Any ideas on my low efficiency?

[timmystank]

So I brewed a raging ***** inspired clone yesterday. An 8.3% ABV, 1.083 expected OG. The grain bill was 12 lb Belgian pale, 2.5 lb Belgian pils and 1.75 crystal 40. So anyways I only got about 55% efficiency leaving me with 5.9% ABV and 79 IBU'S. Much higher IBU than what was expected.

Ok, so I mashed in at 152 and stirred up well leaving no dough balls or any other glaring problems there. Mashed for 90 minutes and DID stir it up around 30 left.

Drained directly into keggle without vorlaufing (totally forgot).

Single batch sparge at 179 degrees for 10 minutes.

Drained again directly to keggle without vorlaufing.

So long story short, my OG is only at 1.059-60 leaving me at a horrible 55% efficiency. My crush is fine as I've never had that low efficiency before. I'm thinking that possibly it could be some of the following things.

No vorlauf
Very tightly meshed SS braid (copper coil inside to prevent crushing)
Water volume; as I ended up with much more wort in tun and in keggle than was projected.

I know this is a very difficult thing to diagnose and has been addressed alot. Any suggestions as to the cause that may be glaring to anyone out there?

 

[Beerwizard85]

Do you use beersmith or promash? Maybe your equipment was set wrong. Like maybe set for 5 gallon but you made a 10 gallon batch or vice versa.

 

[Beerwizard85]

Also, your sparge temp of 179 seems way high. I usually only sparge at 168-170 tops.

 

[Double_D]

He's probably using that step as a mash out.

 

[wildwest450]

How do you know your crush is fine? If you mill your own have you recently checked the gap?


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[timmystank]

I use brew pal on my phone and have had success with it in the past. I work at my LHBS and honestly can't say what the measurement is, but can say that I've been fine all the times before. I've never made a beer this big before so it's kinda weird. I don't know if it's possible but could my SS braid be too tightly woven so that it is impeding the fermentable from even getting through?

 

[cravej]

My crush is fine as I've never had that low efficiency before.

Are you sure the setting on the mill didn't slip?

Have you checked how accurate your thermometer is?

What was the final volume you got into the fermenter? Was there any left in the kettle?

 

[timmystank]

It's a rather new thermometer so I haven't checked it and I can't be sure of the mill either. Oh yeah! there was about 1.5-2 gallons left in both the tun and keggle in order for me to get about 5.5 final. I'm thinking this may have a huge part of it.

 

[timmystank]

I'm gonna get a nice 1 gallon measuring cup