ackerman81

Recipes 

Summary
Using 14 Lbs of Grains 11 Maris and the rest specialty malts mashing for 60 Minutes and fly sparging(7.5 Gallons) for 40 minutes in a 10 gallon cylindrical cooler with a false bottom I get a gravity reading after a 90 minute boil with 5.5 Gallons remaining of 1.055. Promash says that I'm 58% Efficient. I took a gravity reading of the wort coming out of the cooler after I had sparged off 7.5 gallons and at 70 deg's it had a gravity of 1.026

Grains
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Grains were crushed well by the brew shop, and they have validated that the crush produces efficient mashes.

Water
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I have pretty much prefect water, similar to the profile of czech pilsen region, so I add 5.2 to my mash.

PH: I did not test the ph so I don't know.

Mash Process
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Strike water temp was 161 ish and my mash temp hit about 152 ish. I stirred at about 30 minutes in and sparged with 180 - 200 deg water. I know 200 is to hot(husk tannins) but I wanted to try and give the sugars the best possible rinse. The interesting thing is my mash temp never seemed to get about 150 during the sparge process.

Boiling, my boil is a slow simmer, I could increase and boil off more wort allowing me to sparge more wort in the first place getting a better effiency?

Gravity of the wort still coming out of the mash after pulling off 7.5 gallons was 1.026, this makes me think that I have good conversion, and the sugar is there, but It's not getting rinsed. Also If I had channeling, then those sugars would still be on the grains, and I wouldn't get such a high gravity reading of the wort at the end of the sparge.

Am I boiling to lightly and I just need to pull off more wort?
Getting frustrated because I don't want to base all my recipes for 55% eff and buy a bunch more grains.

Ryan

OG in the fermenter was 1.055

So I didn't take a gravity reading before I boiled, just when complete. I boiled for 90 minutes

osagedr

Recipes 

More experienced folks than me will chime in I'm sure; how did your LHBS "validate" that their mill is set properly?

What was your target OG?

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2012 Canadian Brewer of the Year

@evilgoatbrewing

mrk305

Recipes 

Do you stir a lot when sparging? That is where you get the "best possible rinse".

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Carport Brewery, Lilburn GA

ackerman81

Recipes 

So I talk to the guys at the shop and they have extreamly efficient mashes doing there brewing at home, and they use the same mill, so I made the inference that if the crush was poor no one using the mill would be able to get an efficent mash.

We'll 100% effiecent mash would be 1.094, thats an unrealistic target obviously, but I'd like to get 75% and that would make my target 1.071

ackerman81

Recipes 

No I don't stir at all when sparging... thought that would mess the grain bed up? maybe the important part of the grain bed is the bottom 1/4 or so?

Mknox4354

Recipes 

I just brewed my first AG yesterday and had similar results I was looking for an O.G. Of 1.070 and only hit 1.055. So I'm curious what when wrong as well. My efficiency was obviously very poor so I must of done something incorrectly

ackerman81

Recipes 

Would I be better off doing some sort of batch sparge? Or is fly sparging have the best potential for getting the best rinse/effency?

osagedr

Recipes 

Mash too thick? What is your water/grain ratio?

Perhaps a longer mash? Verify conversion before sparging?

__________________
2012 Canadian Brewer of the Year

@evilgoatbrewing

ackerman81

Recipes 

so I had 14 pounds of grains and used about 5 gallons of water

ackerman81

Recipes 

the gravity reading at the end makes me think I have good conversion and the sugars are there... it's just a rinse problem