BIAB Efficiency Change Help

[Bigarcherynut]

I've been doing BIAB brewing for several years. I took time off a couple of years ago to work on my system, create software from developers here and get an understanding on water issues I had with my well water. Since then things have gone well. I started kegging this spring and what a change. I'm brewing more than ever.

I love brewing Stouts and now Bourbon Stouts. This year I wanted a light summer beer and came up with a Cream Ale. Brewing for many is just to be able to brew drinkable beer. The same for me but with my Cream Ale, has now become repeating a recipe brew after brew. That's where this is heading.

I have made 5 batches of the Cream Ale. 2, 5 gallon batches and 3, 10 gallon batches. I use RO water along with my well water in a 90 RO to 10 percent well water ratio. Water profile is the same and gives me a great flavor. The problem is my efficiencies dropped when I brewed the 10 gallon batches.

Efficiencies for batches from BeerSmith and Grain/Water amounts:
5 Gallon Batch #1 - 83% BH Eff. - 83% Mash Eff Grain Bill 9.75/Water 7.29 Gal
5 Gallon Batch #2 - 85% BH Eff. - 85% Mash Eff Grain Bill 9.75/Water 7.54 Gal
10 Gallon Batch #3 - 80% BH Eff. - 84% Mash Eff Grain Bill 19.5/Water 12.98 Gal
10 Gallon Batch #4 - 70% BH Eff. - 73% Mash Eff Grain Bill 21.5/Water 13.88 Gal
10 Gallon Batch #5 - 67% BH Eff. - 70% Mash Eff Grain Bill 21.5/Water 13.88 Gal

I know most will say don't worry about not hitting numbers but I'm working hard to repeat recipes. I'm trying to set my water amount to get 5 gallons into the kegs so that's why a slight increase in water from batch #1 and #2. Batch #3 was only 14 #'s of base malt compared to 16 #'s for batches #4 & #5. So a slight increase in water. Even after adding 2 pounds more base malt both batch #4 & #5 were below my estimated OG's shown on BS.

When the efficiencies started to drop, I posted and many said and I agreed mill finer but my LHBS wont change the mill setting so I got an early Christmas present a grain mill. Batch #5, which I brewed Thursday was with my own mill. It was the worst.

Notes:
1. pH levels tested at 10 minutes into mash and are on around 5.2 to 5.4
2. 60 Minute mash and boil except on batch #5. Boiled extra 20 minutes to hit my OG
3. Did double mill of grains at LHBS
4. I squeeze with two boards and clamps and get a lot of wort out.
5. I circulate during mashing
6. Mash Temps are at 153 constantly with well insulated E-Kettle
7. I'm working hard at making enough beer to fill a 5 gallon keg so when I say a 5 gallon batch I actually try to finish with 5 gallons into keg so I base my grain and water on this taking all losses into consideration.
8. I stir my mash quit often but noticed on my last batch #5, between stirrings the mash would clump up on the bottom of the bag. Maybe because I finally have a finer grain bed.
9. My kettle design is an oval. 26" L x 13" W x 16" D. 20 gallons so my mash is spread out.

Ideas:
1. On the 10 gallon batches mash 90 minutes?
2. Do a mash out?
3. Doing BIAB I don't want to sparge but could easily by lifting the bag, drain the wort because I have a bottom drain, add sparge water and heat it, lower bag on top of my false bottom then pump sparge water over the top of my grains.
4. Just add more base malt but I feel like resolving the problem rather than put a band aid on it.

Sorry for the lengthy post but want to cover all the bases.

Thanks for your help and ideas.

Bill

 

[bgmac]

I was having inconsistent efficiency but found a few things have dialed it in. I do exclusively 10 gallon batches.

FIrst, and probably the biggest issue was the Brew supply store double crush was inconsistent, causing my numbers to be drastically different from batch to batch. I solved it by running it through my slow home made crusher on the tightest setting on top of the double crush from the supply store. I look for a corn meal/flour consistency.

