Hit by a thought

I just read BierMuncher's sticky on Hybrid fly sparging. My efficiency has been in the crapper as of late. In looking at his illistrations it dawned on me. I may have found the answer to my problems. Let me see if I've I have this strait.

In the past I would measure out the water needed to sparge and try to be exact as possible to hit my target volume. I would only heat enough water to hit my target. Usually I would end up draining the mash completely when close to my target volume. I've done this with batch and fly sparging both with very low efficiency.

Now here is what I think is the fix. Mark my keggle with the target volume. Continue to add sparge water to keep the 2-3 inches above the grain bed through out the entire process. Which means, I'll stop drawing wort and still have 2-3 inches over the grain bed.

Could this have been my problem the entire time? Now I need to brew to find out. What you professionals think? The mash should be reading 1.010 at this stage so I shouldn't be leaving anything behind in the extra water.

Batch sparging doesn't leave any liquid in the MLT when you're done so it doesn't apply. I guess you just need to figure on which method you want to go with. If it's batch sparging, I may be able to help you out with efficiency problems.

I get my grains milled from AHBS. I've asked for the finest crush they can give me. They have had no complaints of poor efficiency other then myself. So, I'm dead set it's my brewing skills. I've fly sparge and batch sparge with no improvement of my efficiency.

Bobby M, At this point I'll try anything to get close to 75%. What's your batch method? I think batch is the way to go.

Check out the page linked in my sig call all grain primer. I'd be really surprized if you can't get 80+ out of it.

LarMoeCur said:

I get my grains milled from AHBS. I've asked for the finest crush they can give me. They have had no complaints of poor efficiency other then myself.

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If the AHBS you are referring to is Austin Homebrew Supply then I have a hard time believing that. I have personally told them about my efficiency issues using their grain and crush and they gave me a finer crush when I have asked. Those guys are really helpful when I have questions and it helps that they are a short drive from my house.

Chris do they mill right in front of you or in the back? I'd like to ask for a custom setting but have no idea what their mill is like. I just need to bite the bullet and buy a darn mill.