[bcridley]

I just brewed my first batch of all grain the other day and im a little worried about my OG. I fly sparged with a strike temp of 164 and sparge temp of 170. I had a pretty basic pale ale recipe with a little maize in it with a grist ratio of 1.75 qt/lb. I mashed for 1hour and my first runnings were 1050 with a refractometer which was dead on my calculated OG for the recipe. I sparged until I had a reading of 1010 and boiled for an hour. I then cooled to 68 and took my OG reading and it was only 1027. Does this mean I am off my calculated recipe gravity that much or is that normal? Should my first runnings be more like 1070 and end up at 1050 after sparging?

[fmader]

What's your grain bill?

[bcridley]

7# 2 row base
.75# carmel 40
.5# carapils
1# flaked corn

The carmel 40 and carapils numbers may be flipped around i dont have my recipe with me and i cant remember for sure

[a10t2]

A first runnings gravity of 1.050 means that you didn't have nearly complete conversion when you started to sparge. At 1.75 qt/lb it should be about 1.070. Kai Troester has a chart here. Generally speaking, poor conversion means that at least one of the key mash parameters (crush, temperature, pH, time) is out of range. The linked article is a good place to start.

[bcridley]

Thats what I was afraid of. I didnt preheat my tun and I didnt stir throughout the mash. I had inconsistent mash temps the entire time and I had to sparge too fast to keep my sparge arm moving. Im sure this all contributed to low effiency. O well thats experience I guess. Lets just hope my first one is atleast drinkable. Thanks for the help.

[jdvisger123]

This is a silly question but was your grain milled? What was your actual mash temp? What was your pre/post volume?