I just can't get a handle on my efficiency. I use a 10 gallon igloo cooler with a round false bottom. I'm getting 75% with batches around 1.060 and about 85-89% with smaller batches. Everytime I try to follow a recipe I'm afraid to dial my eff. up that high but then I overshoot by as much as 10 gravity points. I made Orphy's Mild Mannered Ale this past weekend and I should have been at 1.037, his recipe was dialed in at 70% eff. and I scaled it for 75% and I still overshot and hit 1.043 ... It's driving me crazy and I think I just have to believe I will get 85% and scale for that. What I can't understand is what I'm doing right. I know that seems like a weird question but why do these recipes use 70% as their target eff. Is that much more common than 85ish? I'm not doing anything special here, just grind the grist, pour in the hot water, mash in, make sure I've hit my temp., let it sit for the prescribed amount of time and then I empty the mash tun and do a batch sparge with two allotments of sparge water... so typically to put 8 gallons in my kettle I initial mash with 2.5-3.5 gal and then add the rest in two doses. So I'm batch sparging and getting in the upper 80's. Why do other people get in the lower 70's or even in the 60's with small beers? I can understand big beers and having all the grain exposed during mashing problems causing the eff. to be lower, I've experienced this with my 1.070ish IPA's but I'm still in the mid 70's.
Thanks for any thoughts here...
Thanks for any thoughts here...