Hey fellas. I need your help to identify the reason(s) my efficiency is consistently so darn low. I brewed about 15 batches in the past year and they all were below 70% efficiency, even for low grain bill recipes. I brewed a couple of higher expected OG beers recently and got about 55-60% efficiency
This is embarrassing! I use BeerSmith for all my calculations and parameters. Can you point out some aspects where I could be making mistakes that are costing me some efficiency points? I would be very grateful!
So here is my routine:
-Condition my grains with 2% water. Let it condition for 15minutes before milling
-Mill grains at Barley Crushers factorys gap (0.039)
-Prepare my Strike water. Depending on recipe, I usually mash at 152F-153F (can take a couple of minutes and addition of cold/hot water to reach my target temperature since I brew in my garage and outside temperature affects ambient temperature) with 1.25-1.5qt/lbs.
-Incorporate grains in MLT by stirring with a grout mixer let sit for 60minutes.
- Vorlauf (about 1Gallon or until wort is clear)
- Prepare Fly Sparge water. Heat to 170F and start Fly Sparge at an approximate rate of 1qt/minute
- Stop Fly sparge when pre-poil volume is reached (measured with BeerSmith)
- Good boil for 60 (or 90minutes depending on recipe). Add hops, Irish moss and yeast nutrient. Chill with immersion chiller to 30F, whirlpool with grout mixer and let sit for 15minutes.
- Transfer to Fermenter and incorporate rehydrated dry yeast. Take gravity sample and adjust it if wort temperature is not at hydrometers calibrated temperature.
- Ferment in my Fermentation chamber at 65F for first 3 days then bump up to 68F until fermentation is over.
My equipment:
-16Gallons Brew Kettle with dip tube and thermometer
-10.7Gallons Mash Tun: Round Cooler with homemade CPVC manifold (used a false bottom made specifically for my MLT- for 2 batches and I couldnt get a clean wort and had very poor efficiency so I returned the false bottom to the store and continue using my manifold). I barely loose a degree for an hour long mash.
-3 tiers brewstand with Brew Kettle and HLT sitting on Propane burners
Good to know:
- I am using water from my personal water well. It is very good to drink, no chlorine but is a tiny bit hard.
- I brew in my heated garage so in Canadian winters (like now), it can reach 10F easily. Temperature in the garage is usually kept around 50F.
- Ive been using a refractometer for a while, but went back to a hydrometer recently as I feared the refractometer wasnt giving me the exact gravity (I calibrated it and used the formula for fermented wort)
So here is my routine:
-Condition my grains with 2% water. Let it condition for 15minutes before milling
-Mill grains at Barley Crushers factorys gap (0.039)
-Prepare my Strike water. Depending on recipe, I usually mash at 152F-153F (can take a couple of minutes and addition of cold/hot water to reach my target temperature since I brew in my garage and outside temperature affects ambient temperature) with 1.25-1.5qt/lbs.
-Incorporate grains in MLT by stirring with a grout mixer let sit for 60minutes.
- Vorlauf (about 1Gallon or until wort is clear)
- Prepare Fly Sparge water. Heat to 170F and start Fly Sparge at an approximate rate of 1qt/minute
- Stop Fly sparge when pre-poil volume is reached (measured with BeerSmith)
- Good boil for 60 (or 90minutes depending on recipe). Add hops, Irish moss and yeast nutrient. Chill with immersion chiller to 30F, whirlpool with grout mixer and let sit for 15minutes.
- Transfer to Fermenter and incorporate rehydrated dry yeast. Take gravity sample and adjust it if wort temperature is not at hydrometers calibrated temperature.
- Ferment in my Fermentation chamber at 65F for first 3 days then bump up to 68F until fermentation is over.
My equipment:
-16Gallons Brew Kettle with dip tube and thermometer
-10.7Gallons Mash Tun: Round Cooler with homemade CPVC manifold (used a false bottom made specifically for my MLT- for 2 batches and I couldnt get a clean wort and had very poor efficiency so I returned the false bottom to the store and continue using my manifold). I barely loose a degree for an hour long mash.
-3 tiers brewstand with Brew Kettle and HLT sitting on Propane burners
Good to know:
- I am using water from my personal water well. It is very good to drink, no chlorine but is a tiny bit hard.
- I brew in my heated garage so in Canadian winters (like now), it can reach 10F easily. Temperature in the garage is usually kept around 50F.
- Ive been using a refractometer for a while, but went back to a hydrometer recently as I feared the refractometer wasnt giving me the exact gravity (I calibrated it and used the formula for fermented wort)