My 2nd All-Grain / Massive Efficiency Increase!

Last Sunday I finally had a chance to do a 2nd all-grain recipe and I was majorly surprised by the leap in efficiency I had! I did Jamil's Beamish-Style Dry Stout recipe from the September issue of Brew magazine and instead of 75% efficiency, which is what I got on my first attempt, I got 86.94% Not that I am complaining, but it probably took the batch a little out of style.

recipe for 5 gallons:
6 lbs. Marris Otter (LBHS standard grind-- I have no malt mill)
17 oz. Roast Barley (finely ground in a coffee mill as per the recipe)
1.75 lbs Flaked Barley
1 oz. Super Styrian 7%AA 60 min. (recipe called for .95 oz. Challenger but none at the LHBS)
1/2 oz. East Kent Goldings 4.8%AA 15 min.
Wyeast London Ale (recipe called for Irish Ale yeast but none at LBHS)

I also deviated from the recipe by doing a 30 min. protein rest at 122F (recipe called for 120F for 25 Min.). My sach rest was about 35 min. at 148 - 150. I batch sparged with cooler/screen lauter tun-- same equipment setup I used last time. Maybe the grind on the roast barley helped, maybe I stirred better between batches in the sparge. My sparge temp was about 178 - 180 which is about 10 degrees higher than my first batch.

What do you guys think made it jump 10+ points? The process was actually an hour and 1/2 shorter than when I did batch 1 several months ago.

Sounds yummy. I hope your fermentation goes well and you can hold the fermentation at the proper temperature. Let us know if you experience any tannins from the >170 sparge. A lot of us do go over this mark at the start of sparging but continue with 170F sparge after the mash gets up to 170F.

This is an excellent example of how one does improve his technique and get better efficiency.

Congratulations on the high efficiency. Thats a good thing.

Tommish said:

What do you guys think made it jump 10+ points? The process was actually an hour and 1/2 shorter than when I did batch 1 several months ago.

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It sounds like your sparge temperature, more than any other single factor. More likely than not, though, you just did everything better all-around.

Congratulations!


TL

Personally, I am usually in the 70's for efficiency and I would be very skeptical of my own measurements if I calculated something in the mid-high 80's all of a sudden. How certain are you of all your measurements? (gravity, volume, and grain weight)

Not doubting your numbers per se, as it's certainly possible to get that kind of efficiency - if you really did, by all means, congrats!

Gravity and grain weight were spot on, as were my infusion volumes. I did not precisely measure my volume collected but I did the calculation assuming 6 gallons collected-- my boil kettle is not yet graduated.

I just redid the calculation based on a 5.5 gallon collection which may well be closer to what I got. This showed an efficiency of 79.7% I BELIEVE that I was somewhere between these 2 volumes, but even if I was only at 5.5, I can live with a nearly 5% boost. Bet I can get a couple more by getting my own malt mill

Thanks for the answers!