Second, I switched to a 10 gallon kettle with a bunch of holes drilled in the bottom inside my 20 gallon kettle with the bag inside the 10 gallon kettle. I mounted bolts on the bottom of the 10 gallon kettle to keep it about an inch off the bottom of the 20 gallon kettle. I made sure all the holes and bolts where smooth with an air grinder so the bag wouldn't catch/rip on the bottom. I recirc for a few minutes 4 or 5 times during the mash since the water around the 10 gallon is being heated with tight control. It gets stuck from time to time but I just lift the bag a little for a few seconds and the levels quickly equalize. At mash out, I suspend the 10 gallon kettle still inside the 20 gallon kettle rim and keep it about 6 inches above the wort. I then circ the hot wort up from the 20 gallon kettle to the 10 gallon kettle so it gravity drains back down to the 20 gallon kettle for about 5 minutes or so. Then follow up with a sparge of clean 170 degree adjusted water until I am close to my preboil volume.

Third, I leave the 10 gallon kettle hanging in the air for a long time while I am heating the 20 gallon kettle to boil. I use to move it to a large tote right away but found a substantial amount of wort would drain out of the bag and 10 gallon kettle into the tote over about 15 or 20 minutes. I tested the wort in the tote one time and it was near 1.090!!! Which is way above what I was brewing. There are loads of sugar left in the bag. Last thing I do is give the bag a couple of squeezes by hand before I finally move it out of the way to the tote.

I brewed a batch this morning and hit 88% efficiency. Last time was 84% about 5 weeks ago. I circed it for a few more minutes longer this time while it was hanging in the air and let it hang for a few minutes longer until it completely stopped dripping.

I love getting every penny of sweet wort out of my grist. I could probably get it to 90% if I squeezed with a set up that you describe.

I am not a fan of no sparge or dunk sparge. The 10 gallon kettle hanging in the air allows me to really flush out the sweetness.

I never pay attention to mash thickness or PH. I mash supper thin with anywhere from 19-24 LBS of grain to always 10 gallons of strike water and have had no issues.

 

[soccerdad]

I would try the longer mash first. I don't do a lot of 10G batches, so take what I say with a grain of calcium chloride, but I never fear letting the mash go longer if I need a few points. Why hurry?

 

[Bigarcherynut]

I was having inconsistent efficiency but found a few things have dialed it in. I do exclusively 10 gallon batches.

FIrst, and probably the biggest issue was the Brew supply store double crush was inconsistent, causing my numbers to be drastically different from batch to batch. I solved it by running it through my slow home made crusher on the tightest setting on top of the double crush from the supply store. I look for a corn meal/flour consistency.

Second, I switched to a 10 gallon kettle with a bunch of holes drilled in the bottom inside my 20 gallon kettle with the bag inside the 10 gallon kettle. I mounted bolts on the bottom of the 10 gallon kettle to keep it about an inch off the bottom of the 20 gallon kettle. I made sure all the holes and bolts where smooth with an air grinder so the bag wouldn't catch/rip on the bottom. I recirc for a few minutes 4 or 5 times during the mash since the water around the 10 gallon is being heated with tight control. It gets stuck from time to time but I just lift the bag a little for a few seconds and the levels quickly equalize. At mash out, I suspend the 10 gallon kettle still inside the 20 gallon kettle rim and keep it about 6 inches above the wort. I then circ the hot wort up from the 20 gallon kettle to the 10 gallon kettle so it gravity drains back down to the 20 gallon kettle for about 5 minutes or so. Then follow up with a sparge of clean 170 degree adjusted water until I am close to my preboil volume.

Third, I leave the 10 gallon kettle hanging in the air for a long time while I am heating the 20 gallon kettle to boil. I use to move it to a large tote right away but found a substantial amount of wort would drain out of the bag and 10 gallon kettle into the tote over about 15 or 20 minutes. I tested the wort in the tote one time and it was near 1.090!!! Which is way above what I was brewing. There are loads of sugar left in the bag. Last thing I do is give the bag a couple of squeezes by hand before I finally move it out of the way to the tote.

I brewed a batch this morning and hit 88% efficiency. Last time was 84% about 5 weeks ago. I circed it for a few more minutes longer this time while it was hanging in the air and let it hang for a few minutes longer until it completely stopped dripping.

I love getting every penny of sweet wort out of my grist. I could probably get it to 90% if I squeezed with a set up that you describe.

I am not a fan of no sparge or dunk sparge. The 10 gallon kettle hanging in the air allows me to really flush out the sweetness.

I never pay attention to mash thickness or PH. I mash supper thin with anywhere from 19-24 LBS of grain to always 10 gallons of strike water and have had no issues.

