HELP!! Effic. Sucks!

I have the 48qt rectangular cooler with the ball valve manifold and SS braided hose.

This weekend I brewed Old Speckled Hen which the OG should have been 1.050 and I only got to 1.037.

Brewing procedures:

Used 10lbs of grain with 3.5 gallons of mash water and then 6 gallons for batch sparge. Mashed in at 154 degrees and sparged at about 158 degrees. My mash was in for about 88 mins and temp was measured are time of run off and it was 152.5. So only lost about 1.5 degrees after 88 mins. I batch sparged for about 10 mins and then drained. I ended up with about 6 gallons of wort to boil.

Any suggestions on how to get my effic. better would be great!!!

I take it the SG is after the boil and you ended with 5gallon at 1037 in the fermenter?

Were your grains fresh? How fine was the crush? What kind of water do you have and do you use anything to set the pH level?

You said your sparged at 158. I think most people sparge at ~170. You can also do a mash out. Many claim that alone raised their effic. by 5-10 pts. You can do this by adding ~ 1 gal of boiling water at the end of the mash to raise the temp.

Lastly, are you sure your calculated the efficiency with the right volume? 5 gals vs 5.5 or 6 gals will cause your numbers to come up short.

Cheers.

First of all I did two different hydro readings!

The first one I took with all wort from runnings in brew kettle just before I started the boil. I got 1.037! I then boiled and added 1lbs brown sugar and 1lb of preservative free syrup. At time of going into primary I took reading and I was at 1.057 with 5.5 gallons of wort although this would be skewed because of the syrup and brown sugar correct?

I followed the recipe from Orfy on the mash schedule and sparge temps!

I haven't ever measured my water as I was told before that the water I am using is pretty good from my LHBS. My grain crush is from the LHBS and seems to be maybe on the medium side of being crushed with the husks still in tack but are split open.....

If your 1.037 reading was with 6 gallons, then you have to use that as your volume, not 5 gallons. This should make your efficiency higher if your run the numbers again.
Make sense?

I did use 6 gallons as my volume in ProMash..... And this is how I came up with the 1.037.....

Welll the good news is........

At 1057 you're good for the recipe......That was above the actual target.
The mash target (Pre Boil was 1039) so you're not out much)

1057 start and 1013 finish will give an ABV of 5.7% compared to a target of 5.2%

Well done.

I don't know what the recipe was, but say it was all 2-row. Then you would get:

Max ppg = 10 x 37 / 6 = 61.6

Since you got 37, your effic would be 37/61.6 = 60%

If you do the calc w/ 5 gals you get:
Max ppg = 10 x 37 / 5 = 74, and your effic would be 37/74 = 50%

Just plug your numbers from your actual recipe in and see if you don't like the result better? ;-)

Sorry, I posted too late and didn't see your answer. You still might want to try a mash out and sparge with a little hotter water. That might help.

Well dang it then.......I am confused as heck here now.....:O

When I look at a recipe and it says OG should be whatever gravity, that is Pre-Boil correct or not correct?

I think that's usually the gravity of the wort in the primary fermenter.

Not correct.......

It's at the fermenter.

IF you look at the recipe it will usually have a preboil target lower than the OG target.


In this preboil target 1039
OG/fermenter target 1057
FG target 1013 (dependent on yeast)

Okay, well then if you don't mind answering me on how to enter this into ProMash that would be great in trying to detremine effic. I should enter the 1.057 into the calculation to get my effic., not 1.037 that I got at the time of pre-boil? Because when I enter 1.037 that's what gives me an effic. of like 50% or so.

I don't use promash.
One of the easiest to use I www.recipator.com.
You enter thwe recipe and estimated effec. It gives to a estimated OG.
You can then out in your actual OG and it will adjust the effec.
65 plus is an okay base effec for batch sparging AG. Mid 70s is usually 80+ is very good.
Don't forget it is a lot cheaper than extract and a LB or 2 extra grain to hit targets is not bad.

The recipe I posted was based on 70% and you hit above target.

I'll run the figures if I get time.


One last thing is if you're only boiling off half a gallon then you could do with collecting more wort and boiling off more.

Thanks so much Orfy!! No need to run the figures.....I will try to figure this one out myself......

It seems you went away from the recipe but ended up with the figures you needed.
Not sure if that was fluke or design.

But I just ran a recipe with 10lb grain, 1lb sugar, 1ld syrup and 5.5g at 1059 and that works out at 68% brewery efficiency.

Test Old Speckled Hen

Batch Size: 5.5 gallon
Boil Time: 60 min
Brewhouse Efficiency: 68.0 %

10lb Pale Malt (2 Row) US

-- Drain Mash Tun
-- Batch Sparge Round 1: Sparge
-- Batch Sparge Round 2: Sparge
-- Add water to achieve boil volume

Boil for 60 min Start to Boil

1 lb Lyle's Golden Syrup (0.0 SRM) Extract
1 lb Dememera Sugar (2.0 SRM) Sugar

0 min 1oz Northern Brewer [8.50%] (60 min) Hops
45 min into boil Add .5oz Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (15 min)
55 min into boil Add .25oz gm Goldings, East Kent [5.00%] (5 min)


-- Add Ingredients to Fermenter
1 Pkgs Nottingham (Danstar #-) Yeast-Ale

18/12/2006 Measure Original Gravity: ________ (Estimate: 1.059 SG)
18/12/2006 Measure Batch Volume: ________ (Estimate: 5.5 gallon)
29/12/2006 Measure Final Gravity: ________ (Estimate: 1.014 SG)

Thanks Orfy.......so then I am pretty darn close to what I needed to be...... Yes, I went a little different on the recipe since my effic. hasn't been very good I thought I would up it a little to get the maximum effic...... I guess I just need to still learn when to measure the gravity to figure out my maximum effic. for my system......

To keep a track on things you need to measure.

The wort and extracts and sugars in the boiler before boiling. Make sure it is all dissolved and mixed. Take a reading and adjust for temp or cool before reading.

This lets you know you are at the correct preboil gravity. From this you can work out how efficient of your mash.

From this any loss of wort due dead spaces will reduce your overall brewery efficiency. After the boil as finished the next time to take a reading is after it has cooled and ideal in the fermenter to make sure it is mixed. A turkey baister or wine thief is ideal for this. You should also mark volumes on the fermenter so you know the volume of the wort you finish with.