ipa problems

hi new at brewing we made up this recipe and are having a little problem with the alcohol percentage, the taste and aroma seem like they will be very good. here is the recipe.
10 lbs 2 row pale malt
3 lbs munich malt
1/2 lbs cyrstal malt
1/2 lbs caramel malt
1 oz amarillo gold fwh
1 oz warrior 90 min
1 oz magnum 60 min
1 oz centennial 10 min
1 oz amarillo gold 5 min
2 oz cascade dryhop
california ale yeast made starter
2 oz gypsum
we did a 90 min boil at 150 used 6.5 gallons of water
starting gravity 1.035 after boil 1.0538 one week in first fermenter at transfer to secondary fermenter 1.011
so we have a very weak ipa any suggestions  to help us out i hope i gave enough info we are going to leave the beer in the secondary for about 3 weeks. we only shook it up when adding to the first fermenter so maybe not enough 02 and we did not add any sugar maybe that would help or i could be way off                                                                                                                       

Sounds like a nice APA.  Suggest you let it finish and then package. 

14# of mostly base grain at 38ppg should have yielded more than 1.035 pre-boil, so the extraction from sparging must've suffered.

thank you for the reply we are using a baseball cooler with a false bottom we are thinking of making another and splitting think its called batch sparging hope i got that right very new at homebrew only third batch but same problem everytime

andy said:

we did a 90 min boil at 150 used 6.5 gallons of water
starting gravity 1.035 after boil 1.0538 one week in first fermenter at transfer to secondary fermenter 1.011

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Does this mean mashed at 150F?  If so, lower-temp mashes take longer to convert, so give it enough time.  Then lauter slowly to improve extraction of sugars.

You might try a mash-out infusion to raise the mash temp and improve the flow.  Try mashing with a little less water, and then add a gallon of boiling water after the mash is fully converted.  This will raise temps to about 165F or so.  

EDIT - How thick is the grain bed?  A depth of 8 to 12 inches is good.  If you have that in the current cooler, I would not split it, but would work on the extraction as Jomebrew recommends.

The sparge method and process has a significant impact on the separation of sugar from the grist.  You need to ensure your process rises the sugars from the grain rather then creating channels where the wort rushes through escape tunnels leaving a significant amount of sugar behind.  Usually a good vorlauf followed by a slow sparge with sparge water sprinkling the top the same rate wort is coming out works very well.  You should expect this to take about an hour.  Batch sparge done properly can produce a similar efficiency but it too needs to be done properly to ensure you maximize the sugar separation from the grist.

How are you measuring the gravity?  what temp is the wort?

Just by reading the info ,it seems that Andy thinks he should have a high bottom number,
Not the case ,,Looks like he took the OG and Pre-boil numbers,which is good to know.
The bottom number looks good because of the low mashing temps,,,I think he thinks he should have a higher FG number
OG -FG do the calc in beer smith for your Alc by Vol is 5.6 
Andy the o2 shaking thing ,,,
Was this the PURE 100 precent or Atmosphere
I would use always oxygen after racking the  wort to carboy before pitching yeast and Yeast nutrient
Use PURE 100 oxygen , Have a oxygen tank from welding all these years and put it to use , I installed a filter, Basically Oxygen is Oxygen , I didn't want to get a particle from inside the welding tank , But talking to the welding supply shop and these tank are very clean because of the process involved in testing and filling them ,,, The diffuser stone would catch any materail anyway but a pre-filter does hurt, and may keep stone a little cleaner
Sent us some more info on what you think 

  beercheer4me,  the o2 shaking thing i was referring to was us shaking the  wort around in the fermentor. My buddy Dave and i are looking into an oxygenation system to use before we brew our next batch.  Read up on a few different ideas, we just need to choose one and move out. 

jomebrew-  when you asked how we  measured the gravity, we are using a hydrometer and then compensating for the temperature based on the chart in Palmer's How to Brew.  The temp was roughly 76 degrees when we measured it after  we boiled then cooled.  I'm pretty sure, actuially I'm positive that we sparged way too quickly because it def didn't take an hour, and if i had to guess it took maybe 10-15 minutes. So we will be applying a slower sparge to our next batch as well. 

Maltlicker you suggest that we hold off on the batch sparging until we improve (slow down) our sparging process, however we were wondering if the 1.035 pre-boil could be a result of the grain itself and/or how it was cracked? Can we even tell.  A better questiosn would be is the grain itself and the cracking a common problem?  Anyway, thanks for all the help and advice. Will keep you all updated on the progress.   

when I batch sparge, I vorlauf about 10 - 15 quarts on an IPA.  I then start a slow batch and after a couple minutes open it all the way.  I close the valve and add my sparge water, stir, let it settle and vorlauf again and follow the same procedure. 

Your manifold / screen design has a lot to do with the efficiency of your sparge and how slow of quickly you should proceed.  I found that fly sparging ove an hour was not a good match for my system and batch sparging was more consistent and a little better on efficiency.

Joe