Thanks for your post. I too found my LHBS mill is set too coarse for BIAB. They don't change it and it's the only in the city. The other store we had closed down but would change it to what you wanted. Never had a problem then.

As for sparging, that's one of the reasons I went with BIAB. It's simplicity. Whether sparging is what it takes or not just looking for options.

Like I said, I squeeze like crazy and that adds much wort to the kettle and I gain a few gravity points also. Here's a picture of how I squeeze. Thanks again.

 

[Bigarcherynut]

I would try the longer mash first. I don't do a lot of 10G batches, so take what I say with a grain of calcium chloride, but I never fear letting the mash go longer if I need a few points. Why hurry?

Well if it's one thing I have learned brewing is to have patience. That will be easy if that's actually what it takes.

Thanks.

 

[RM-MN]

Try a 90 minute mash. If you aren't getting full conversion in 60 minutes the 90 might get you there. The next batch try a 60 minute mash and mash out and see how they compare. I suspect that even though you have your own mill you aren't getting the mill tight enough. There is a caution on that. If you mill too fine and circulate the wort will spill over the bag as the fine particles clog up the mesh of the bag.

 

[Bigarcherynut]

Try a 90 minute mash. If you aren't getting full conversion in 60 minutes the 90 might get you there. The next batch try a 60 minute mash and mash out and see how they compare. I suspect that even though you have your own mill you aren't getting the mill tight enough. There is a caution on that. If you mill too fine and circulate the wort will spill over the bag as the fine particles clog up the mesh of the bag.

A couple of things in regards to a longer mash. First I know that I will have to adjust my hop additions, is there any thing else to be concerned with by mashing longer?

I read so much in regards to doing a mash out. Some do, some don't. Many say its only for stopping enzyme activity so you can sparge and does nothing else. Then some say it helps to loosen sugars so they can be squeezed out. What's your take on mash out. If I mash out, do I leave the bag in the wort, heat to 170 degrees and let it sit for 10 minutes, then lift the bag and squeeze like my picture shows.

My last batch I milled my own grain with my mill set at .025. It was definitely finer than my LHBS does. I did notice it would cake up on the bottom of my bag in between stirring so I know it's finer.

Greatly appreciate and trust your comments as I read many of them.
Thanks!!

 

[Oginme]

How are you performing your mash-in? Especially with the higher gravity batches, I take at least five minutes to thoroughly stir the mash once I have doughed in with a constant scooping motion of the grains at the bottom to check for dough balls. The thicker the mash, the greater the possibility of the grain clumping and forming dough balls which do not wet through and bring down the availability of the starches to be converted to sugar.

 

[Bigarcherynut]

How are you performing your mash-in? Especially with the higher gravity batches, I take at least five minutes to thoroughly stir the mash once I have doughed in with a constant scooping motion of the grains at the bottom to check for dough balls. The thicker the mash, the greater the possibility of the grain clumping and forming dough balls which do not wet through and bring down the availability of the starches to be converted to sugar.

I do about what you do. My kettle as I posted is an oval 26" long by 13" wide by 16" deep and is 20 gallons. My mash spreads out pretty thin so I don't have any problems with dough balling. I continue to stir about every 15 minutes.

Thanks much.

 

[bgmac]

I miss spoke in my first post, I don't perform a mash out by raising it to 170 degrees. I meant when it is time to end the mash processes. But sparge water at 170 does that kind of I would guess. I'm no expert but I would think that the 170 degrees running through the mash during sparge would make the sugars less viscous and draw them out better. I would think a mash out might also draw the sugars out as well, but sparging might wash them out better?

 

[doug293cz]

...

Like I said, I squeeze like crazy and that adds much wort to the kettle and I gain a few gravity points also. Here's a picture of how I squeeze. Thanks again.

View attachment 655880

A couple of things in regards to a longer mash. First I know that I will have to adjust my hop additions, is there any thing else to be concerned with by mashing longer?

I read so much in regards to doing a mash out. Some do, some don't. Many say its only for stopping enzyme activity so you can sparge and does nothing else. Then some say it helps to loosen sugars so they can be squeezed out. What's your take on mash out. If I mash out, do I leave the bag in the wort, heat to 170 degrees and let it sit for 10 minutes, then lift the bag and squeeze like my picture shows.

My last batch I milled my own grain with my mill set at .025. It was definitely finer than my LHBS does. I did notice it would cake up on the bottom of my bag in between stirring so I know it's finer.

