Re: Missed gravity and volume

On Jul 26, 9:15 pm, "Brian Lundeen" <m...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
"wwlighting" <wwlight...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote in message

news:492ed8fd-3063-4dff-9f46-5c1c3a6de46b@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Brewed a double IPA today. Hit my pre-boil gravity 1.041 at 7.5 gal.
But my OG ended up 1056 and only 4 gal. I was shooting for 1.070 and
5.5 gal
I was using the recipe from Vinnie in Zymurgy for Pliny. I put it into
BeerAlchemy to get water volumes.
Any ideas how I could hit my pre-boil gravity and miss my OG by so
far?
The only thing I can think of is that my thermometer is off and
therefore pre-boiil gravity reading is off.

More importantly, is there anything I can do about it? I hate to only
put in 4 gal. Especially since I will lose even more transferring to
secondary. But since the OG is already low I can't really add water.

To start with, your arithmetic is all wrong.Remember, gravity points x
volume is a constant. So, if you want 5.5 gallons at 1.070, multiply 5.5 x
70 to get 385. Divide this by your starting volume of 7.5, and your starting
gravity points should be 51, or a SG of 1.051 not 1.041. If Beer Alchemy is
telling you otherwise, get a better brewing calculator.

Now, looking at what you ended up with (assuming no temperature compensation
or volume measuring errors), you got 4 x 56 = 224. Translate that to 7.5
gallons, and you actually had a pre-boil SG of 1.030. Quite a difference
from your stated 1.041, so could be wrong temp, wrong compensation, wrong
SG, wrong volume. With the information presented, anything further would be
just guessing.

So, you could have any number of process problems going on here, plus you
don't seem to have a handle on your boil-off rate, if you were expecting 5.5
gallons and went down to 4. Of course, this all assumes Zymurgy printed the
recipe correctly and that you followed it to the letter. You don't say if
this was all-grain or extract, but a missed pound or two of anything can
have a big effect. Hate to be all over the map, but there could be any
number of things going wrong here. If you have hit your target gravity on
previous batches, look to what might have been different on this one.

As for correcting, you can always increase both gravity and volume by
boiling up some extract in water to reach your desired targets. Mind you, we
haven't even touched on whether your hopping schedule might also be off....
;-)

Brian

Good observations. I decided to to just go with less volume.

As for the volume calculation. I used 8 gal as starting point as
stated in recipe. I ended with 7.5 because I thought I was at my pre-
boil SG and didn't want to add any more. I figured I could top off
later if I was short. Unfortunately my OG was too low. I think Beer
Alchemy is off. I am trying Beer tools instead.

Here are my notes from process if would like to comment further.

Brought 3,5 gallons to 172º (took 25 minutes). Let cool to 167º.
Stirred in grain. Temp down to 154º. time 9:50 am Strired well. Temp
down to 151º. Covered wtih lid and blanket. Mashed for 70 minutes.
Temp dropped to 140º over last 20 minutes. Brought 3 gal up to175º let
cool to 170º while bringing mash up to 170º with heat.
Recirculate. Drain 1st runnings. Sparge with 3.2 gal 170º water by
stirring, recirculating and draining. Sparge with 2.5 gal 170º water.
Stop drain off at SG 1.010. (Probably less than 1/2 gal left in tun)
Dumped grain. Rinsed. Poured all runnings into kettle.
Pre-boil SG was 1.042 and water looked a little low. added 1/2 gal and
nailed SG. Added .4 lb of dextrose and brought to boil. Turned on
flame at approx 12 pm. Started boil at 12:30
Added hops in bag according to schedule
Cooled with wort chiller down to 100º. Tried to transfer. False bottom
clogged. Ladeled by hand into carboy. only 4 gal. Put in ice bath for
30 minutes. OG only 10.56

Thanks,

Wally





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