[srnoel]

Alright just finished my first all-grain brew about an hour ago.  I undershot my gravity by about 10 points.  I was doing a 3 gallon batch of pale with a target gravity of 1.053, but I got 1.042.

Recipe was:

5.75 lbs of 2-row pale malt
0.5 lbs or crystal 60L

Batch sparged target at 153 for an hour, actual of 152.
Sparged with 180 degree water to get a grain bed temp of 168ish.

I did 1.5 qts per pound of grain.
Used an absorption rate of 0.12 gallons per pound.
Cooler dead space of 1 qt.
Used 3.5 gallons to do the initial hour mash (was supposed to 3.35 I think but I rounded up).
Then I sparged with 2 gallons, left about 2 qts or so in the mash tun.

I collected about 4 gallons in my kettle and did a 60min boil.
Hops:
.25 oz Magnum - 60min
.25 oz Perle      - 30min
1 oz Cascade   - 10min
.5 oz Cascade  - 0min

Chilled to 75 degrees in about 12min.
Lost about 1 qt to hops and crap in the bottom of the kettle.
Ended with about 3 gallons of wort, I didn't really measure it though.

My efficiency was 56% if I calculated correctly, which is terrible even thought it was my first AG.  What can I do to fix this for next time?

[gmac]

Well, I can send you some of my 1.072.  You got too little, I got way too much. 

[srnoel]

Haha, yeah I read that right before I posted mine.  Oh well, things seems to happen that way.

[tschmidlin]

Where did you get your grain crushed?  That's a possible source of efficiency loss.

[chezteth]

How fine the grain is crushed can have an effect on the efficiency.  If you mill your grain at your LHBS you may have to run it through a second time to be sure it is milled fine enough to get a better efficiency  The pH of the mash as well as the mashing time can also have an effect.  Increasing the mashing time to 90 minutes could help a bit although I'm not sure that it would increase your efficiency more than a few points.  Hope this helps.

Happy Brewing,
Brandon

[srnoel]

I got it crushed at the LHBS yesterday.  The crush looked great like a lot of pictures I see and the owner helped me since it was my first time.  He seemed confident that it was a good.

[bluesman]

I presume you used a hydrometer to measure the gravity. If so, have you recently calibrated the hydrometer for accuracy?

[tschmidlin]

I think Denny recommends getting equal amounts of water from each batch sparge, was that what you did?  I can't tell how much you collected from each.

[srnoel]

Yes, the hydrometer was calibrated and I corrected for the temp during the readings.

I got about 2.5 gallons from the first sparge, and about 1.5 gallons from the second.  Neither are both super accurate measurements but are fairly close.

[tschmidlin]

Why did you leave 2 qts in the mash tun?  Is that dead space, or lack of room in the kettle?

[srnoel]

Lack of room in the kettle, was worried if I collected to much more I was just setting myself up for a boil over.  I was doing this in a 5 gallon kettle.

[bluesman]

Did you measure your mash pH or do an iodine test?

[srnoel]

I kind of ignored my ph and water chemistry this first round.  The water I use is a bit hard but I made some solid extract and mini-mash batches with it, so I just went with it.

[tubercle]

There are several way to improve your efficiency.

Starting with the most obvious, how long did you boil?




 

[srnoel]

Just the plain 60min boil.  I thought about going longer but then I'd have less beer!  

Can you boil longer say 90min, and then top up in the end to raise the gravity, that doesn't make any sense in my head at all.  But I already am relaxing with a homebrew so I could be compromised.