Water to grain ratio w/ large dead space in mash tun

Brewing a basic heff

6lbs 2row pils
6lbs german wheat

Mashed in 5.5 gallons
sparged w/ 3.0 gallons to get 7 gallons of wart.

1 oz halletrau @60m

OG should have been 1050 but came out 1042 which isn't too bad.

left in primary for 2 weeks and then bottled.

The beer is coming out watery and very clear. Done this recipe twice with same results. Friend brewed it and came out better. While checking my equipment I found my tun has 1.5 gallons of dead space because of where the drain was at. Could this be the problem? If so what formula would I use for water/grain ratio 1.25 to 2q per lb of grain? I'm thinking if so, add anohter .5lb to 1lb to each grain to make up for lost wort.

Hope this makes sense. My partial mash brews have turned out great and having nothign but problems with all grain.

JP Rice

The 1.5 gallons of dead space most certainly plays a role in the low eff. Its the stuff with really high gravity. If it just stays down there during the laughter, then none of the higher concentration wort makes it to the BK. If you cant move your dip tube lower to suck this stuff up, maybe you can do a batch sparge style of laughtering to get that high concentration wort into the kettle.

In your words though, what is dead space? Describe your MLT in a bit more detail. How is there 1.5 gallons of "dead space" below the drain? does this volume contain grain or is it just wort?

Well, if it was me, I would use a lower grain/water ratio to save more water for the sparge, then I would sparge twice instead of once. At least that way you can dilute the wort trapped in the dead space.

What yeast are you using and how are you storing/serving your bottles?

By dead space I mean the amount of water/mash left at the bottom of the tun that will not drain out because of the height of the manifold which when measured w/ 5g only drained 3.5 leaving 1.5 at the bottom.

I am using wyeast bavarian yeast strain w/ a 800ml started and fermented in temp controlled freezer at 66-64. Bottled and stored in same freezer for 3 weeks.

JP Rice

It's wild to have 1.5 gallons left. Are you using tubing on the ballvalve? You measured that with just water, right? And then opened the ballvalve, and let it drain through the tubing to the ground? And still have 1.5 gallons left in the MLT?

What kind of false bottom/manifold do you have?

menaceinc said:

By dead space I mean the amount of water/mash left at the bottom of the tun that will not drain out because of the height of the manifold which when measured w/ 5g only drained 3.5 leaving 1.5 at the bottom.

I am using wyeast bavarian yeast strain w/ a 800ml started and fermented in temp controlled freezer at 66-64. Bottled and stored in same freezer for 3 weeks.

JP Rice

Click to expand...

Can you post a picture of your setup? This seems like an excessive amount left over. Perhaps a redesign is in order?

EBloom97 said:

Well, if it was me, I would use a lower grain/water ratio to save more water for the sparge, then I would sparge twice instead of once. At least that way you can dilute the wort trapped in the dead space.

Click to expand...

+1 for using less mash water and increasing the sparge. 12 lbs of grain @ 1.25 quarts per lb = only 3.75 gallons of mash water.

That will bump your sparge water up to 4.75 gallons.

Also you should attempt to re work your lauter ton manifold / false bottom / outlet to reduce the dead space.