HiGravShawn

Recipes 

So I'm maxing out about 72% eff. on a good day and I would like tips on how to improve it. I know the number one reason is the amount of beer I drink on brew day so I'm looking for reason 2, 3, 4 etc... Also, I'm still starting out and with little space so I have no plans (yet) to do crazy welding or super out the box processes.

For heating I have a 60qt pot over a bayou classic that works great to get my liquor up to temp. I have a 48qt rectangular igloo cooler with a ball valve and T attached to a washing machine braided hose with rubber removed as a manifold.

As an example from a blonde partial mash I just did, I mashed about 9 lbs of grains last time and used brewsmith to calculate my water amounts. I added 11.25 qts @ 165 degrees and this ended up a little over my target of 150 degrees at the beginning. I left this for 60 mins and came back and it was right around 150 degrees so my temp maintained well. Then I added on 2.9 gallons of 168 degree water and recycled via a quart measuring cup about 6 times until it was fairly clear. Then I drained into a bucket (only have one pot) with the valve open maybe 1/2 way. Took about 5-10 mins to get down to grain level and then I added 4.6 gallons of 168 degree water. Poured the bucket wort into my pot and cranked up the heat and added bittering hops. Drained the second batch sparge directly into pot, again about 1/2 way open and it took 10-15 mins to drain into the pot.

Refractometer told me I was at 12 brix which in beersmith gives me about 72% for my volumes. I wanted about 5% and this puts me closer to 4.5%. How can I increase this?

__________________

ShawnD
Primary: Sweet Stout
Conditioning: Lemon Pepper Wheat
Conditioning: Agave Kolsch
Drinking: Roasted Blueberry Belgian Ale

SpanishCastleAle

Recipes 

Who crushes your grain? The crush has a big impact on efficiency. You also might want to try Kaiser's Efficiency Calculator. It will tell you what your conversion efficiency and lauter efficiency are and then you'll know where to start tweeking.

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Early brewers were primarily women, mostly because it was deemed a woman's job. Mesopotamian men, of some 3,800 years ago, were obviously complete assclowns and had yet to realize the pleasure of brewing beer.- Beer Advocate

HiGravShawn

Recipes 

I usually get my supplier to crush it (RebelBrewer). I have a corona mill, but it's no better than them so I stopped bothering. I don't really have the room for bulk grains so haven't upgraded to something better. I'll check out the eff. calculator and see what I can tell.

__________________

ShawnD
Primary: Sweet Stout
Conditioning: Lemon Pepper Wheat
Conditioning: Agave Kolsch
Drinking: Roasted Blueberry Belgian Ale

wildwest450

Recipes 

72% isn't bad. Why not just adjust your grainbill next time to get the desired og? Imo getting a consistent efficiency # is more important, than how high it is.

wildwest450

Recipes 

Are you attempting a mashout with your first small infusion? If so, your temps are way to low.

HiGravShawn

Recipes 

Mild OCD, anal, cheap, bored, etc... I'll check the crush when I get home.

__________________

ShawnD
Primary: Sweet Stout
Conditioning: Lemon Pepper Wheat
Conditioning: Agave Kolsch
Drinking: Roasted Blueberry Belgian Ale

HiGravShawn

Recipes 

No I'm not doing a mashout. So you mean my sparge temps are low?

__________________

ShawnD
Primary: Sweet Stout
Conditioning: Lemon Pepper Wheat
Conditioning: Agave Kolsch
Drinking: Roasted Blueberry Belgian Ale

humann_brewing

Recipes 

Are you checking for conversion? How long is your mash? A mashout is a good idea once the conversion is done too.

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On tap: Batch 1 Flanders Red, experimental sour 1.072 > 1.000, #70 Simple, gone complex pale 1.063 4/5/13, #71 French IPA, American IPA with spanish cedar and fermented with 3711 1.059>1.008
Fermenting: #72 Flower power saison 1.053>1.004 with lavender and jasmine
Aging: #67 Bareleywine 1.116 11/07/2012, Flanders 2 batches 1.056 and 1.060 12/12/11 and 3/26/12, Smoked Porter 1.063 10/11, pepper RIS 1.088 7/11, Kriek, 1.052 12/11, RYE IPA sour experiment 8/12, Berliner Weisse 1.030 9/20/12

HiGravShawn

Recipes 

I did a 60 minute mash. I did not check for conversion this time with iodine although sometimes I do with mixed results. I used to do a mashout when I was temp mashing on the stove. How would I do that in a cooler? Maybe up the first batch sparge temp to 170?

__________________

ShawnD
Primary: Sweet Stout
Conditioning: Lemon Pepper Wheat
Conditioning: Agave Kolsch
Drinking: Roasted Blueberry Belgian Ale

wildwest450

Recipes 

Super low. And why do 2 uneven sparges? The goal is to get temps up to 168-170f. When I did split sparges, the were split evenly, and the first infusion was up around 185f to 190f.