry Malt extract. You measured 1.034, so... 34 x (1 - 0.80) = ~7, so expect about 1.007 FG
Yeah that was a big screw up, i had problems to control the temperature properly, part of the time it was 150, but some part of the time it ran high to 180. I tried my best lets hope for good. I guess it wasnt a good idea to do grains on my second batch hahah
Didn't notice that. Would definitely explain a low OG reading. @Itaygiv, did you check out How to Brew by Palmer as @PapaGoose03 recommended in your last post yet?
OP, here's the specific online section about understanding the mash process in How To Brew: http://howtobrew.com/book/section-3/how-the-mash-works/an-allegory but it sounds like the entire book would be beneficial for you to read. Like @VikeMan described above, you can roughly figure out the S.G. points from malt extract because the dry or liquid malt has a specific level of sugar in it. But to predict an OG or FG when brewing with mashed grain you need to know the efficiency of your brewing system and the yeast. Plugging all of the details of your recipe into a brewing software allows you to figure out an OG and FG for your self-designed recipe based on inputting the details. Most software has a cost to it but @VikeMan has created a spreadsheet-based program that is free. If you think you'll be brewing more all-grain batches once you have become more familiar with the mashing process, check out the software. Instructions to download it are in this thread: https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/brewcipher-6.629625/ Good luck.
