Homebrew OG Problems

There is a lot going on here but I will say this, you need to mash longer than 30 mins to ensure proper conversion. The standard is 60 minutes. You also definitely do not want to leave 2lbs of grain out of the mash when it was called for. If you have no choice but to leave that much grain out then you would want to supplement with DME or LME in the boil. The ratio is 2lbs of grain is equal to 1lb of dry malt or liquid malt extract.

An O.G. of 1.030 or 1.040 for an IPA is extremely low, you should be targeting something closer to 1.060.

Hope this helps some.

 

Read this http://howtobrew.com/intro.html

I'm honestly not trying to be a dick, as we all started somewhere.

Good Luck moving forward, its a great hobby.

 

Just looking at your recipe/process, I believe you simply steeped some grains in water...instead of doing a proper mash.

This is just a guess, however.

 

Boil some DME with a gravity of 1.060. Chill it and add it to the fermenter.

Otherwise drainpour the entire batch. No need to wait for fermentation to complete.

 

Add DME or LME.

Next time, use more grains (11-14 pounds is pretty standard for most 5 gallon recipes), crush the grains harder, mash for at least 40 minutes (30 is almost long enough in my experience but not quite), and... you might want to review How To Brew by John Palmer, in hard copy or an old version is available free online at howtobrew.com. If you like to brew in a bag (BIAB) and don't want to upgrade equipment, then you might want to consider just making 2.5 or 3 gallon batches. Otherwise, you'll soon want to invest in a cooler mash tun such as at dennybrew.com.

 

I agree. It sounds like you basically steeped the grains, with the exception that you had some base malt in there. 20-30 min at 160F in a grain bag is exactly how I used to steep specialty grains.

 

Assuming (i) you had ~70% efficiency, (ii) all post-boil wort made it into the fermenter, and (iii) your batch size is 5 gallons, your OG should have been around 1.035. Your measurement of 1.010 suggests several possible issues:

(1) Your grain was not crushed or the crush was exceedingly poor.
(2) You added water to top off your fermenter and did not mix well before making your OG measurement.
(3) Something was really amiss with your BIAB technique.
(4) Your temperature was really somewhere north of 160 and all of the enzymes were denatured before they could do their job. (BTW, 160 F is sort of the top end for a single infusion mash -- most recipes target ~152 F).

 

I'd say "YMMV." In my experience, many/most mashes are fully converted in a half hour, from an iodine test standpoint, i.e. the starches are converted to sugars and unfermentable dextrins. However, the enzymes are still breaking down the sugars/dextrins, so there's more fermentability to be gained (if desired) by going longer.