Specialty grain efficiency

[realtree2]

Does anyone know of some ways to increase extraction from specialty grains? I steeped 1.5 lbs of grains for my porter and barely managed 55%

 

[LovesIPA]

We need a lot more information about your process and equipment to help you.

 

[kh54s10]

If you are using an extract kit the efficiency comes from the extract, not the specialty grains. The specialty grains are steeped for color and flavor mostly not to add significant amounts of fermentables.

If you used all the ingredients and attained the proper volumes you did the the efficiency the kit was designed to get.

Efficiency applies mostly to all grain brewing.

 

[realtree2]

Got it. It was an extract recipe that I designed. I was hoping that there might be more fermentables from the specialty grains.

 

[TopherM]

Efficiency in an extract recipe is an irrelevant number. You aren't extracting any sugar from the grain, it is already pre-extracted in the extract.

The extract has a set efficiency of around 75%, so you really can't get low efficiency from an extract recipe unless you added too much water or took a bad OG reading? It's very common to not properly mix wort and top off water and get a low efficiency.

 

[NewWestBrewer]

As Topher has said when dealing with extract you can't really go wrong with efficiency as it is pre made for you. The biggest issue is the mixing of the wort and top up water. A lot of time your OG will be way low as the wort is still at the bottom and not mixed properly. There is a trhead on here from Revvy that talks about NOT worrying about it as when the yeast does its thing everything will be mixed together and your results will be fine.