Greatly appreciate and trust your comments as I read many of them.
Thanks!!

When sugar is formed during the mash, it is already in solution. It is formed one molecule at a time while surrounded by water. None of the sugar will precipitate out of solution at mash temp, as the solubility limit is somewhere around an SG of 1.3 (2/3 sugar & 1/3 water.) You cannot create a saturated sugar solution in the mash. So, all of the sugar is in the wort, none is "stuck" to the grain, and if you stir well prior to draining, the wort will have a uniform concentration (and SG) throughout.

If the squeezed wort has a higher SG than the bulk of the wort in the kettle, it means that either:

1. You didn't stir the mash sufficiently prior to draining, so the the wort trapped near the grit surfaces has a higher SG (more sugar) than the first runnings. The solution is to stir better. You don't want whatever wort stays in the grain mass to have the highest SG.
2. The mash was not completed when you started draining, and conversion continued during the drain and squeeze time. In this case you should mash longer.

Likewise, if mashing out increases your SG/efficiency, it is because conversion was not complete at the "end" of the mash. A mash out effectively extends the mash time, and also speeds up the conversion rate due to the higher temp. Conversion of course stops once the enzymes have denatured at the higher temp. You can usually get the same increase in conversion just by extending the mash time. There are rare cases when some of the malt has some starch that needs higher temps in order to gelatinize and convert. This is the only case where a mash out can get you higher conversion efficiency than simply increasing the mash time.

In full volume, no-sparge BIAB, the lauter efficiency is just 100% - the percentage of the total wort volume left in the mash after draining/squeezing. Squeezing harder leaves less wort volume in the grain, so increases lauter efficiency. For a constant grain absorption rate, larger grain bills will retain a larger fraction of the total wort, thus have a lower lauter efficiency. A couple of simple examples:

1. 10 lb grain bill, 0.1 gal/lb absorption, 6.5 gal pre-boil volume. The lauter efficiency will be: 100% * 6.5 gal / (1 gal + 6.5 gal) = 87%
2. 15 lb grain bill, 0.1 gal/lb absorption, 6.5 gal pre-boil volume. The lauter efficiency will be: 100% * 6.5 gal / (1.5 gal + 6.5 gal) = 81%

Unfortunately BeerSmith does not account for the effect that grain bill size has on lauter efficiency, so you are left to guess at how to adjust the BrewHouse efficiency that you input to BS to compensate.

Raising from mash temp to mash out temp decreases the wort viscosity only about 20%. This should allow the wort to drain a little faster at mash out temp than draining at mash temp, however the lauter efficiency is determined by how much wort is left at the end of draining/squeezing, not by how fast the wort drains.

To get predictable mash efficiency, you need to have a consistent conversion efficiency, and drain/squeeze to a consistent grain absorption rate. Even then your mash efficiency will go down with larger grain bills, unless you increase your pre-boil volume to maintain a constant ratio of grain bill weight to pre-boil volume. Any increase in pre-boil volume will require a longer boil to hit the same post-boil and to fermenter volumes. If you double your batch size, but have a similar total boil off, that has the same effect as increasing the grain weight to pre-boil ratio, and leads to a small drop in lauter and mash efficiency.

When doing efficiency calculations, there are numerous sources of inaccuracy: errors in grain weight, errors in volume measurements, uncertainty in grain potentials, variability in grain moisture content, SG measurement errors (and maybe some others I forgot.) When netted out, any efficiency measurement is only accurate to about +/- 4%. Thus there is no statistical difference in the efficiency between your 4th and 5th batches.

Mash efficiency equals conversion efficiency times lauter efficiency, so to diagnose and address low mash efficiency you need to know whether you conversion efficiency is low (should be 95% or better), your lauter efficiency is low, or both.

You can determine conversion efficiency using the method here. Your brewing software should calculate your mash efficiency for you, and then you calculate your lauter efficiency as: lauter efficiency = mash efficiency / conversion efficiency. Maximum possible lauter efficiency can be calculated by knowing grain bill weight, grain absorption rate, and pre-boil volume.

Lauter efficiency for no-sparge BIAB should follow the solid lines in the chart below, with the higher curves corresponding to lower grain absorption rates.

