I just pulled the wort off this mash, and noticed that not all the grains looked milled.  What do you think?
And of these options, which do you think it is that's unmilled?
Crystal 75L........  0.5#
Caramunich.......  0.5#
German Munich.. 1.0# (my guess)
Vienna Malt........ 8.0#

It was all ordered milled and combined in 1 grain bill.  Obviously didn't look close enough when I got it.
Pre-boil, gravity was 1.035.  Will it have a big effect on my brew?  This is my first attempt at a Lager.

I'll post who I ordered from after I can talk to them tomorrow.

(clickable for full size)

Doesn't look ideal. Who ever milled it looks like they may have had the setting a bit too large.

Questions though:
What was your mash temp?
How long did you mash?
and I'm assuming 5gal batch size?

Using your guess (that it was the munich that is not milled) wouldn't affect your mash that many points (from what looks like should be closer to 1.055). Either that or your efficiency really sucks (45-50%), which could be possible, based on mash temp/length.

More likely its a combo of all of the grains having the milling a bit too large. But again the mash temp and length is a major factor with vienna base malt for lagers - hence why I asked.

Recipe - 5 gallon batch.

I mashed at 140* for about 40 (should have been 30, but water took longer to heat than I though - first double infusion also) and 158* for 30 min.  Then standard batch sparge to get ~7 gallons preboil.  First runnings were 1.045 and 3.25 gallons.

You nailed the OG - 1.054.  It is still in the boil (about 20 min left) so I'll update once it finishes and cools.

Think I should add some DME (I only have extra light for starters).

ETA: Pulled a few untouched grains from a heaping teaspoon of mash.  They don't even appear to be touched by the mill

Boil just finished... 1.040 OG .  Didn't add any DME.

Oh well, it'll be a session beer @ about 4% ABV or so.
Hopefully it still turns out good.

Also, double checked my Order Confirmation... All grains ordered as milled.

Yeah, best guess is that the mill was set too wide, or has worked itself out of precision. I know suppliers try to do their best when us customers order ingredients, but sometimes these things happen (especially when someone specifically orders a light milling for a batch, and then the next guy forgets to reset the mill to the correct sizing for the next customer order). That's why I try to stick to getting items and ingredients through my LHBS (so that I can mill it myself at the store), but I know thats not always possible for everyone.

Call up whoever you ordered from and let them know the situation. Hopefully they'll help make it right by offsetting the cost of your next order or something. If they don't, then you know not to go through them again.

Where did you get your kit from?   I am doing a pale ale now from Midwest and have a 1.025 pre-boil gravity...

158 degree mash that cooled to 150 after an hour in the cooler.  I did a fly sparge at 166ish (should have been 168) degrees yielding 7.1 gallons pre-boil volume.  My final runoff gravity was only 1.004.


I looked at the spent grain and it looks the same as the OP; about 10% of kernels are whole and taste sweet when chewed on, which indicates that they have sugar that should be in my wort.


This is my first all grain, so I don't know if the errors were on my end or not.  I feel like I need to invest in a grain mill.

AHS.

1.004! Thats pretty much straight water  Might have been part the grain mill (90% milled should have given you a higher OG) and part you.  I don't fly sparge, so I'm not sure the techniques there.

158* at start sounds really high to me.  I'm usually around 150-154 or so.

ETA: and as follow up, AHS took care of me, no issues.

It was my first time doing all grain.  I mashed in at 163 which should have dropped to 152 due to the cooler and grain.

Next time, I won't be so trusting of beersmith Now that I actually have experience with this equipment.


I suppose it could have been the fly spare since it's pretty gentle versus batch sparging.  Maybe there were portions of the grain bed that weren't adequately rinsed.  


I ended up with just over 4 gallons of wort in my primary with a gravity of 1.052.  It was a pale ale with 4 .5 ounces of hops in it, so there was a ton of hop matter in the bottom of the kettle I tried to avoid transfering.  For a few reasons, I think I lost too much to evaporation also.