55% efficiency!

God Dammit!
Here is the rundown.


Type: All Grain
Date: 4/30/2007
Batch Size: 5.25 gal
Brewer: Dan Withers
Boil Size: 7.56 gal Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min Equipment: Brew Pot (6+gal) and Igloo/Gott Cooler (5 Gal)
Taste Rating(out of 50): 35.0 Brewhouse Efficiency: 70.0
Taste Notes:

Ingredients

Amount Item Type % or IBU
8.50 lb Pale Malt, Maris Otter (3.0 SRM) Grain 82.9 %
1.00 lb Barley, Flaked (1.7 SRM) Grain 9.8 %
0.50 lb Cara-Pils/Dextrine (2.0 SRM) Grain 4.9 %
0.25 lb Wheat Malt, Bel (2.0 SRM) Grain 2.4 %
1.00 oz Hallertauer [4.80%] (60 min) Hops 18.0 IBU
0.50 oz Saaz [4.00%] (15 min) Hops 3.7 IBU
0.50 oz Saaz [4.00%] (2 min) Hops 0.6 IBU
1.01 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 min) Misc
2.00 items Vanilla Beans (Secondary 14.0 days) Misc
5.25 gal Portland OR Water
1 Pkgs California Ale (White Labs #WLP001) Yeast-Ale



Beer Profile

Est Original Gravity: 1.051 SG
Measured Original Gravity: 1.040 SG
Est Final Gravity: 1.011 SG Measured Final Gravity:
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 5.1 % Actual Alcohol by Vol: 3.9 %
Bitterness: 22.3 IBU Calories: 175 cal/pint
Est Color: 4.8 SRM Color: Color


Mash Profile

Mash Name: Single Infusion, Light Body Total Grain Weight: 10.25 lb
Sparge Water: 3.15 gal Grain Temperature: 72.0 F
Sparge Temperature: 170.0 F TunTemperature: 72.0 F
Adjust Temp for Equipment: TRUE Mash PH: 5.4 PH


So the final volume is good, right at 5.25 gallons.
Mash went like this
156 for 60; starch conversion complete via tincture iodine test.
Mash out 169 for 10 minutes
Sparge 170.
Volume into boiler 7.50 gal
Final volume 5.25

The crush looked bad but I figured it was my untrained eye...guess not. I'm sure it will turn out good, but I was waaayy of target with this one.

This sucks. This is my second AG brew that went sh!tty and I'm pretty frustrated.


Dan

Also tasted my sample and it's got a very astringent bite to it..hopefully that goes away.
And FYI the past two mashes I have done have rendered 73-76% efficiency.

Dan

I am currently drinking my 50% effeciency batch and it's one of the tastiest beers I have made (12 all grain and 60+ extracts.) I bought myself a grain mill so I won't have the crush to blame next time if it turns out low. With a better crush and a mash at a lower temperature you will be back in the 70-75 range.

Yeah a mill is definitely on the "to do" list. As far as the temp goes...is that too high? my previous AG and PM's have been mashed at around the same temps. This is the first time I've had a problem...although I preheated better this time, so I only got a 1 degree drop in temp vs. a 3-5 degree loss on my previous batches.

So now I need to buy a hopstopper, grain mill, and burner. Maybe in a couple years I will have enough money to buy a kegging setup.


Dan

Yeah, one bad crush and you see the vaule in a mill. It sucks that your efficiency was so low and that probably will affect your hop utilization. Probably why it tasted astringent. That will probably mellow with a little time. Did you take a Pre-boil reading? You can always add a little DME at preboil to get you up to spec if you need to. That would help the hop utilization issue.

I had one bad crush come from a grain order and went out and bought a mill. Now I buy in bulk and crush the day before I brew. No more issues.

Was the temp too high? Depends what you wanted from your mash. It shouldn't affect your yield, and your starch test showed it was done. It will affect the body of your beer and how well attenuated it gets after fermentation.

jdoiv said:

Yeah, one bad crush and you see the vaule in a mill. It sucks that your efficiency was so low and that probably will affect your hop utilization. Probably why it tasted astringent. That will probably mellow with a little time. Did you take a Pre-boil reading? You can always add a little DME at preboil to get you up to spec if you need to. That would help the hop utilization issue.

I had one bad crush come from a grain order and went out and bought a mill. Now I buy in bulk and crush the day before I brew. No more issues.

Click to expand...

Yeah if this one doesn't come out I am going to be pissed. I just bought a hopstopper because the bazooka tube basically only strains whole hops...it's useless with trub and pellet. Looks like I will be putting it in my MT instead. I will be buying a mill next month when I get back from vacation. I'm not sure which one yet, but I'm done dealing with someone else's crush. Plus I can order bulk and save some cash.

The astringency could have been because I took the sample from what was left over after I transferred to primary..I had to filter out a lot of material. At least I hope so...the beer is super super cloudy right now.


Dan

It may end up being great, at least mine did and I was really pissed off when I first made it thinking it was screwed up.

I hope it comes out good.


I called AHB and basically went over my process and he basically said I did everything right except that I ran my wort off too quickly and that might be why I had sucky efficiency. I was running off about a quart every 30 seconds or so and he said it should be more like a cup or two a minute. I don't know though because there are people out there who say to go full throttle with batch sparging.


Dan

Well, were you batch sparging or fly? I don't think runoff speed matters with batch sparging, though I don't know as I fly. If you were fly sparging than that is a little fast. I typically run my fly sparge in 45-60mins.

The beer may come out great and I wouldn't worry about it very much as worrying won't solve anything. I would look at my process and try to fix what ever may have effected it.

It was a batch sparge. I'm not worried too much..it just sucks not getting what you wanted to get for all your hard work.


Dam

I like a mash temp sweet spot of 153. I use that primarily for all my brews. Your process sounds right on the money. I had the same problem of inconsistency with grain crush and bit the bullet and got a crusher. One of the best things that I added to my inventory. Grain crush definately will have an effect on batch sparging efficiency.