LOW OG

[PCBrewer]

I had a go at the beglian witbeir all grain recipe from geter brewed at the weekendand it  turned outa  bit of a disaster!
My OG turned out WAY below what it should be acorrding to the recipe.(supposed to be between 1.044-1.056)
In the middle of the mash my thermometer packed up, so i had to guess the temperatures for teh sparge a bit, so i would say that would account for some of it. however I eneded up very low.
From doing a bit of reading, it may also have been that i sparged too quickly.

Anyway, going by my OG reading (1.032), i am guessing i likely to have a 2-2.5% wheatbeer, which isnt very good!!

any ideas where i could have went wrong , or anything i can do to rescue it?
its in the fermentator at the min.

[Pheeel]

1. How long did you mash for?
2. How much water for how much grain?
3. What volume did you have before the boil?
4. Did it get stuck?

It's quite a bit off. You could try adding DME or LME. I used this the other day but it was only 5 points off when I added too much top up water to a BIAB http://www.merrycuss.com/calc/gravityadjustmentextract.html

[PCBrewer]

1. How long did you mash for?
2. How much water for how much grain?
3. What volume did you have before the boil?
4. Did it get stuck?

It's quite a bit off. You could try adding DME or LME. I used this the other day but it was only 5 points off when I added too much top up water to a BIAB http://www.merrycuss.com/calc/gravityadjustmentextract.html

90 min mash,
it was one of the get er brewed all grain kits for the belgian witbeir, so the amount of grain should have been correct for the recipe (i think it was around 5.3 kg of grain in total), i had 26.5 ltres before the boil, i mashed in 13ltres and then sparged to maek up the boil volume.
i think i probably sparged too quickly as i basically open the tap fully and rinsed the water throughusing the sparge arm
im not sure what you mean by 'suck'

[Leann ull]

Were your water temps ok for full conversion in mash or to the point that thermometer packed up?, did you perform an iodine test?
If answer is ok for both of the above then you need to take it up with the supplier as thats low even with a disaster 

[PCBrewer]

Were your water temps ok for full conversion in mash or to the point that thermometer packed up?, did you perform an iodine test?
If answer is ok for both of the above then you need to take it up with the supplier as thats low even with a disaster 

my water for the original mash wasnt far away i dont think (around 67 degrees when i first tested it)
I left the probe in the mash tun and when i came back itw as reading 85 or something and the thermometer  hasnt read below that since!
it wa  complete guess then what temp my sparge water was, and i also made the mistatke of just running it straight through too quickly, it prob only took about 5 mins.
i didnt do an iodine test.
how does that work, or what does it tell me?

[nigel_c]

Did you crush the grains yourself?

[Simon_]

Whatever the cause you're going to need a new thermometer. These are excellent for the price

Iodine test is where add some wort to a couple of drops of iodine. If any starch is present it turns the iodine black / dark brown.

[PCBrewer]

Did you crush the grains yourself?

no ,
they come crushed
maybe that is an issue?

[lordstilton]

Was the mash water 65 after you doughed in or before? your temp will drop after you add the grain.

[PCBrewer]

Was the mash water 65 after you doughed in or before? your temp will drop after you add the grain.

no it was something like 76 before i added it to the mash tun, the mash its-self was reading 67 initially.
Saying its only my second all grain brew , i have no doubt it was soemthing i f**ked up in the mashing process.
Ah well, live and learn!

[Paul B]

I've received bags of grain from a certain supplier before that were *barely* crushed, as in I had trouble telling if they crushed them at all. That would certainly cause an issue if was the the same for you. Everything else you've mentioned sounds good so its a strange one!

My recommendation to fix it would be to boil a DME / sugar solution according to one of the online calcs and add it to the fermenter to make up the gravity.

[Will_D]

Whatever the cause you're going to need a new thermometer. These are excellent for the price

Iodine test is where add some wort to a couple of drops of iodine. If any starch is present it turns the iodine black / dark brown.

Sorry!

Iodine is a brown colour in the prescense of starch it turns BLUE.

Try a drop on a slice of apple or chew up some rice grains or a slice of potato!

[PCBrewer]

Where do you get it, or what type of iodine do you use?

[Pheeel]

You can get it from Homebrew stores but you don't really need it. After a 90 minute mash there should be more than enough conversion

Not necesarily related to your gravity but 26L doesn't sound like enough liquid to me. For a 19L batch (assuming that's what you were making) I'd be using closer to 30L.

Back of the cig packet calculation:
- 5.3kg of grain. ~5L lost to absorption
- Evaporation+ Cooling shrinkage. ~2.5L
- Trub. ~2L

So that's close enough to 10 L lost. You'd be looking at at least 29L

[johnrm]

You can get tincture of iodine in your local pharmacy.