RLinNH

Recipes 

Brewed my 2nd AG this past weekend, and I hit ALL my numbers, to a Tee. The whole process went very well. As far as the Crush of the grain goes, I am using a friend's JSP. He gets low 83%ish every time he brews. So why in the heck am I still only getting 62% Efficiency!?!?!? Only thing I can cme up with is my Mash/Lautering Tun design. It is a simple 48 quart Coleman Cooler with a Copper Manifold in the bottom with a single Spigot outlet. Reaso I bring up the Tun is while Iw as brewing, I read a good article in BYO about Lautering, and they brought up some different designs and which ones they got the best results with. So, I am wondering, if you are using a 48 qt Rectangular Coleman Cooler, what are your Efficiency numbers?


BTW, I am batch sparging. I did three equal volume Sparges this weekend.

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On Deck beer
Primary Robust Coffee Porter
Secondary Flanders Red
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Kegged Simcoe Sevada 10, Alex's Oatmeal Stout 2012
On Tap Bee Cave Kolsch

Brew-boy

Recipes 

I have the 50qt igloo cube with a cpvc manifold in the bottom of mine and I hit a constant 82-83% effecincy. I do crush a little finer than most maybe and I also fly sparge which takes 45-60 minutes. I tried batch sparging but my effecincys were in the 60's. Again this is when I first started all grain brewing have have learned alot since then.

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Aging: Imperial Oatmeal Stout on Vanilla beans.

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RLinNH

Recipes 

You wouldn't by any chance have a few pictures of you Fly Sparging System, would ya?

__________________
You Can Give A Man A Fish and Feed Him For a Day, or You Can Teach Him To Fly Fish And Spoil Him For Life

On Deck beer
Primary Robust Coffee Porter
Secondary Flanders Red
Bottled
Kegged Simcoe Sevada 10, Alex's Oatmeal Stout 2012
On Tap Bee Cave Kolsch

Kaiser

Recipes 

If you use the same grain crush than your friend and he gets 83% efficiency, then you should get the same unless you have problems with your mash. For batch sparging, the design of the mash-tun doesn't have an affect on the efficiency unless you created a large dead space that cannot be drained.

Check the conversion of your mash and or its pH. Also, sparge with about 168 *F water and make sure you stir well after adding a batch of sparge water.

Kai

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Bobby_M

Recipes 

I have a 48 quart and the only thing I can think of in your case is your increased deadspace. I use a braid that's clamped over a tip tube that goes right down to the lowest spot in the cooler. The space between the cooler floor and your highest slot is deadspace.

You have to also quote the OG of your recipe because the higher you go, the lower the efficiency numbers would be. Anyway, on my mid grav beers (1.040-1.060), I get around 88-92% with batch sparging.

I'd be looking at the crush and your sparge temps. Throw the thermometer into the mash right after you stir your sparge infusion in to get an idea how close to 170F you're getting. I use 180F sparge water.

I'd bet that fly sparging is NOT going to do much for you.

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Krazy Bazturd

Recipes 

I have a 52 Qt Coleman Extreme with a stainless steel braid and I am consistently hitting at or above 75% efficiency using grain that I crush at my LHBS.

Have you checked you thermometer to make sure it was accurate?

Brew-boy

Recipes 

Here is my rig, manifold on the bottom and sparge manifold on the top. I like this setup because I can fly sparge with the lid closed.

[IMG][/IMG]

__________________
Next:American Brown Ale.
Primary:
On Tap: Dusseldorf Alt, Cream Ale, Belgian Pale Ale.
Aging: Imperial Oatmeal Stout on Vanilla beans.

I rather owe you a dollar than cheat you out of it.."Dad"

http://lapeerareabrewers.com/

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LapeerAreaBrewers/

BNVince

Recipes 

I have the 72 quart coleman extreme with a stainless steel braid. On my first AG i hit around 63% efficiency with the Austin Home Brew supply crush. I did a dough in, mash out, and one sparge.

On my second AG batch I hit 75% efficiency. The grains were also from Austin Home Brew supply but this time - taking advice from some people here - I skipped the mash out and did 2 sparges instead.

I've concluded that more sparges equals better efficiency with my setup.

beerbuddy

Recipes 

I have a 48 quart igloo cooler with a SS braid. I hit 74% on my first try.
Mash out and split my sparge into 2 batches.

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jayhoz

Recipes 

48 Quart Igloo with CPVC manifold. With the terrible crush provided by my LHBS I am getting around 71% efficiency.