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Author Topic: Really bad O.G. from specialty grains - any chance of a redo?  (Read 7756 times)

Offline spangltk

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Re: Really bad O.G. from specialty grains - any chance of a redo?
« Reply #30 on: March 19, 2012, 12:32:56 pm »
I hope you're right about the ice.  Although it's been maybe 10 years, the last study I read cast serious doubt on the food safety of commercial ice.

Small apartment brewing. Over the years I'm convinced I want an easy and fun brew day over 'keep up with the pack' brewing. I have an AG setup and a wort chiller. But I save hours of time by not lugging them out of storage, cleaning, then re-cleaning, and lugging back to storage.

Before I made the 'downgrade' to ice I talked to several people who have been doing it for years. They confirmed no infections and no one has detected infections in my last 7 ice brews. If I get one infection at this point then it's still worth the hours of time it's saved me.

Offline denny

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Re: Really bad O.G. from specialty grains - any chance of a redo?
« Reply #31 on: March 19, 2012, 02:01:38 pm »
AFAIK, the haze is from the yeast, not the starch.  I could be wrong, even though I'm old!  ;)
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Offline majorvices

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Re: Really bad O.G. from specialty grains - any chance of a redo?
« Reply #32 on: March 19, 2012, 03:59:39 pm »
Back to the original point at hand, there's no way the small amount of steeping grains are going to give you ten extra points brix. And if you didn't mash the oats it is likely that they would not have given you nearly as many points had you actually mashed them. YOu wort was most likely stratified. And I recommend mashing the oats with a pound of pilsner next time. Really, IMO you are going to make better beer by doing a mini mash with all of your extract batches. For one thing extract is reported to be low in FAN. And you just get a bit more control and it's freakin' easy.

Offline spangltk

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Re: Really bad O.G. from specialty grains - any chance of a redo?
« Reply #33 on: March 19, 2012, 05:59:57 pm »
Now that I've calculated it through Hopville I dont' think I was that off. The beer is milky white and I'm thinking it's better off as a starter. I'll try again this weekend and recycle the yeast. The hop additions were so low that I only need more grains and I'll mini mash that as you suggested.

Offline malzig

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Re: Really bad O.G. from specialty grains - any chance of a redo?
« Reply #34 on: March 19, 2012, 06:57:17 pm »
Now that I've calculated it through Hopville I dont' think I was that off. The beer is milky white and I'm thinking it's better off as a starter. I'll try again this weekend and recycle the yeast. The hop additions were so low that I only need more grains and I'll mini mash that as you suggested.
I'd plan on having some extra dry extract on hand. too.

4# of extract is only going to give you a 1.030-1.032 beer at 4.5 gallons.  Even mashed, you would have been lucky to get 1.037.  Adding a pound of Pilsner Malt might get you to 1.042, but I wouldn't count on it.

A pound of dry extract will give you the option to bump it up by 10 points, if you need to. 

It might still be interesting to try and save this first beer by adding some more extract.  It will still be beer, and it would make for an interesting comparison to the next beer you make.