Hello guys, I brewed mead before but this was my first attempt at brewing beer. After making a lot of research I made my own recipe based on a few others, and here is the recipe; https://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/view/918381/buddha-bomber

The thing is, when I measured the original gravity in the end, it came around to 1.030-1.032, which is way below what I anticipated by the recipe of 1.053. I am wondering what might be the problem, is it normal for a recipe to differ this much, can it be related to the wort not being mixed up properly or any other reasons I miscalculated? (Before you mention, I temperature corrected the hydrometer which at most increases OG by 0.002)

Here are the steps I followed in case it helps;

• Steeped the grains in 10 Liters (2.64 Gallons) of water in 70-72 degrees C (158-161 F) for an hour.
  
• Rinsed the grain sack with 1 liter (33 oz) of 100 C (212 F) water.
• Brought the wort up to a boil and added 1.5 Liters (50 oz) of light liquid malt and started boiling for an hour.
• Added 14 grams (0.5 oz) of Target hops at the beginning of the boil and 28 grams (1 oz) of Brewer's Gold hops 45 minutes later.
• Skimmed the thin layer forming on top of the boil.
• After the boil, placed the pot in a cold bath to cool down.
• Poured the contents into a carboy and added water to top it up to 18 Liters (4.75 Gallons).
• Pitched the yeast at 28 C (82 F) (Don't worry, the yeast is fine).
• Proceed to take a measurement and be baffled by the reading of 1.030-1.032.

I would be glad if you can help me figure this out.

 

Thanks everyone for all the replies. First of all, I cracked the grains myself (might've too finely crushed the pale wheat) and I haven't squeezed the bag, instead I just rinsed it and waited for it to stop dripping since the recipe I based this one on told me so. I expected the final recipe to be 18 liters.

For steeping the grains, I checked the temperature every 10 minutes and it never went above 163 degrees for the entire hour. I was not mixing the mash during this phase thou, so perhaps the temperature towards the bottom was greater than the surface of the solution that I was measuring.

I know that there are some laboratories that can analyze the exact ABV from a sample but I don't know if I should be bothered. Anything above 3-4% ABV should be fine, yet I enjoy making custom labels for my bottles which state the ABV. Right now I just don't know whether the measurement was wrong or my recipe which resulted in a low OG.

 

Yeah, lets just hope I failed to mix it well because the carboy was quite heavy Currently the beer looks fine and bubbles from the air trap smell quite nice. I am gonna let it ferment for a total of 3 weeks then bottle it and perhaps sample a bit for taste. Planning to use 110.8 grams (~3.9 oz) of table sugar for priming to 2.4 volumes of carbon dioxide suggested by the calculator for Belgian Ales since I am trying to make a Belgian Saison. Hope the carbonation will be right since I am afraid of making a bottle bomb Some calculators suggest 3.2 vol for Saison but I am open to suggestions.

On my next beer, I will try to aim for 64-66C for the mash and see how it turns out, glad for the tip. It was hard to stir it after placing it in the carboy since the mouth of it is quite tiny, I tried to shake it up instead to mix, which was probably not the best method.

 

Just a heads up on how everything is going. For some reason, my previous comment has been stuck in moderation for 10 days. It has been 20 days since the fermentation began and I am planning on bottling the brew tomorrow. Yesterday I degassed it a little within the carboy by swirling it around. Right now I feel like it has cleared pretty nicely, the only thing I am worried about is, as the air trap suggests pressure within the carboy is lower than outside pressure. Is this due to me degassing it in the carboy and perhaps carbon dioxide dissolving back into the liquid afterward? I just want to make sure it is ready for bottling before I accidentally make a bottle bomb or something

 

Well moderation is probably because I am using a trial membership

I think the suck back effect was due to me leaving the window open as you said since I noticed it went back to normal after that.

Yesterday I transferred it to a bucket and the gravity was 1.010 which was the suggested final gravity of the recipe I generated so I degassed with a paddle, primed it to somewhere in between 2.3-2.4 vol's, and bottled. We tasted the remaining bit and it tastes quite good and unique. It feels like its' alcohol content is closer to 5.66% suggested by the recipe rather than 2.89% which I measured. I don't know if that small of a difference can be noticed thou.

The only thing I am slightly worried about right now is, I am going to save some bottles to bring over to friends during summer, yet the room temperature is 20-25C (68-77F) degrees currently. It can go up to 40C (104F) during summer in our vacation place. Would that be enough to push carbon dioxide vol above 3.5 and cause the bottle to explode or would it be fine?

Here is the message that is still stuck in moderation by the way;

I have a plastic bucket that I don't want to use for fermentation, perhaps I'll transfer the mash to the bucket and mix it thoroughly with a paddle next time. For carbonation, I found out that for the 500ml European bottles, its max carbonation is 3.5 vol, then it starts getting dangerous, so I would rather use 2.4 just to leave a pretty safe headroom. I am going to bring them over to our vacation place in summer to enjoy with friends so I don't want them popping due to heat This is the type of bottle I am going to use;


For those drill attached stir sticks, I have seen them in videos and they work great but unfortunately I couldn't find them in my country and didn't wanted to bother with import taxes, hence why I got the plastic stir paddle instead Maybe I'll invest in one in the future though since they are quite useful.

I attached an aquarium thermometer to the carboy to see fermentation temperature and it started out with 22-24C and currently down to 18-20C even though it is kept under my desk. I will calculate the fermentation temperature as 25C just to be safe since the thermometer doesn't have 25C on it.

I am planning on waiting at least 3 weeks for the priming to complete before opening one and tasting it. Most of them will sit for 3-4 months since I am saving them for summer.

This was my first post on this forum and all of you guys have been super helpful. Thanks again for all the tips and insight!

 

Well the bottles are brand new so there should be no problem there Also I am aware that there won't be any more carbon dioxide in the bottle after the fermentation is complete, it is just that I was vary of the expansion of the gas currently within the bottle. Yet I suppose since all of the beer manufacturer's don't have to account for the temperature of the area where they are going to sell the beer, it should be fine.

Right now I placed all of them in an empty unused room so even if they go off, they won't hurt anyone. Also I'll bubble wrap them when transporting over the journey just to keep them safe and from popping.

 

Yup, I am planning on popping one after 3 weeks of priming, thanks for the sink tip!

Well it was supposed to be 1.053 OG but when I measured it with a hydrometer, it was around 1.030-1.032. Nearly half a bottle (500ml) was left after bottling and after drinking that, it felt like the alcohol was definitely closer to the upper end of 5.66%.