Low OG

[Brewer #73650]

Hi guys,

Need your help again. I am brewing an American Pale Ale recipe All Grain. Usually I do 11L due to the size of the boiling tank being small. After some discussions around here I am topping water on top to get 18L (fermenter has 20L). Of course I add extra grains, hop, etc. I add 15L water first, do the extracting malt with gravity=1060 (I got 12.5L with this gravity). I did the mashing with 4L and pre boil gravity of 1057. Good I think considering of the mashing 4L water.
After boiling I end up with 12.5L of gravity 1066.
Then I added water (boiled first then cooled) up to 18L (around 6L).
No I end up with the gravity of 1036, only adding efficiency of 54% it will give me this number.
Considering the original recipe target was 1047 of 69% efficiency.

Now, how it will come out this beer? Probably low in alcohol, but it will still be good to drink?
I add the link to my recipe in case anyone has some spare time to look into it.
Oh, same recipe scaled down to 11L final, no water added usually I got 1047 spot on 70% efficiency. Same mill, same grains, etc.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/402088/11-american-pale-ale-18l-
Thanks as always guys,

 

[GFHomebrew]

Hi guys,

Need your help again. I am brewing an American Pale Ale recipe All Grain. Usually I do 11L due to the size of the boiling tank being small. After some discussions around here I am topping water on top to get 18L (fermenter has 20L). Of course I add extra grains, hop, etc. I add 15L water first, do the extracting malt with gravity=1060 (I got 12.5L with this gravity). I did the mashing with 4L and pre boil gravity of 1057. Good I think considering of the mashing 4L water.
After boiling I end up with 12.5L of gravity 1066.
Then I added water (boiled first then cooled) up to 18L (around 6L).
No I end up with the gravity of 1036, only adding efficiency of 54% it will give me this number.
Considering the original recipe target was 1047 of 69% efficiency.

Now, how it will come out this beer? Probably low in alcohol, but it will still be good to drink?
I add the link to my recipe in case anyone has some spare time to look into it.
Oh, same recipe scaled down to 11L final, no water added usually I got 1047 spot on 70% efficiency. Same mill, same grains, etc.

https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/402088/11-american-pale-ale-18l-
Thanks as always guys,

If you want to increase Original or Starting gravity you can either mash with more base grain or add DME to the fermentorr at the end to bring up your Final gravity to the gravity your aiming for in the recipe. See what others think but this may be a good option for you other than getting a bigger boil kettle.


Have you brewed this recipe before?

 

[chub1]

If you want to increase Original or Starting gravity you can either mash with more base grain or add DME to the fermentorr at the end to bring up your Final gravity to the gravity your aiming for in the recipe. See what others think but this may be a good option for you other than getting a bigger boil kettle.


Have you brewed this recipe before?

Yup,no expert by any means but i have added DME to bump up the OG . Seem to be getting better at my BIAB's now and get reasonably close these days.
I have a Black IPA in a Pressure barrel,it didn't reach the OG., i just left as it was and it's a really good beer,glad i left it alone.

 

[J A]

After boiling I end up with 12.5L of gravity 1066.
Then I added water (boiled first then cooled) up to 18L (around 6L).

When you're adding water to top up for fermenting you can easily control the OG of what goes into the fermenter. Just use the Dilution and Boiloff calcuator to add exactly the amount of water that will give you your desired gravity for fermentation. Your effeciency won't go up and you'll have less beer, but it'll be the beer you intended to make rather than a weaker, lower ABV version. At 10 points lower, you'll have a much different beer, but it'll be a nice 3.5 % beer for drinking.

 

[Brewer #73650]

If you want to increase Original or Starting gravity you can either mash with more base grain or add DME to the fermentorr at the end to bring up your Final gravity to the gravity your aiming for in the recipe. See what others think but this may be a good option for you other than getting a bigger boil kettle.


Have you brewed this recipe before?

I brew this recipe before but just for 11L, never add water on top of it to increase the batch.

 

[Brewer #73650]

When you're adding water to top up for fermenting you can easily control the OG of what goes into the fermenter. Just use the Dilution and Boiloff calcuator to add exactly the amount of water that will give you your desired gravity for fermentation. Your effeciency won't go up and you'll have less beer, but it'll be the beer you intended to make rather than a weaker, lower ABV version. At 10 points lower, you'll have a much different beer, but it'll be a nice 3.5 % beer for drinking.

How different it will be the beer. Ok, lower alcohol, but what about the taste??

 

[MrBIP]

Adjust everything to land at 12.5L, 1079, so when you dilute with additional water you'll hit 1047.
Or enjoy that low ABV beer, you can't drink more of those!

