leftover sugars

After I finished brewing, I decided to check the gravity of the liquid left in the mashing tun and found that it was still at 1.035 (3 hours after mashing). This was only my 5th all grain batch, but I have never had problems with efficiency before. My efficiency was at 26 instead of 28 or 30 like it had been with my other batches. I fly sparge and my runoff is at a rate of about 1 qt every 2 min. The only difference between this batch and the others was that I used 10 pounds of grain instead of 8.

I'm not sure if I have a problem or not as I extracted enough sugars to get a decent starting gravity (1.048), which was just slightly lower than where I wanted (1.050). I just feel like I am wasting a lot of sugar. If nothing else, I feel like I should make a 1 gallon test batch with the remaining sugars and try a different flavoring like cayenne pepper or garlic.

Well you could collect it and use it for a yeast starter. That is what I have been doing with some of the extra wort I collect.

What do you mean when you say your efficiency was at 26 instead of 28 or 30?
How much wort is let in the tun?

If your original gravity is 1048 post boil then it doesn't seem like a problem.

What you might consider is leaving the last gallon of sparge on the mash for an extra 15 minutes or so. Also, rake the surface of the mash during the sparge to reduce channeling.

orfy said:

What do you mean when you say your efficiency was at 26 instead of 28 or 30?
How much wort is let in the tun?

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I wasn't sure what the standard was when talking about efficiency. I was using Palmer's formula for calculating points per pound per gallon. I think that 26 ppg would be about 70% efficiency.

david_42 said:

Also, rake the surface of the mash during the sparge to reduce channeling.

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Does that mean stir up the top couple of inches of the grainbed as I sparge?

Thanks for all your help.

70% efficiency isn't too shabby.

You could increase it by sparging slower (about 1 qt per 4 minutes is what I use), but this will take an extra 40 minutes or so for sparging. Only you can decide if the extra time is worth it.

-a.