Home Brew Forum

well after many months of learning and a couple of weeks brewery building i am very glad to say that my first AG, a brown ale, is all tucked up at 223 c fermeting away. hopefully the temp will drop over the next couple of days.

couple of questions though. i ran the brew through beer engine and got all the stats. i was aiming for an O.G of 1.050 but ended up with 1.062. this was based on a 75% efficiency. basically this is probably gonna end up around 6%!!

im not really that bothered but would like to know how i ended up this way?

mashed at 67 c for 90 mins and lost 2 c. not bad!

the brew length was 18 litres. im not sure how much i ended up with as it is in a large glass demijon but im guessing around 16 litres.

my pre-boil gravity was 1.048 i think

so waht do you chaps think happend here, and also how do i work out my efficiency for the future?

AG # 2 tomorrow!!!wooo

223C I hope not

good stuff, what was it, what did you make?

its a recipe for a brown ale i came up with my self

Fermentable Colour lb: oz Grams Ratio
Pale Malt 5 EBC 7 lbs. 13.1 oz 3550 grams 88.1%
Crystal Malt, Pale 60 EBC 0 lbs. 6.3 oz 180 grams 4.5%
Chocolate Malt 1050 EBC 0 lbs. 6.3 oz 180 grams 4.5%
Wheat Malt 3.5 EBC 0 lbs. 4.2 oz 120 grams 3%


Hop Variety Type Alpha Time lb: oz grams Ratio
Fuggle Whole 6 % 90 mins 0 lbs. 0.6 oz 18 grams 40%
Fuggle Whole 6 % 20 mins 0 lbs. 0.5 oz 14 grams 31.1%
Fuggle Whole 6 % 5 mins 0 lbs. 0.5 oz 13 grams 28.9%


Final Volume: 18 Litres
Original Gravity: 1.050
Final Gravity: 1.013
Alcohol Content: 4.8% ABV
Total Liquor: 26.8 Litres
Mash Liquor: 10.1 Litres
Mash Efficiency: 75 %
Bitterness: 23.3825461167661 EBU
Colour: 91 EBC
.

its pretty dark at the moment

That roast chocolate is going to come through lots I suppose

Congrats on your first brew,may it be one of thousands

cheers for all the responses.

can anyone tell me how i ended up with such a high O.G

sam c wrote:cheers for all the responses.

can anyone tell me how i ended up with such a high O.G

Probably because you only ended upwith 18ltrs instead of 23ltrs
the lesser the volume the higher the gravity will be.

it was only a 18 litre brew and i think ive ended up with around 15/16 litres.

so still two under what i was planning for.

the brew i did the next day however ended up much closer to the predicted OG.

sam c wrote:it was only a 18 litre brew and i think ive ended up with around 15/16 litres.

so still two under what i was planning for.

the brew i did the next day however ended up much closer to the predicted OG.

At 75% efficiency, that recipe would have given you an OG of 1.053 for an 18 litre brew length.

(53 * 18) / 62 = 15.39 - your approximate actual brew length.

thats a very usful calculation to have. as my brew is in a large glass demijon i was unable to know how much i ended up with.

that is based on 75% efficiency, but what if mine was higher than that?

hope that makes sense!

sam c wrote:thats a very usful calculation to have. as my brew is in a large glass demijon i was unable to know how much i ended up with.

that is based on 75% efficiency, but what if mine was higher than that?

hope that makes sense!

If your efficiency was 80%, then you would get (15.39 / 75) * 80 = 16.4 litres but........ You wouldn't know what your efficiency was in the first place if you were unsure about your final volume, unless you knew your system well, and your effiency was consistant and repeatable.

good point.

when i bottle i will see how much there really is.

thanks