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Advice on Low OG

melendez843

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Brewed today using a modified recipe in Beersmith.  Anticipated SG = 1.054 -- actual SG = 1.039.  Any ideas on why the lower number?  I suspect all is not lost -- just that the beer will not finish with the anticipated %.  This was an AG using 11.75 lbs grain in a 5 gal cooler @ 155 for 60 minutes.
 
don't lose any sleep over it. numbers vary from the instruments and the way they are handled. Temperature and the age and type of grain? just keep good records and if your results consistently underachieve than we have work to do.
 
What was the actual efficiency?  Most likely you over over sparged or did not compact the grain bed well enough before sparging.  Of course, this is just a guess based on limited information  :)
 
Well, winging it, I duped those numbers with 5.5 batch volume, 60 min boil, 70% EE%, and got 1.054. 

Over-collecting by two gallons OR getting 50% EE% each resulted in 1.039.

One gallon too much AND 60% also made 1.039. 

Recommend you verify your measuring stick for boil volume, and check your crush and lautering speed. 

Do you mash out to 168F to increase the fluidity of the mash?
 
Thank you all for the responses.

As a side note, the fermentation seems to be going well -- lots and lots of bubbles thru the air lock.

Anyhow, the pre-boil volume was about 6.25 gal.  Grains were purchased from my LHBS a week ago so they sat (already crushed) for 6 days in paper bags in our dining room.  From what was posted, I must work on my efficiency and lautering processes.  BTW -- this was my second AG batch -- been doing extract for awhile and decided to make the switch.
 
One of the most important pieces of equipment I obtained, when I stepped into AG, was my barley crusher.  It improved my efficiencies noticably, and added one more thing to the list of things I had control over. 
 
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