 

[Brewer #73650]

Adjust everything to land at 12.5L, 1079, so when you dilute with additional water you'll hit 1047.
Or enjoy that low ABV beer, you can't drink more of those!

Yeah, makes sense with way higher OG. As for low ABV, well, shoud't be a problem drinking it.
But the flavour will come similar to the original recipe?? What about iIBU? If will be just the low ABV and of course less body on the beer, this should be such a problem. For sure I'll wait and see how it goes with the beer, but was more curios to see how it will be. I know in beer you need to be patience, but is so difficult.
Cheers,

 

[J A]

How different it will be the beer. Ok, lower alcohol, but what about the taste??

If this beer is according to the recipe that you reference, you'll end up with a pretty pleasant but slightly over-hopped British style Ordinary Bitter. My guess is that the Chocolate roast will interfere a little, but it won't be a bad beer. Generally, a Pale Ale shouldn't have any roasted grain at all. I don't know how the Summit will do with a small beer like this but the other hops will mellow out very nicely. I very much doubt that you'll be inclined to pour it all down the drain, but I think you'll quickly see the need for improvement.

Here's a recipe to consider...I developed it for a workshop group brew and I've decided that it's a very nicely balanced Pale Ale recipe. You can make changes in the basic malt bill by substituting (very) similar malts but by keeping the same ratios, it works extremely well. Also, with the hops it's easy to experiment with different varieties and change the dry-hopping timing to secondary, but the basic strategy gives a wonderful hop flavor and aroma.
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/470083/six-pack-series-hop-x-pale

 

[Brewer #73650]

If this beer is according to the recipe that you reference, you'll end up with a pretty pleasant but slightly over-hopped British style Ordinary Bitter. My guess is that the Chocolate roast will interfere a little, but it won't be a bad beer. Generally, a Pale Ale shouldn't have any roasted grain at all. I don't know how the Summit will do with a small beer like this but the other hops will mellow out very nicely. I very much doubt that you'll be inclined to pour it all down the drain, but I think you'll quickly see the need for improvement.

Here's a recipe to consider...I developed it for a workshop group brew and I've decided that it's a very nicely balanced Pale Ale recipe. You can make changes in the basic malt bill by substituting (very) similar malts but by keeping the same ratios, it works extremely well. Also, with the hops it's easy to experiment with different varieties and change the dry-hopping timing to secondary, but the basic strategy gives a wonderful hop flavor and aroma.
https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/470083/six-pack-series-hop-x-pale

Thanks for your reply. It's all good then, not to worry that much. For sure I'll enjoy it at the end...
Actually I put chocolate because my stock of Caramel/Crystal 120 it's out. I add chocolate just to balance a little bit the color. Usually I use Magnum for bitering, but again, I'm out of Magnum, so instead use Summit. Shouldn't see a huge difference I think.

I've read your recipe and it said "Dry hops additions will be in primary fermmenter before yeast pitch." How this works for you? I was planning on adding some hops before yeast pitching for stronger flavor, also not wanted dry-hop as I am afraid of contamination or oxidation. Basically you just add it to the primary just before pitching the yeast?

Cheers,

 

[Brewer #73650]

By the way, my recipe with Magnum+Hallertauer+Cascade came out excellent. It gives the flavor of Cascade with small tones of Hallertauer's noble hop. For me an excellent combination. Love it.

 

[MrBIP]

Yeah, makes sense with way higher OG. As for low ABV, well, shoud't be a problem drinking it.
But the flavour will come similar to the original recipe?? What about iIBU? If will be just the low ABV and of course less body on the beer, this should be such a problem. For sure I'll wait and see how it goes with the beer, but was more curios to see how it will be. I know in beer you need to be patience, but is so difficult.
Cheers,

^ RDWHAHB.
Then adjust and try it again.

 

[J A]

've read your recipe and it said "Dry hops additions will be in primary fermmenter before yeast pitch." How this works for you? I was planning on adding some hops before yeast pitching for stronger flavor, also not wanted dry-hop as I am afraid of contamination or oxidation. Basically you just add it to the primary just before pitching the yeast?

This is a method that I tried for the first time with this recipe. It really works very well. There are things that happen to the hops during fermentation that are different from the interactions with finished beer. Sometimes there can be grassy or vegetal flavor from dry-hopping for an extended period, but I left hops in for over 2 weeks from pitch to kegging using this recipe and there's no sign of that sort of thing.

 

[J A]

Actually I put chocolate because my stock of Caramel/Crystal 120 it's out. I add chocolate just to balance a little bit the color.

I think you'll find that Chocolate Roast will add flavor that's very different from the Crystal malt. Keep some Special Roast or Special B on hand for color additions. It doesn't take much and the nutty and toasty flavors will enhance clean malty flavor rather than adding odd flavors of chocolate or dark burnt sugar.