jermillion
Member
After a long bout with poor efficiencies I finally solved the problem. Heat the entire mash up to about 160 and then sparge.
I read everything that I could about low efficiency but nothing mentioned seemed to work. I milled correctly, ensuring that I used a gauge to set my mill correctly. I calibrated my thermometer and hit my mash temps correctly. I tried fly, batch, and BIAB techniques for sparging and tried sparge temperatures from 170 to boiling and everything remained bad.
One day everything went horrible and had a stuck sparge. So I dumped everything back into my pot and heated it up to about 160 because it got too cool while I was fiddling around and cussing a lot. After I heated it up to 160 I dumped it all in a voil bag and sparged with water that was around 170. Voila, I had good efficiency at last.
It is an extra step that is a bit messy, but if you are experiencing poor efficiency and nothing else does the trick. Give it a try. I has made a world of difference to me.
I read everything that I could about low efficiency but nothing mentioned seemed to work. I milled correctly, ensuring that I used a gauge to set my mill correctly. I calibrated my thermometer and hit my mash temps correctly. I tried fly, batch, and BIAB techniques for sparging and tried sparge temperatures from 170 to boiling and everything remained bad.
One day everything went horrible and had a stuck sparge. So I dumped everything back into my pot and heated it up to about 160 because it got too cool while I was fiddling around and cussing a lot. After I heated it up to 160 I dumped it all in a voil bag and sparged with water that was around 170. Voila, I had good efficiency at last.
It is an extra step that is a bit messy, but if you are experiencing poor efficiency and nothing else does the trick. Give it a try. I has made a world of difference to me.