For the several years of all grain brewing I have consistently achieved efficiencies between 65-70% -- despite reading on this forum about people getting 75-80% on what seems like similar systems. I dont know if my expectations are just out of whack or if I am doing something wrong. I even did my first at-home fly sparge this weekend expecting better results and wound up with a pathetic 66%. I feel like i am just got getting the full potential flavor and its hard to get the right OGs. Please help!
Here is the system I am using:
10g picnic cooler mash/lautering tun with shallow false bottom
10g kettle draining sparge water on top of the mash (new)
final mash rest usually 155ish but often topping off the cooler to mash out in the 160s
sparge water ~190 (on hot side to my knowledge) but knowing it will balance out with the cooler mash tun to put me closer to 170.
On this latest batch i tried to be extremely patient with the flow rate - normally I just open the mash tun valve all the way. This time I opened about halfway to follow the conventional wisdom of slower flow.
Thoughts? Still too impatient with flow rate? Is the problem channeling? DO i need to stir more? I'm tempted to go back to a pure batch-sparge method to totally drain the cooler and refill with fresh hot water twice to rinse the grains more thoroughly.
Here is the system I am using:
10g picnic cooler mash/lautering tun with shallow false bottom
10g kettle draining sparge water on top of the mash (new)
final mash rest usually 155ish but often topping off the cooler to mash out in the 160s
sparge water ~190 (on hot side to my knowledge) but knowing it will balance out with the cooler mash tun to put me closer to 170.
On this latest batch i tried to be extremely patient with the flow rate - normally I just open the mash tun valve all the way. This time I opened about halfway to follow the conventional wisdom of slower flow.
Thoughts? Still too impatient with flow rate? Is the problem channeling? DO i need to stir more? I'm tempted to go back to a pure batch-sparge method to totally drain the cooler and refill with fresh hot water twice to rinse the grains more thoroughly.