lithium726
Member
Hi guys. I've been lurking around here for recipes and whatnot for a while, and I recently got into All Grain. I'm getting efficiencies down in the 50's and under, and for the life of me I CANNOT figure it out, and it's really, really starting to frustrate me. I have 3-4 batches of beer that is pretty far below the ABV standard for the style.
I've been doing mostly lagers lately, so I've been using softer water. I've been doing 2 gal Spring with 3-4gal RO water and the 1tbs of the 5.2 powder to mash with.
I've been doing a 30-min rest at 122 and 60 min at 150, temps are +-2F generally and maintain for the duration.
My mash tun is a 48qt (I think) coleman cooler and I'm using SS mesh off some hose for the filter. It runs about 5/8 of the length of the cooler in the middle and is screwed down on the inside.
I've been lautering and sparging slowly (gave it an hour tonight - combined), and while most of them I've batch sparged, in an effort to get my yeild up I drilled some holes in a hose and did a continuous sparge this time.
My grain bill tonight was 9.5lb american 2-row and .75lb 60L for a Vienna. Boil gravity was 1.026 at 130F and OG is 1.036. Awful. I get my grain crushed at my LHBS, Homebrew Headquarters in Richardson. 1 pass. My next thought is grain crush, but I really don't want to waste more time and money chasing this problem.
I thought maybe it was my hydrometer, the wort tasted very sweet. However, I got a tall glass of RO water and it read dead on 1.00.
I have no f'ing idea what I'm doing wrong. It should NOT be this low. Please help
edit: preboil: 6gal. There's a little under 5 gal in the fermenter, did an hour boil. I use a propane burner and a 7gal pot. I also normally do 6.5gal preboil, but I ran out of sparge water tonight.. I've generally been mashing 2qt/lb, about 1qt/gal for the 122 rest.
I've been doing mostly lagers lately, so I've been using softer water. I've been doing 2 gal Spring with 3-4gal RO water and the 1tbs of the 5.2 powder to mash with.
I've been doing a 30-min rest at 122 and 60 min at 150, temps are +-2F generally and maintain for the duration.
My mash tun is a 48qt (I think) coleman cooler and I'm using SS mesh off some hose for the filter. It runs about 5/8 of the length of the cooler in the middle and is screwed down on the inside.
I've been lautering and sparging slowly (gave it an hour tonight - combined), and while most of them I've batch sparged, in an effort to get my yeild up I drilled some holes in a hose and did a continuous sparge this time.
My grain bill tonight was 9.5lb american 2-row and .75lb 60L for a Vienna. Boil gravity was 1.026 at 130F and OG is 1.036. Awful. I get my grain crushed at my LHBS, Homebrew Headquarters in Richardson. 1 pass. My next thought is grain crush, but I really don't want to waste more time and money chasing this problem.
I thought maybe it was my hydrometer, the wort tasted very sweet. However, I got a tall glass of RO water and it read dead on 1.00.
I have no f'ing idea what I'm doing wrong. It should NOT be this low. Please help
edit: preboil: 6gal. There's a little under 5 gal in the fermenter, did an hour boil. I use a propane burner and a 7gal pot. I also normally do 6.5gal preboil, but I ran out of sparge water tonight.. I've generally been mashing 2qt/lb, about 1qt/gal for the 122 rest.