My efficiency sucks. Worse than that, it's not even reliably sucky. Sometimes 60%. Sometimes 65%. Sometimes under 60%. I'm not greedy. I just want a nice, healthy 70%, give or take a couple %'s. I understand that bigger beers will suffer in terms of efficiency. I'm not talking about huge beers. I'm talking about regular sized beers. OGs of 1.045 to 1.060. Next beer I'm doing is going to be a Kolsch. I Will collect 7.7 gallons preboil, and will boil for 90 min down to a 6 gallon post-boil batch. I'm using Chicago, Lake Michigan water, untreated.
My water:
Calcium - 35 ppm
Chloride - 13 ppm
Alkalinity (CaCO3) - 105 ppm
Magnesium - 11 ppm
Sodium - 10 ppm
Sulfate - 10-25 ppm
My grain bill:
10 lbs pils
8 oz munich
8 oz wheat
4 oz carafoam (carapils)
Here's what I'm going to do about my efficiency:
I'm going to preheat my Coleman Xtreme cooler mash tun with water ~15F hotter than my strike temp. I will preheat for at least 20 minutes. Then I will stir the water down until it reaches strike temp.
I will use Beersmith to give me an accurate strike temp. (On this matter, I've never been let down. I nail it within a degree everytime.)
I will use Beersmith to calculate my efficiency into the kettle.
I'm going to dough-in at a moderate pace, pouring my grains into my very preheated mash tun, stirring all along the way, being VERY careful to break up any doughballs. I will continue to stir the mash, with my mash paddle, after doughing in, for another 3-4 minutes.
I'm going to calibrate my dial thermometer at boiling point, accounting for local atmospheric pressure, so I can better trust it when it says 154F, or whatever.
I'm going to give the mash a stir once or twice throughout the 60 minute mash.
I'm going to keep my preheated mash tun inside and cover it with blankets to better hold mash temp over the course.
I'm going to use Iodophor to ensure a non-positive starch result after the 60 minute mash.
[I am NOT going to measure the pH of my mash. Not without a good pH meter. Something I don't have.]
I'm going to mash at a water/grain ratio that will give me at least a gallon of top-off water, which I will bring to boiling before adding back to the mash for the 1st run-off.
I'm going to heat my sparge water to raise the mash to 165-170 before the 2nd run-off.
Both of my run-offs start out slowly for about 20 seconds, then I open 'er up and let 'er rip.
I'm going to, once again, calibrate my measuring rod which I use to measure the volume of pre-boil wort I collect. I will know how many gallons I have collected to the nearest tenth of a gallon.
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If I do all of this, and my efficiency is still under 65%, what next? The only unknown I'm leaving behind is pH and my crush. Can I automatically blame the crush? Is pH a possibility? But what if people using my same water and the same mill from the same HBS are getting much better efficiency? Where could I possibily be failing myself?
Long post. Sorry.