I have a mash tun that I feel like I'm not getting top end efficiency out of. All the brews I've put through it are getting 67%-72% efficiency. I'm not hitting my numbers the way I want to. My temp control is + or- 2 degrees all the way through. The mash tun itself is a coleman cooler. The filter system is a braided line that travels through a metal "T" and out through the valve.
I don't know if I'm losing volume because the braided line isn't in the absolute bottom of the tun. It sits about 1 inch above the bottom. I've tried to lift the mash tun for 5 minutes (at the back end) to allow it to drain completely. Even though I give it time to drain, I still think that there is more wort left in the mash tun. I can't get any more wort out of my mash tun.
I even ran an additional 4 quarts through it in a batch sparge in an attempt to gather more wort. I increased my boil off time by 15 mins to account for the extra water. I still hit 1.062 with 14 lbs of grain but I expected something more along the lines of 1.070.
Am I expecting too much from my system or should I consider rebuilding my manifold in order to obtain a higher efficiency?
I don't know if I'm losing volume because the braided line isn't in the absolute bottom of the tun. It sits about 1 inch above the bottom. I've tried to lift the mash tun for 5 minutes (at the back end) to allow it to drain completely. Even though I give it time to drain, I still think that there is more wort left in the mash tun. I can't get any more wort out of my mash tun.
I even ran an additional 4 quarts through it in a batch sparge in an attempt to gather more wort. I increased my boil off time by 15 mins to account for the extra water. I still hit 1.062 with 14 lbs of grain but I expected something more along the lines of 1.070.
Am I expecting too much from my system or should I consider rebuilding my manifold in order to obtain a higher efficiency?