so far all of my AG (5 all together) have been in the neighborhood of 75-80% efficiency. i recently picked up a second cooler and a pump, and have been having some heat problems.
two brews ago, i was unable to keep my sparge water hot enought to bring the mash up to the upper 160's (highest i attained was 162). i still ended up with 76%.
my last brew, a belgian blonde, turned out pretty poorly. i had the same problem with sparge temps. in my HLT the temp was holding at 185, but between the HLT and the mash tun it was dropping considerable heat, only reaching 160 once stirred into the grains. my target OG was 1.05 and i hit 1.033. ouch.
now to be fair, it has been roughly 35 degrees outside both times, and i think thats attributing to the heat loss (pumping through the hoses with such cold air) but also not having it hot enough in the HLT. i'm thinking 195 next time.
i also used 4 lbs of wheat malt in the belgian which i've never used before, would this make higher effeciency harder?
last but not least, i also used tap water. every other time i've brewed i've either used brita filtered water or spring water. i'm thinking its probably poor pH in the tap that hurt?
any ideas? thanks for reading
two brews ago, i was unable to keep my sparge water hot enought to bring the mash up to the upper 160's (highest i attained was 162). i still ended up with 76%.
my last brew, a belgian blonde, turned out pretty poorly. i had the same problem with sparge temps. in my HLT the temp was holding at 185, but between the HLT and the mash tun it was dropping considerable heat, only reaching 160 once stirred into the grains. my target OG was 1.05 and i hit 1.033. ouch.
now to be fair, it has been roughly 35 degrees outside both times, and i think thats attributing to the heat loss (pumping through the hoses with such cold air) but also not having it hot enough in the HLT. i'm thinking 195 next time.
i also used 4 lbs of wheat malt in the belgian which i've never used before, would this make higher effeciency harder?
last but not least, i also used tap water. every other time i've brewed i've either used brita filtered water or spring water. i'm thinking its probably poor pH in the tap that hurt?
any ideas? thanks for reading