Can someone explain this?

I was doing an all grain recipe tonight that called for 12oz of sugar during the mash. I forgot to add it and by the time I remembered, I was already boiling. So, like an idiot, I added 12 oz of sugar to the boil, not figuring that I should have put less because I would never had gotten all 12 oz out of the mash tun. Anyway, fast forward to setting up the fermenter, according to my gravity reading, got a 98% efficiency. Yeah, I know I'm not that good.

Trying to explain this, i was thinking its because my brew program thought I tossed that sugar into the mash tun rather than into the wort, and so it didn't account for my 100% "efficiency" with the sugar. But I don't think this is what happened because every time I changed the sugar variable in my program to make up for my mistake, it kept spitting out 98% efficiency. What gives? Anyone have a clue?

Why would you ever toss sugar into the mash? I have never heard of that. What is the purpose? You ended up brewing it the right way, though. I would think that adding sugar to the mash might upset the conversion process, but I'm no chemist. I suggest you alter your recipe to adding the sugar to the boil from now on instead of the mash.

It is certain that the sugar artificially increased your efficiency. You can calculate the true efficiency if you account for the added SG of the sugar. Beats me why sugar should be added to the mash instead of the boil. Seems it is just there to up the alcohol and add sweetness if it is not fully attenuated by the yeast.

reuliss said:

Anyone have a clue?

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No....but I know where you can buy one...


www.beersmith.com

Adding sugar to the mash seems a bit odd; you can't convert sugar and you'll actually lose a lot of it because it won't 100% drain out... are you sure you read the instructions right? Just seems like a waste.

Cathedral said:

Adding sugar to the mash seems a bit odd; you can't convert sugar and you'll actually lose a lot of it because it won't 100% drain out... are you sure you read the instructions right? Just seems like a waste.

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The sugar was listed with the grains and said "60 Minutes" next to it, just like all of the grains, that being the mash time. All the same, does anyone have a sense for why my efficiency turned out so high or why changing the amount of sugar assumptions in my program had not effect on the efficiency calc?

Epimetheus said:

It is certain that the sugar artificially increased your efficiency. You can calculate the true efficiency if you account for the added SG of the sugar. Beats me why sugar should be added to the mash instead of the boil. Seems it is just there to up the alcohol and add sweetness if it is not fully attenuated by the yeast.

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How do I account for the SG of the sugar?

i bet the "60 minutes" it was referring to was the 60 minute boil, not the 60 minute mash. as far as 98% efficiency, not even the sugar would have done that whenever it was added. all i can think of for the wrong efficiency is the calibration of the hydrometer being for a different temp than what you measured it at

reuliss said:

The sugar was listed with the grains and said "60 Minutes" next to it, just like all of the grains, that being the mash time.

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nope, "60 mins" is the boil time. there is no reason to throw sugar in the mash, it's a waste and might screw up your mash. you did the right thing in throwing it into the boil.

reuliss said:

All the same, does anyone have a sense for why my efficiency turned out so high or why changing the amount of sugar assumptions in my program had not effect on the efficiency calc?

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any chance there was a measuring error along the way? like maybe you used less water than thought, or more grains, or you final volume was less than 5 gals, etc.

is your hydrometer calibrated? do you get 1.000 for distilled water? any chance you can compare it to someone else's?