Finally after 2 years I fixed my efficiency issues but...

[KLMtheReal]

Hey guys, today me and my mate celebrated our 2 year all grain anniversary by brewing a slightly spiced wit for the very first time. In these two years of brewing we were observing our brewhouse and whatnot and we came to the conclusion that 2-4 litres of our batch would always end up being break/yeast trub.

So in a typical batch, in order to yield 19 litres of actual beer, we stupidly added 4 additional litres of water and hoped for the best. We were always in the ~60% efficiency area, an unacceptable loss, let alone yielding low gravity wort (I suppose) that gave some slight astrigency. We tried everything, from different grain bags to double milling our grains, we also started water treatment down the road, until we thought "hey, let's up the batch to 23 litres with more grains and hops, and maybe we'll get 19-21lt of beer that way".

So yesterday, we thought of trying this experiment in a mini 14 litre batch, total volume. Our Wit recipe called for 60% of flaked adjuncts/wheat malt, the rest being pilsner malt. I added half pound of rice hulls to help the wort drain. Mashed @64C for an hour, squeezed the bag as much as I could, boiled for an hour, added hops, coriander, bitter orange, chamomile. Took a sample, boom! 73% efficiency! Only the wort ended up being around 13 litres. I know my boil off rate, and my strike water calculator gives the right numbers every time. Could so many flaked adjuncts in addition to wheat malt lead to wort loss? While squeezing the bag, I felt the bottom of the bag more "gummy", my guess is that all the flaked barley/wheat was in the bottom, holding some wort. Whats your experience? I know I will end up with a very good, drinkable beer, I'm just asking so our process is solid in the future. Cheers!

 

[madscientist451]

I use a smaller side pot and heat a couple of gallons of water to about 160F while the mash is in progress. When the mash is done I pull out the bag and drop it in the side pot and do a dunk sparge. I stir the grains, dunk the bag up and down a few times then pull the bag out and put it in a colander on top of the smaller pot while it drains.
Meanwhile the main pot has been heating up. I have a stick with marks that I've made to determine my pre-boil volume. If its low I add some more water, but I usually don't have to.
Your results may vary, but this method works for me.
My 2 cents is this: Pick a batch size and stick with it for a while and eventually you'll figure out how much water to start with to get your desired ending volume.

 

[Elric]

Flaked adjuncts will absorb a lot more water than just malt which would likely be where your lost water went. Hope the beer turns out great for you!