first all grain...fail.

Well, then maybe I don't have an answer for you.

Anyway, I few months ago I brewed a Wit using Castle Pilsner Malt and the OG I achieved was lower than expected. I asked a few folks about it but it was a mystery to me why I didn't hit my target. I attended the NHC in Grand Rapids and at the Stan Hieronymus presentation on Brew Like a Monk he mentioned that if homebrewers use Castle Pilsner they wil need more malt to reach their target OG values. I later related my Wit story to Stan and he responded: yeah, you didn't get your target OG because of the Castle Pilsner Malt; add more malt next time.

Whether malteurope has the same 'issue' as Castle Pilsner I do not know.

Cheers!

 

That is about where I started with the water absorption figures. You may want to adjust that addition or one/all the other water additions until you start to get the numbers you want, next brew.
Did you stir during the sparge? that is where a lot of your efficiency will come from, how well you rinse the grain. It also will help to allow about 30 min rest during sparge stirring frequently.

Regardless, don't get discouraged. You just need to dial in the process, a tweek here and there will go a long way.

 

I sometimes dont even let it sit after stirring it and generally get 78%, so I dont believe this is it. I remember seeing that Denny Conn did an experiment with letting it sit and draining right away, and he saw no benefit to extended time after dumping the sparge water in. He said stirring thoroughly was important.

 

I was just playing a bit. I'm actually having problems with too much boil-off and need to get that dialed in.
Cheers!

 

It was actually D Conn that told me I needed to let it sit longer and stir more when I voiced this question over at AHA, it was about 10 years ago, perhaps his views have changed. But it helped my efficiency tremendously.

 

You may be overdosing on feedback . . . but my 2¢: Sounds like you collected a 1.044 wort which is only a touch below the guidelines for a Saison. Add some sugar (8-16 oz) after high krausen and you can still have a magnificent beer.

As others said, it takes a while to figure out your AG parameters . . . but it will all come to pass.

 

I tend to find double batch sparging to work tremendously well when trying to hit efficiency %. I usually do 1.75 gallons, rest for 10 mins, and drain. Then 3.25 gallons, rest for 10 mins, and drain again. Get my boil volume and hit my gravity numbers every time. I've only done 3 all grain brews myself. And the first 2 were partial extract. 5 brews in my career and I think I have my equipment dialed in. Give it a try. See what happens. Good luck. Cheers

 

Oh ok,

I had this problem recently. I was aiming at a 1.056 IPA and ended with a 1.048 OG, which was in the 50% efficiency. My system gets 68% efficiency consistently with grain from Northern Brewer and the only thing I did different for my failed batch was buy grain locally, which I noticed had a Very coarse grind.

I recommend remaking the same recipe, keeping the same process since it all looks good, and making sure the grind is not too coarse.

 

Interesting. What efficiency do you get? I wish I could find where he said that, but it was a while ago.

 

Found something.
http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/discus/show.cgi?tpc=26895&post=211847#POST211847

 

How do you measure your gravity reading? Hydrometer or refractometer? Was it calibrated properly prior to taking the reading?

I've brewed about a grillion batches of beer and every once in a while, I still do something foolish while taking a reading...

 

i've got two things for you:
1) When adding strike water to the grain, make sure there are NO dough balls left in your grain and that even the grain on the bottom of your tun is saturated.
2) make sure when you're draining your tun for batch sparging, most all the wort has drained, leaving a moderate % of 1st run wort in the tun will cause your numbers to fall off.

Definitely not a fail...just more a "session beer" then you would have liked. I had more than my share of those in my first few years brewing all-grain.

 

regardless of our process or that of others, once the op has his down to consistent results I'm sure he'll be happy. It is one of those I do it this way with this result and the other way(s) to do the same may yield similar or different results

Regardless it's all good

 

Did you also allow all the sparge water (except what was absorbed) to drain? You had mentioned possibly sparging "longer" but with batch sparging, you normally drain everything (regardless of how long it takes). Or by longer, did you mean a longer mash-out step?