I have so far brewed 3 batches of beer. The first was an Amber Ale with an expected OG of 1.042 and the actual OG was 1.038 (not too bad). My second batch was a stout with an expected OG of 1.066 and the actual OG was 1.061. My third batch was a Guinness Clone with an expected OG of 1.043 and an actual OG of 1.032.
This last one really disappointed me as I was hoping that my brewing skills have been improving with experience. I was using SUDSW to calculate the expected OG, is there a way I can work it out by hand and compare?
During the brewing process, what will affect the OG the most? Could the actual be lower than expected because I'm only doing a 3gal partial boil?
Were these extract/grain kits. I've done about 14 of these and they usually are close to the mark. You just have to make sure you get as much as possible out of the extract can/bottle/jug. I am usually within about .003 of the expected OG. Also, if you are using a hydrometer to get your OG make sure you are at about 60 F. At 70 F add .001, at 60 F add .002.
It is an extract/grain brew. I scrape the jug as best I can so I guess I got most of the malt out. I do adjust my hydrometer reading accordingly as I took the sample then pitched the yeast at 68 degrees.
I noticed that I should have gotten a OG of 1.032 if I only used the Pale malt and it goes up to 1.043 with the roasted and flaked barley grains that I added. When adding grains is there a formula, or some method to get the most sugars out of the grains? I put them all in 1 grain bag and steep in the water for 30 minutes as the water heats to 170 degrees then remove them.
If you use the proper amount of extract and water, you're pretty much guranteed to get the right OG. The problem is probably related to your partial boils. When you only boil part of the wort and top up with water in the fermenter, the wort is heavier than the water and sinks to the bottom of the fermenter, so when you take your OG reading you're getting mainly the less dense water at the top of the fermenter. No matter how well you think you mixed it, it still doesn't usually get mixed enough to get an acurate reading.
On Sun, 23 Jan 2005 09:31:17 -0600, "N. Rundle" said in alt.beer.home-brewing:
You should be pouring/scraping into hot water so be careful:
(Heat the can before you open it - just put it into a sauce pan with water and boil the water for a while - until the extract is close to as hot as you can handle it. If you have a really good oven mit, you can heat the can almost to boiling. Hot extract flows much better than cold extract. )
After pouring/scraping out as much as you can, pour some wort (water/extract mixture that you're cooking) back into the can. Use this to dissolve the remaining little bit of extract - swirl it around, tilt the can so the wort comes almost to the top and turn it, etc. You may have to do it 3 or 4 times to get the last little bit out, but it shouldn't take more than a minute, all told.
You're not really getting much sugar out of them. Dunk them, the way you would a teabag. Dunking about 10 times (squeeze the wort out with each dunk - fast, it's hot) every 5 minutes seems to get a lot of the flavor out of the grain.
It sure can. Look for a turkey fryer. You can usually get one that's at least 8 gallons - large enough for a 5 gallon boil, if you keep the flame down. (The burner on most of them is around 170,000 BTU, so you can boil 8 gallons of wort down to about 3 gallons, by spilling it over the top, faster than you'd believe if you leave the pot for a minute.)
BTW, getting 5 gallons of cold water to 160 with a turkey fryer burner doesn't take very long. It's a lot easier (and faster) to brew this way than to brew with a 3 gallon pot on a home stove.
And try to brew using dry extract. It's a little harder to get it to dissolve, but you have more control over what you're doing. Pretty soon you'll probably graduate to whole grain.
DrinksForum website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.