MarkChillwort
Member
- Joined
- Feb 28, 2011
- Messages
- 6
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First of all I apologize for my long windedness. I pulled my latest sample for an original gravity reading directly post chill and after dumping to primary. I use a turkey baster to pull the sample. I am hoping that some of the more dense wort sinks really quickly to the lower depths of the bucket and that the few inches of turkey baster I submerge to draw the sample are not pulling a true representation. It seems as though it should be well mixed directly after transfer. If the readings are correct, I am getting less than 65% efficiency with all grain. I have batched sparged and also tried slowly and meticulously fly sparging this most recent batch by pouring off the back of a ladle to see if I could find any differences in outcome. This is three batches in and my beer has been turning out good, but all three have come in low by around 6 points. I am not too concerned at how much alcohol is produced, but for efficiency sake I want to know that when I am shooting for a gravity I can reasonably obtain it instead of adding money onto the grain bill. It is a fairly important piece of the equation afterall.
I have been using a plastic "yard" style container (for my Michigan brethren it is one of the tall frozen daiquiri drink vessels that you can get at Detroit Tiger games) that is basically like an elongated erlenmeyer or perhaps a "bong" shape with a bubble at the bottom and a square neck. I just bought a more traditional cylinder today at the LHBS, although i don't see why the shape of that daiquiri container would make a difference. I think I am clutching at straws to make myself believe that I am not truly coming up short. Maybe my system is just not efficient. I am using a rectangular cooler with a washer hose manifold and mashing and sparging with appropriate volumes. I have grown to dread the gravity reading.
I have been using a plastic "yard" style container (for my Michigan brethren it is one of the tall frozen daiquiri drink vessels that you can get at Detroit Tiger games) that is basically like an elongated erlenmeyer or perhaps a "bong" shape with a bubble at the bottom and a square neck. I just bought a more traditional cylinder today at the LHBS, although i don't see why the shape of that daiquiri container would make a difference. I think I am clutching at straws to make myself believe that I am not truly coming up short. Maybe my system is just not efficient. I am using a rectangular cooler with a washer hose manifold and mashing and sparging with appropriate volumes. I have grown to dread the gravity reading.