Efficiency way high

IPA_33 · 10-27-2008, 06:24 PM

This weekend I shared the joy of homebrewing with my father in law. I kept the recipe simple to not overwhelm him but wanted to show him how AG sessions go.

I just finished my first cooler->MLT conversion and saw the benefits right away. Hit my mash temp right on at 153. held for 60min.

I was anticipating an OG of 1.061 and well.... take a look.

If you can't see it, it's reading 1.098.

Any ideas how this happened? I use promash for all my recipes, and that's where I got the expected OG of 1.061.

**AZ_IPA** · 10-27-2008, 06:29 PM

what was your recipe?

what was your sample temperature? Did you temperature correct?

**dataz722** · 10-27-2008, 06:29 PM

I would think that it could possibly be airbubbles.

**mysteryberto** · 10-27-2008, 06:29 PM

What was your grain bill? What does your hydrometer read in water? What temperature did you take the reading at?

**Reverend JC** · 10-27-2008, 06:29 PM

10 gallon grain bill for a 5 gallon batch?

IPA_33 · 10-27-2008, 06:32 PM

Grain bill was very simple:
10# 2-row pale (us)
2# crystal 60L

ratio was 1qt water/1# grain

the sample temp was about 75. Was that too warm for an accurate reading? That's usually what I go with. Maybe I've been mistaken all along?

drunkatuw · 10-27-2008, 06:37 PM

Something's not adding up, I put 10# 2-row and 2# crystal 60L into beersmith and for a 5 gal batch, 100% efficiency only gets you to 1.086. But if you only ended up with 4 gal in your fermenter because you boiled off way too much, then a 90% efficiency will give you 1.097 which is believable. But there is no way you have 5 gal of 1.098 wort with the simple grain bill you gave.

IPA_33 · 10-27-2008, 06:39 PM

it's definitely shy of 5 gal. I have a five gal carboy and there's some headroom for sure. I tried to accomdate for that with a little more sparge water. At boil I had 6.25 gal. probably lost 2 gal to evaporation.

**AZ_IPA** · 10-27-2008, 06:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by IPA_33

Grain bill was very simple:
10# 2-row pale (us)
2# crystal 60L

ratio was 1qt water/1# grain

the sample temp was about 75. Was that too warm for an accurate reading? That's usually what I go with. Maybe I've been mistaken all along?

75 would actually bump your gravity up 2 points, so you're at corrected gravity of 1.110

take a sample of water @ 60*F and see what your hydrometer says. My guess is it will not say 1.000

I've heard the paper can slip on hydro's which lead to a very unaccurate reading.

Also, maybe you didn't stir your wort enough and you were reading mainly from your 1st runnings which could be ~1.110?

menschmaschine · 10-27-2008, 07:08 PM

What's your water source... municipal or well? Do you happen to know the pH? If this isn't your first AG batch, what were your previous efficiencies?

If you had 6.25 gallons at boil time and lost 2 gallons, that's 32% loss. That seems way high.