Howdy,
I am having some troubles hitting my target gravity after mash. I have a cooler mash tun that keeps a stable heat just fine, but never seem to get a high enough gravity. Here is an example from yesterday.
- 14.25 lbs of grain (crushed nicely)
- Striked 5.34 gallons at 165°F
- Mashed for 60 minutes at 158°F (which was a bit hotter than my 154° goal)
- Drained pretty slow (didn't time this, but probably took 40 minutes)
- Sparged 3 gallons at 170°F after all the mash water was drained
- Drained sparge relatively slowly, but again did not time
- Pre-boil gravity of 1.036
- Ended up with 6.2 gallons of wort pre-boil
- Post-boil gravity of 1.042 at 4.75 gallons of wort
My target OG was 1.065, so I am off by a lot.
Also, my IBUs are high now (88 IBU) since the malt character is low.
Side question, would people add extra wort to secondary to balance out the flavor?
I don't have any pH readings on my water, but heard that is a possibility.
Any thoughts?
It started fermenting ~12 hours after pitching the yeast.
Thanks!
Tim
I am having some troubles hitting my target gravity after mash. I have a cooler mash tun that keeps a stable heat just fine, but never seem to get a high enough gravity. Here is an example from yesterday.
- 14.25 lbs of grain (crushed nicely)
- Striked 5.34 gallons at 165°F
- Mashed for 60 minutes at 158°F (which was a bit hotter than my 154° goal)
- Drained pretty slow (didn't time this, but probably took 40 minutes)
- Sparged 3 gallons at 170°F after all the mash water was drained
- Drained sparge relatively slowly, but again did not time
- Pre-boil gravity of 1.036
- Ended up with 6.2 gallons of wort pre-boil
- Post-boil gravity of 1.042 at 4.75 gallons of wort
My target OG was 1.065, so I am off by a lot.
Also, my IBUs are high now (88 IBU) since the malt character is low.
Side question, would people add extra wort to secondary to balance out the flavor?
I don't have any pH readings on my water, but heard that is a possibility.
Any thoughts?
It started fermenting ~12 hours after pitching the yeast.
Thanks!
Tim