menschmaschine
Well-Known Member
My efficiency has always been high... around 92-93%. This is what I type into Beersmith's "Brewhouse Efficiency" and my OGs and post-boil volume are usually dead-on, or at least within 1 point and 1 pint. And I usually end up with minimal wort left in the kettle. I have malt analyses, from which I calculate and type the pertinent information into Beersmith, and use a Barley Crusher after weighing the grains on a digital scale. I'm confident in having a good crush and in the accuracy of my scale.
My system is a 3-tier keggle system with a SS false bottom in the mash tun and I fly-sparge. One thing I've noticed from batch to batch is that my efficiency never reduces regardless of how fast I fly sparge. My fastest was 30 minutes. This happened twice, but more out of coincidence than me doing it on purpose. So, yesterday I brewed a Helles with a slightly adjusted recipe from my last Helles. They've all had the base Pilsner malt from the same sack of grain.
The grain bill was 15.5 lbs Pilsner and 0.4 lbs Cara-Pils with a pre-boil volume of 14.45 gal. and a post-boil volume of 12 gal. (90 min. boil). My water to grain ratio was 1.1 qts per pound and I added 2 qts to thin it for the mash out. I did a Single Decoction mash with temps of 131dF, 154dF, and mashout at 168dF. I hit all my temps and volumes pretty darn close. My well water pH is 5.7.
I wanted to confirm the integrity of my 30-min. fly-sparge, so I did it again with this Helles, wondering if I'd lose a couple points of OG. Well, the opposite happened. My target OG was 1.046 and my actual OG was 1.049! What the heck?! Beersmith gives a 97% Brewhouse efficiency for this. That's insane.
Now I think my fly-sparging technique is very effective since I do what I've dubbed as "controlled random channeling". I simply have tubing running from my HLT and sprinkle water onto the mash, allowing the water flow to randomly disturb the grain bed under it's 1" cover of water.
So, what could I be doing wrong, either in the brewing or calculations, to get such (false?) high efficiency?... or am I just extremely fortunate?
My system is a 3-tier keggle system with a SS false bottom in the mash tun and I fly-sparge. One thing I've noticed from batch to batch is that my efficiency never reduces regardless of how fast I fly sparge. My fastest was 30 minutes. This happened twice, but more out of coincidence than me doing it on purpose. So, yesterday I brewed a Helles with a slightly adjusted recipe from my last Helles. They've all had the base Pilsner malt from the same sack of grain.
The grain bill was 15.5 lbs Pilsner and 0.4 lbs Cara-Pils with a pre-boil volume of 14.45 gal. and a post-boil volume of 12 gal. (90 min. boil). My water to grain ratio was 1.1 qts per pound and I added 2 qts to thin it for the mash out. I did a Single Decoction mash with temps of 131dF, 154dF, and mashout at 168dF. I hit all my temps and volumes pretty darn close. My well water pH is 5.7.
I wanted to confirm the integrity of my 30-min. fly-sparge, so I did it again with this Helles, wondering if I'd lose a couple points of OG. Well, the opposite happened. My target OG was 1.046 and my actual OG was 1.049! What the heck?! Beersmith gives a 97% Brewhouse efficiency for this. That's insane.
Now I think my fly-sparging technique is very effective since I do what I've dubbed as "controlled random channeling". I simply have tubing running from my HLT and sprinkle water onto the mash, allowing the water flow to randomly disturb the grain bed under it's 1" cover of water.
So, what could I be doing wrong, either in the brewing or calculations, to get such (false?) high efficiency?... or am I just extremely fortunate?