Hey Guys, I brewed up a Rye IPA yesterday and had a few issues I like to see where my problems migt be. First off it's Denny Conn Rye IPA receipe. I have a problem with the final btach size. It was supposed to be a final of 6 gal for the batch but ended up with just under 5 gals. Im brewing down in Ft. Lauderdale Florida and have heard alot about the evaporation rate due to different elevations when brewing. The batch asked for 8.5 gals to start. I had a 60 min boil time and somewhere between the start to finish I lost a little more than 3.5 gals. Now when I was boiling I left it to a light rolling boil for the 60 mins. Any ideas on why such a big loss of water? Second, I had a problem with the original gravity reading- it was supposed to be 1.069 but ended up with just over 1.040. We did a single sparge- meaning dumped in 5.5 gals into the mash tub and added the grains. We then let sit and at the last 10 mins, we then dumped in the last of the water and let sit for the remaining 10 mins and then drained the mash out. We didnt sparge a second or a third time as the directions I received on brew365 didnt indicate otherwise so I stuck with the single mash infusion. Also the receipe calls for 12 lbs american 2-row but I had 6 lbs of belgian 2-row I subed in with 6 ibs of american 2 row. My questions is this- could the reason for the off gravity be due to the subsitiution of the belgian 2 row and/or the single step infusion? Also the grains I didnt grind up before hand and used them as whole.. would that also effect the amount of sugar that I can draw out of the grains when mashing? Please help...This is driving me nutz!!!!
So you didn't crush any grains at all? If this is the case, then yes, it would certainly affect how much sugar you get out of them and is the primary cause of your low OG.
ok cool my buddy said the samething but I wasn't aware that the difference in cruched vs not crushed would play that big of a role in the original ABV....Hmmm Nice to know thanks for the help... Any clue as to why such a huge loss of water on my batch size?.....
Since you didn't crush your grains, I'm a little surprised you got as much efficiency as you did. Also, in addition volume losses due to boil-off, there are other places you will lose volume. These include... - The volume of wort absorbed by the grains - The wort left in the 'dead space' at the bottom of your mash tun - The wort absorbed by the hops and break materials that doesn't make it from the kettle to the fermenter. If you use brewing software (or make spreadheets of your own), you can account for all of these when formulating your receipes.
Beyond the issues described above, you only mashed for 20 minutes? That's shorter than ideal. Also, sparge. It really increases your efficiency (and thus your OG). You have some very rudimentary issues. I suggest you read http://www.howtobrew.com
No I mashed for 60 mins.... 5.5 gals was put in the mash for 50 mins and upon the final 10 mins i added the rest of the water...a total of 60 min mash time.. As far as the sparge, like i said earlier....the receipe I found, asked for a single infusion just how I mentioned in the post above... but I found this odd the begin with but stuck to the receipe anyways. Btw we used Beersmith to work everything else and the #'s were perfect when run thru the software before be even started brewing. We found out last night at a brew meeting (FLAB) the issues were not crushing the grains was the loss in the OG and the loss of the water was attributed to a combination of too high of a rolling boil/ and a low OG allowed for 2x the evaporation rate. I had them (FLAB) review the receipe on Beersmith and verified it was all correct. It came down to user error on brew day and lack of experience. This is my 8th Batch of beer brewed but the first I didnt pony up for crushed gains and hense all of the problems. Every beer before has come out on point except for this one and couldn't figure out what the issue is. The Boys down here at FLAB hooked me up and identified my problem. Thanks for the insight guys!
Just FYI, there is generally a sparge with a single infusion mash. The 'single' just means that there's only one temperature rest. You would still drain and then sparge.
How much is the rest of the water? Boiling over 3.5gals off in an hour sounds extreme. Like VikeMan said, I am guessing you are miss calculating your water somewhere.
