AG Efficiency Question

I brewed my first AG batch and I must have done something wrong. In the past I have always calculated my efficiency at 75%, which I did for this batch as well, but I really overshot my SG. My recipe was at a 1.062 and when it was all said and done I measured a 1.074 at 68*F. I tested my hydrometer in pure distilled water and it is correct. When I throw this in a brew house efficiency calculator I am getting almost 89%. I am making 5 gallons in a Igloo cooler and collecting 6.5 gallons of wort and then I did a 60 min boil, cooled with an immersion cooler.

I want to make another batch relatively quickly for the holidays but I don't want it to be higher in alcohol if my efficiency is off.

TheBeerGuy said:

I brewed my first AG batch and I must have done something wrong. In the past I have always calculated my efficiency at 75%, which I did for this batch as well, but I really overshot my SG. My recipe was at a 1.062 and when it was all said and done I measured a 1.074 at 68*F. I tested my hydrometer in pure distilled water and it is correct. When I throw this in a brew house efficiency calculator I am getting almost 89%. I am making 5 gallons in a Igloo cooler and collecting 6.5 gallons of wort and then I did a 60 min boil, cooled with an immersion cooler.

I want to make another batch relatively quickly for the holidays but I don't want it to be higher in alcohol if my efficiency is off.

Click to expand...

Has it already gone in the fermenter? Could you pour some off and top it off with H20 to bring the gravity down?

TheBeerGuy said:

I brewed my first AG batch and I must have done something wrong. In the past I have always calculated my efficiency at 75%, which I did for this batch as well, but I really overshot my SG. My recipe was at a 1.062 and when it was all said and done I measured a 1.074 at 68*F. I tested my hydrometer in pure distilled water and it is correct. When I throw this in a brew house efficiency calculator I am getting almost 89%. I am making 5 gallons in a Igloo cooler and collecting 6.5 gallons of wort and then I did a 60 min boil, cooled with an immersion cooler.

I want to make another batch relatively quickly for the holidays but I don't want it to be higher in alcohol if my efficiency is off.

Click to expand...

How are you sparging, what was your strike water volume, and how much grain did you use?

Brew on

doug293cz said:

How are you sparging, what was your strike water volume, and how much grain did you use?

Brew on

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I sparge on the fly with some runoff going back on top without any stiring after the grains are added and no dough balls are found. My strike temp was 162*F and it came down to 153*F after grain was added. It held temp for 60 minutes at 153*F. Strike water volume was 5 gallons. total grain bill was arounf 9.5 pounds.

I also had this issue this weekend. I followed my recipe which was supposed to yield an OG of 1.055. At the end of the mash, my refractometer read 1.055! During the boil I added an extra gallon of water to bring it down. I wound up with 6 gallons of 1.050 (hydrometer reading) wort before pitching. My first two AG batches were spot on, but I think I have to go back to the drawing board. Only major difference, this time I crushed my own grain with my new Barley Crusher... oh, and mashed at 147 (shooting for 148). Sorry I don't have any answers just trying to tag onto your issue...

TheBeerGuy said:

I sparge on the fly with some runoff going back on top without any stiring after the grains are added and no dough balls are found. My strike temp was 162*F and it came down to 153*F after grain was added. It held temp for 60 minutes at 153*F. Strike water volume was 5 gallons. total grain bill was arounf 9.5 pounds.

Click to expand...

The red highlighted sentence sounds more like mash recirculation than sparging. Did you add any additional water after the completion of your 1 hour mash?

Brew on

doug293cz said:

The red highlighted sentence sounds more like mash recirculation than sparging. Did you add any additional water after the completion of your 1 hour mash?

I sparge on the fly with some runoff going back on top without any stiring after the grains are added

Brew on

Click to expand...

I recirculate until the runoff is clear, then I sparge until I have a total of 6.5G of wort in my boil pot. Sorry for the confusion there.

if this is your first all-grain batch, then you have no reason to be worried about your efficiency. you have to figure out how efficient you are on your system. make sure you are keeping track of the volume and gravity measurements at each step. then once you start getting a consistent efficiency, you'll be able to gear your software to how you brew.
just randomly putting it at 75% doesn't mean much, until you're consistently hitting 75%. If you're consistently getting 89%, great! now you can plan accordingly. I consistently hit 60% with my equipment and process. I can't really do any equipment upgrades, and so it's just gonna have to stay that low until I can afford something better. But at least I can plan that I will have 60%. As I've been dialing in my process, I've been getting closer and closer to the expected OG. Today, I hit it spot on.
Next time bump up your expected efficiency to 80%. This will at least get you closer. Then if you hit 89% again, I would got with 85%. Then if you get 89% again, it sounds like that's pretty consistent.
Also, if you would have done a pre-boil gravity measurement, you would've likely known you were going to be off at that point, and could've made adjustments on the fly.