Brewing OG

BPH

Hi, question looking for help/advise. I've missed my OG for my last few brews. Assuming that I couldn't do anything about it I proceeded and bottled it, tasted grand but obv not as much alcohol as desired. So taking for example at the weekend I did a brew on the GF, my OG was to be 1.051, I had 1.042 before it went into the fermenter. So for the more experienced brewer what should have I done.

I was told that I could have re-sparged my mash to get more sugars out of it - how is this done ? Is there calculators available. I found calculator that dilutes the beer if you are over target (I wish). Or I could add more sugar from DME or another. Seems you can take OG reading also pre-boil, again I never did this, if I'm expecting final to be 1.051 is this the same figure pre-boil, I presume it wouldn't.

Some help back would be great.

BeerNut

I think the simplest thing is to adjust your recipes to allow for your lower mash efficiency: add more malt. You can indeed add sugar or DME to the kettle also.

The gravity will be a little lower before the boil than after because a quantity of water boils off.

BPH

Hi, I get pre done up kits from HBC, they say use the grainfather method in the instructions. I use water calculations and assume it'll work. Looking for ways to reach targets.

Weather BOFH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120891642#Comment_120891642

Are you using any software like BeerSmith or Brewfather to gauge your mash efficiency? You should easily be able to hit 80% with the GrainFather, if not, something is wrong, either your grain crush or your process.

BeerNut

If the pre-done kit isn't giving you the result you need, then adjust the pre-done kit, eg add extra malt to the mash. It would be worth reporting back to HBC as well, if you haven't already. I've always found Shane very helpful on stuff like this.

Bear in mind also that in brewing, as with any form of cookery, following someone else's recipe doesn't mean you'll get exactly the same result as the person who wrote it.

BPH

The only thing I can change is my sparge technique. Am I doing it too fast. Everything else is practically done by grainfather. I'll order some malt next time and add if needed,more than likely I will.

Weather BOFH

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/120898410#Comment_120898410

There's plenty of things you can adjust.

Are you mashing in correctly and making sure you don't have dough balls? Did you try giving it a stir half way through the mash? Do you have a stuck mash, is the recirc just flowing down the overflow pipe and not through the grains? Is your mash pH correct? Are you mashing out? There's tons of guides out there for improving efficiency with the GF.

Try plugging your grain bill into something like Brewfather and select the correct GF equipment profile and it should be pretty close to what you should expect, if you are more than 2-3 points off then something's not right.

BPH

Hi, yes I mash in fairly slowly, no dough balls. Don't stir half way through, I leave it do it's thing for the hour. Flowing pretty good. Never check the mash pH, never mash out. When I get kit from HBC there's no grain bill as such, just the total weight. Don't know if that's enough to enter into the brewfather app or can I ask for the grain bill break down from HBC.