I am smacking my head a against a wall here.
I am constantly getting between 50 and 60% efficiency according to Beersmith and an online efficiency calculator.
I recently did an ohio steve recipe
10lb american 2 row
1lb crystal 40
1lb cara pils
12oz wheat malt
60 minute mash at 152
I have a 10Gal Igloo cooler converted to a mash tun with a boil screen.
I have consistently missed my OG and I am getting frustrated.
I will step you through my process, Please critique and let me know where I can improve.
I always rinse my mash tun to make sure it is relatively clean. Then I dump some boiling water in there to heat it up a little bit.
I heat my strike water, in the case of the last recipe I heat 4.25 gallons to 162F.
I dump the water that was in the mash tun and add the strike water. I use an instant thermometer to read the temp. It reads 160ish. I dump my room temp grains in and give it a good stir to make sure there are no clumps.
( My first thought is maybe I need to stir more vigorously, since I only stir to make sure nothing is sticking together)
I take the temp again and I am reading between 151 and 152F. I put the lid on the cooler and start the timer for 60min. About every 15 min, I come back give it a quick stir and take temp. I am within 1 degree for the entire hour.
At the end of 60min I vorlauf about a gallon or two until it runs clear. After I see no more grain, I collect the first runnings.
My 4.75 gallons of sparge water is now at 170F and I batch sparge adding the 170 degree water to my mash tun. I give it another quick stir and let it sit about 10 minutes and vorlauf one more time. Once clear I collect what I need for my pre boil volume about 6 gallons.
I boil for 60 minutes adding my hops as per recipe. I chill using a wort chiller. Once at about 65F I take my gravity reading and I am at 1.040!?!?!
I expected 1.065-1.070!
I know this is a long post, but I really would like some help with this. I am a bit of a perfectionist and I don't want to just add more base grain to compensate. I really would like to know what I am doing wrong.
Thanks in advance to all your help!
I am constantly getting between 50 and 60% efficiency according to Beersmith and an online efficiency calculator.
I recently did an ohio steve recipe
10lb american 2 row
1lb crystal 40
1lb cara pils
12oz wheat malt
60 minute mash at 152
I have a 10Gal Igloo cooler converted to a mash tun with a boil screen.
I have consistently missed my OG and I am getting frustrated.
I will step you through my process, Please critique and let me know where I can improve.
I always rinse my mash tun to make sure it is relatively clean. Then I dump some boiling water in there to heat it up a little bit.
I heat my strike water, in the case of the last recipe I heat 4.25 gallons to 162F.
I dump the water that was in the mash tun and add the strike water. I use an instant thermometer to read the temp. It reads 160ish. I dump my room temp grains in and give it a good stir to make sure there are no clumps.
( My first thought is maybe I need to stir more vigorously, since I only stir to make sure nothing is sticking together)
I take the temp again and I am reading between 151 and 152F. I put the lid on the cooler and start the timer for 60min. About every 15 min, I come back give it a quick stir and take temp. I am within 1 degree for the entire hour.
At the end of 60min I vorlauf about a gallon or two until it runs clear. After I see no more grain, I collect the first runnings.
My 4.75 gallons of sparge water is now at 170F and I batch sparge adding the 170 degree water to my mash tun. I give it another quick stir and let it sit about 10 minutes and vorlauf one more time. Once clear I collect what I need for my pre boil volume about 6 gallons.
I boil for 60 minutes adding my hops as per recipe. I chill using a wort chiller. Once at about 65F I take my gravity reading and I am at 1.040!?!?!
I expected 1.065-1.070!
I know this is a long post, but I really would like some help with this. I am a bit of a perfectionist and I don't want to just add more base grain to compensate. I really would like to know what I am doing wrong.
Thanks in advance to all your help!