Efficiency woes wtf!

[BeantownR6]

So I brewed 2 batches today, first was a blond got 70% efficency og of 1.046 then I brewed an imperial ipa should have been 1.088 og. Im brewing it now actually. My sg is 1.062 and that includes a lb of sugar. My grain bill is 19 lbs, mashed with 1.5 qt per lb., used 5.2 ph. Why is it when I try to brew high efficency beer the efficency goes way down? This is really pissing me off. I hit all my numbers and mash temp and it didnt drop a degree, mashed for 60 min. I batch sparge. I also stir the mash really good, then dont touch it for 60 min and I usually get 70% unless its a high gravity beer. Should I mas longer like 90 minutes?

 

[ksbrain]

I can't pull it together to fully explain at the moment, but hopefully my outline of thoughts will help:

It's all about volume. Let's say that you always fill your kettle to 6.5 gallons before starting the boil. If you have a small mash to make 1.046, you more thoroughly rinse the grains with your sparge water. If you have a lot of grain to make 1.088, you leave more sugar in the mash, because you can't rinse as much, because you have so much more mash water.

 

[Ricand]

This is a fairly common question here, for other answers you might want to do a search. Efficiency issues are commonly a grind or sparge issue. Do you take first runnings, split the sparge in two, heat the sparge up to bring the grain bed up to 170, mix first one really well, wait 10 min vorlouf, drain off then do the same with the second sparge? When I used to batch sparge, I normally hit high 70s even with high gravity recipes using that technique.

 

[BeantownR6]

ksbrian, yeah my mash volume was almost 8 gallons at 1.5 qt/lb. my sparge was only 2.5 gallons. so then should i mash at less, like 1.25 or 1 qt/lb to get more sparge water?

 

[broadbill]

ksbrian, yeah my mash volume was almost 8 gallons at 1.5 qt/lb. my sparge was only 2.5 gallons. so then should i mash at less, like 1.25 or 1 qt/lb to get more sparge water?

or use more sparge water, and boil longer.

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

I did my first batch sparge ever this wk-end. I ended up slightly oversparging (by 0.5 gallons), and ended up with 83% efficiency. Highest I've ever had.

The batch sparging still took me around one hour. The drill was like this, for a 12 gallon batch:

Mash 17lb of grain @ 1.1qt/lb, for 18.7 quarts (4.7 gal).

Sparged a total of 12.2 gallons, in this manner:

- Drain mash tun until first sight of air is showing.
- Add sparge water until grain is all covered
- Sometimes I'd have to wait for my sparge water to heat up again (my sparge water kettle is only 5-gallons).

Repeated it until completely drained.

Got 1.040 for 12.5 gallons (this is an English Mild).

M_C

 

[ksbrain]

I have to mash my high gravity beers thick, because my MLT is only 5 gallons, so I max out at 15# of grain and 15 qts. of water. I still get roughly the same efficiency as normal, maybe lose a few points.

Another important thing is completely draining the MLT at the end of your last sparging. Don't leave anything in there if you can avoid it.

Canuck's method is a lot like what I do. I drain until empty, fill above the grains, repeat until I get my kettle full for boiling.

 

[misterVT]

For my higher gravity 10g brews I was consistently 10 points below where I needed to be. As suggested here, I found the solution was to decrease the water to grain ratio for mashing and increase the amount of sparge water used. Good luck!