I hate when I miss OG by this much

[rickbray66]

I believe using more sparge water would have helped rinse better and get a little more sugars from the grains. Depending on your equipment (boil kettle too small), it might not be possible to go 1 1/2 times the amount of mash water, especially if you use a thinner mash.


Rick

[haerbob3]

Whose kit did you do? What was the strike temp of the water? Was the 155 your target temp? If you added the grains @ 155 the temp may have been too low to give you conversion in 45 mins.

[truckndad]

Austin Home Brew. Got water up to 165 then added the grains. At the end of the 45 minutes it was still at 152

[mtsoxfan]

I guess the 1.5 x mash volume is for AG.... I usually mash at 1.5 quarts per lb of grain. Then 1.5xmash volume for sparge. With grain absorbtion and boil off, it's the only way to get my final volume without adding plain water at any point.

[haerbob3]

Maybe I was distracted by the burning sensation on my chest. PM extra hoppy red ale. Projected OG 1.054. What did I hit? 1.036. The sample tasted very good, so I got that. But damn.....

I ran the numbers in Beersmith.

Gravity of the grains only 1.020
Gravity of the extract only 1.034
Gravity of both 1.054

did you take a reading when your mash was done? what method did you use to verify that conversion had completed?