HippieCrack

Recipes 

Is it normal to get really crappy efficiency on bigger beers?

pizzaman

Recipes 

crap in crap out? could you be more specific please ma'am.

conpewter

Recipes 

You end up with less water to sparge with so generally it is harder to get good efficiency in big beers. I normally get 75-80 but big beers I set at 60% (so far)

__________________
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." - V

Primary: Nothin
Secondary: Shady Lord RIS, Water to Barleywine, Pumpkin wine, burnt mead
Kegged: Crappy infected mild
Bottles: Apfelwein, 999 Barleywine, Oatmeal Stout, Robust Porter, Robust smoked porter, Simcoe Smash

HippieCrack

Recipes 

lol I only got about 55% on a barley wine I brewed today, just wondering if it's normal as I had been running a bit higher. I'm also doing a brew in a bag though and I don't have much experience with it so..

edit: conpewter - I was approaching 60% so I'm going to assume I'm within range?

conpewter

Recipes 

Right brew in a bag will also loose a bit of efficiency if used in it's purest form (no sparging). 55% is not great but reasonable for a barleywine BIAB. If you used enough water to get better efficiency you'd end up needing to boil for hours and hours, it is better IMHO to add more grain to make up for the efficiency then to waste the time/money boiling longer, depending on how you boil.

__________________
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." - V

Primary: Nothin
Secondary: Shady Lord RIS, Water to Barleywine, Pumpkin wine, burnt mead
Kegged: Crappy infected mild
Bottles: Apfelwein, 999 Barleywine, Oatmeal Stout, Robust Porter, Robust smoked porter, Simcoe Smash

HippieCrack

Recipes 

I didn't use it quite in it's pure form, I sparged but not with much water and the crush on the grains wasn't the best either so I'd say I'm right where I should be.. once I get the technique down my efficiency will probably move up.

conpewter

Recipes 

Oh don't get me wrong, sparging with BIAB is a good thing, keep working on your crush and technique and you'll get higher efficiency.

__________________
"People should not be afraid of their governments. Governments should be afraid of their people." - V

Primary: Nothin
Secondary: Shady Lord RIS, Water to Barleywine, Pumpkin wine, burnt mead
Kegged: Crappy infected mild
Bottles: Apfelwein, 999 Barleywine, Oatmeal Stout, Robust Porter, Robust smoked porter, Simcoe Smash

HippieCrack

Recipes 

I'll get it. Thanks for the advice.