In the middle of brewing efficiency sucked

I have no idea why my eff is so low please critique what I have done and how is this going to affect my beer overall and abv.
Here is my grain bill for a mack and jacks all grain clone

9.81 british 2 row pale
1.15 crystal 80
1.15munich
.58 cara/pils
total grn bill 12.69

12.69x1.25=15.82qts or 3.96 gallons

I mashed 4gallons @ 155 for 60 min
to figure my sparge I took the equation
12.69 x.20(for absorption) and got 2.53 absorbed this wuoud leave about 1.4 of wort.i wanted 6.5 boil volume so I took 6.5-1.4 and sparged with 5.1 gallons.
I sparged with 2.5 @ 182 then sparged 2.5 @ 170. ( i read that if I split the sparge it would increase my efficency.
I ended up with 6.6 galons of wort preboil it is a 5.5gallon batch.
my og before boil is 1.045 and I used an online efficency calc and it told me my eff was 52.9%.
What the hell?
Why is it so low?
Can I expect my beer to be in the 4% volume range? it shoule be 5 or 6

I figured the recipe for 65 % b/c I brewed my first batch last week and got 66%

please help I am very frusterated

Thanks

NOt enough sparge water.
I had this exact issue, and started to realize that if I had a grain bill of 9#'s or less, I was getting 75%+ and the more grain I used, the worse it got. I think if you were collecting closer to 9 gallons from that 12# of grain, you would be closer to the mid 70's

BigKahuna said:

NOt enough sparge water.
I had this exact issue, and started to realize that if I had a grain bill of 9#'s or less, I was getting 75%+ and the more grain I used, the worse it got. I think if you were collecting closer to 9 gallons from that 12# of grain, you would be closer to the mid 70's

Click to expand...

Is there an acurate formula? Whoont that give me to much preboil volume throwing my 5.5 batch of beer off?

bulldogxray said:

Is there an acurate formula?

Click to expand...

I hit chat and ask the masses.

bulldogxray said:

won't that give me to much preboil volume throwing my 5.5 batch of beer off?

Click to expand...

Boil till you get there! It's going to take longer than an hour...usually more like 90 minutes, but if you boil harder, you'll boil off faster.

BigKahuna said:

NOt enough sparge water.
I had this exact issue, and started to realize that if I had a grain bill of 9#'s or less, I was getting 75%+ and the more grain I used, the worse it got. I think if you were collecting closer to 9 gallons from that 12# of grain, you would be closer to the mid 70's

Click to expand...

9 gallons, really? My last brew had an expected OG of 1.056, and I collected 7.4 gallons. The LAST runnings were at 1.008 (about the min. unless you want to start extracting alot of bad stuff). Now I also did a 90 moinute boil, and I had the exact same eff. as when I ran off 6.7 gallons and boiled for 60 minutes.

Basically, there is no point in running off more into the kettle than necessary. If you plan for a 90 minute boil, the pre-boil volume will probably put you at the MAX that you can run off, meaning anything more and there wont be enough sugar in it to matter at all.

If I collect 9 gallons, I would have to boil for 2 hours and 38 minutes to get down to 5.3 gallons!

I sparge at about 1.5 qts/lb and get mid to high 80s efficiency for similar grain bills. You sparged at 1.67 qts/lb. I use the same temps for sparging as you, and also do a double/split batch sparge. Crushing my own grains helped my efficiency go from 55-65% range to 85-87%. How do you get yours crushed?

JoMarky said:

I sparge at about 1.5 qts/lb and get mid to high 80s efficiency for similar grain bills. You sparged at 1.67 qts/lb. I use the same temps for sparging as you, and also do a double/split batch sparge. Crushing my own grains helped my efficiency go from 55-65% range to 85-87%. How do you get yours crushed?

Click to expand...

Guess??? my lhbs

I just took a post boil sg and it was 1.060 How is that posible?

Your preboil OG should be lower than your post boil. Youre concentrating the wort by boiling off a gallon of water..the same amount of sugars are now present in a smaller volume of water and therefore the gravity is higher.

My lhbs used to crush my grains too...now that I have control no grain goes uncrushed and the endosperms get pulverized.

JoMarky said:

Your preboil OG should be lower than your post boil. Youre concentrating the wort by boiling off a gallon of water..the same amount of sugars are now present in a smaller volume of water and therefore the gravity is higher.

My lhbs used to crush my grains too...now that I have control no grain goes uncrushed and the endosperms get pulverized.

Click to expand...

I need to get a mill and do it my self.

With that sg my abv should be pretty goodright?
I was right in using my preboil sg for figuring my eff?

Well, TastyBrew's Gravity Calculator says you got 70.5% efficiency if your OG was indeed 1.060. That's not too terrible IMO.

If you finish at 1.015 you're abv will be right about 6%
There's different types of efficiencies but the one most people refer to when talking about their efficiency is the "brew house efficiency" or overall efficiency which is taken post-boil after the wort has been chilled and is ready for the yeast to be pitched.

I got a corona mill off ebay for 30 bucks with shipping. There are those who say you need a barley crusher but for now I'm happy with the product im getting out of my corona.

jkarp said:

Well, TastyBrew's Gravity Calculator says you got 70.5% efficiency if your OG was indeed 1.060. That's not too terrible IMO.

Click to expand...

I think the problem is that i put in my 1.045 prevolume sg on tastybrew and not my 1.061post boil sg?

Just for grins, I plugged this into Beersmith to get efficiency numbers:


No worries. Beersmith says 73% efficiency. Not bad at all.

jds said:

Just for grins, I plugged this into Beersmith to get efficiency numbers:

No worries. Beersmith says 73% efficiency. Not bad at all.

Click to expand...

I only ended up with about 4.12 gallons of wort instead of 5.5 what should I do I already pitched the yeast???

bulldogxray said:

I only ended up with about 4.12 gallons of wort instead of 5.5 what should I do I already pitched the yeast???

Click to expand...

What you should do is check the other thread you just posted. Yooper's already got you covered.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/i-am-short-my-final-volume-wort-87042/

jds said:

What you should do is check the other thread you just posted. Yooper's already got you covered.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f36/i-am-short-my-final-volume-wort-87042/

Click to expand...

Sorry i probably should not have posted another thread. I am just freaking about about my brew. 35 bucks for the ingredients might not be a lot for some people but it is to me if it goes to waste.

Thanks for your help

bulldogxray said:

Sorry i probably should not have posted another thread. I am just freaking about about my brew. 35 bucks for the ingredients might not be a lot for some people but it is to me if it goes to waste.

Thanks for your help

Click to expand...

RDWHAHB!

It's fine...even if you don't hit your #'s!
It's fine!

It will be beer!

You'll have less,but stonger,beer

bulldogxray said:

Sorry i probably should not have posted another thread. I am just freaking about about my brew. 35 bucks for the ingredients might not be a lot for some people but it is to me if it goes to waste.

Thanks for your help

Click to expand...

Relax, consider it a $35 tuition for beer college. I've been brewing for 2 1/2 years now and when I went AG my first few batches were in the low-mid 60's for efficiency. Now I consistently get in the mid 80's. You've got nowhere to go but up

Edit: I think the reason why you may be getting 53% rather than the 73% other people are calculating for you is you didn't mention if your FG was based on the 5.5 postboil or 4.12 into the fermenter.