Hi Guys,
I have been brewing for a little over a year and my beers are pretty good but I have trouble hitting the OG number in a recipe. I'm not sure if my strike water is too high or I'm not sparging well enough but it seems I always have to add sugar towards the end of my boil. I usually have around 14 lbs of grains and my strike water is around 6 gals. I make 6 gals of sparge water to use and anything left over I use for cleaning. Once I collect my wart of around 7.5 to 8 gals I pull off a sample and let it cool down and check my OG. If I am looking for a OG of say 1.065 I am usually around 1.050. I cheat and dump in about 2 cups ( 10 oz ) of dextroce sugar right at the end and my OG is usually pretty close. I'm not sure if my strike water is too high or if my sparging isn't doing the job. I tried batch sparging and it was even lower. Can u have too much strike water?? Should u have more sparge water than strike water?? Not sure where I am going wrong. Thx in advance for any help. Pete
I have been brewing for a little over a year and my beers are pretty good but I have trouble hitting the OG number in a recipe. I'm not sure if my strike water is too high or I'm not sparging well enough but it seems I always have to add sugar towards the end of my boil. I usually have around 14 lbs of grains and my strike water is around 6 gals. I make 6 gals of sparge water to use and anything left over I use for cleaning. Once I collect my wart of around 7.5 to 8 gals I pull off a sample and let it cool down and check my OG. If I am looking for a OG of say 1.065 I am usually around 1.050. I cheat and dump in about 2 cups ( 10 oz ) of dextroce sugar right at the end and my OG is usually pretty close. I'm not sure if my strike water is too high or if my sparging isn't doing the job. I tried batch sparging and it was even lower. Can u have too much strike water?? Should u have more sparge water than strike water?? Not sure where I am going wrong. Thx in advance for any help. Pete