Estimating your grain absorption rate at 0.05 gal/lb because of your aggressive squeeze (between the top two solid lines on the chart), the grain weight to pre-boil volume ratios for your 5 batches in the OP would have been: 1,43, 1,38, 1,62, 1,68, and 1,68. And the corresponding lauter efficiencies (@ 100% conversion) would have been: 86.5%, 87%, 85%, 84.6%, and 84.6%.

We can use the same spreadsheet that calculates the theoretical lauter efficiency to back calculate the actual conversion efficiency given the measured mash efficiency and the assumed grain absorption. Doing that the conversion efficiencies would have been: 95.6%, 97.6%, 98.7%, 85.3%, and 81.6%.

So, it looks like something is making your 10 gal batches have significantly lower conversion efficiency than your 5 gal batches, assuming that you had the same grain absorption rate, and the wort in the mash was homogenized prior to draining. It is possible that your grain absorption rate was higher for the larger batches, since you were squeezing ~twice as much grain. Higher grain absorption would have decreased lauter efficiency and increased the calculated conversion efficiency. I can't think of a reason why a larger batch should reduce conversion efficiency.

Brew on

 

[dwhite60]

I always do a 90 minute mash and I'm hitting low to mid 80's in efficiency percentage. I crush really fine too.

Try the longer mash.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[PrrCabin]

I always do a 90 minute mash and I'm hitting low to mid 80's in efficiency percentage. I crush really fine too.

Try the longer mash.

All the Best,
D. White

I have to say that I have been fighting efficiency numbers too.
But and that is a big but.....

My last two brews have been right on.
And I'm not 100% sure why.
It might be because I now do a 90 minute mash instead of 60 minutes

 

[dwhite60]

I have to say that I have been fighting efficiency numbers too.
But and that is a big but.....

My last two brews have been right on.
And I'm not 100% sure why.
It might be because I now do a 90 minute mash instead of 60 minutes

I've heard of people getting full conversion in sixty minutes, others even thirty. Ninety works for me and I have the time.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[doug293cz]

I've heard of people getting full conversion in sixty minutes, others even thirty. Ninety works for me and I have the time.

All the Best,
D. White

Primarily depends on the fineness of your crush. To minimize your conversion time, grind as fine as you can without causing problems with your equipment and process.

Brew on

 

[camonick]

A couple of things in regards to a longer mash. First I know that I will have to adjust my hop additions, is there any thing else to be concerned with by mashing longer?

Mashing longer shouldn’t have any effect on hop additions.

 

[Bigarcherynut]

When sugar is formed during the mash, it is already in solution. It is formed one molecule at a time while surrounded by water. None of the sugar will precipitate out of solution at mash temp, as the solubility limit is somewhere around an SG of 1.3 (2/3 sugar & 1/3 water.) You cannot create a saturated sugar solution in the mash. So, all of the sugar is in the wort, none is "stuck" to the grain, and if you stir well prior to draining, the wort will have a uniform concentration (and SG) throughout.

If the squeezed wort has a higher SG than the bulk of the wort in the kettle, it means that either:

1. You didn't stir the mash sufficiently prior to draining, so the the wort trapped near the grit surfaces has a higher SG (more sugar) than the first runnings. The solution is to stir better. You don't want whatever wort stays in the grain mass to have the highest SG.
2. The mash was not completed when you started draining, and conversion continued during the drain and squeeze time. In this case you should mash longer.

Likewise, if mashing out increases your SG/efficiency, it is because conversion was not complete at the "end" of the mash. A mash out effectively extends the mash time, and also speeds up the conversion rate due to the higher temp. Conversion of course stops once the enzymes have denatured at the higher temp. You can usually get the same increase in conversion just by extending the mash time. There are rare cases when some of the malt has some starch that needs higher temps in order to gelatinize and convert. This is the only case where a mash out can get you higher conversion efficiency than simply increasing the mash time.

In full volume, no-sparge BIAB, the lauter efficiency is just 100% - the percentage of the total wort volume left in the mash after draining/squeezing. Squeezing harder leaves less wort volume in the grain, so increases lauter efficiency. For a constant grain absorption rate, larger grain bills will retain a larger fraction of the total wort, thus have a lower lauter efficiency. A couple of simple examples:

1. 10 lb grain bill, 0.1 gal/lb absorption, 6.5 gal pre-boil volume. The lauter efficiency will be: 100% * 6.5 gal / (1 gal + 6.5 gal) = 87%
2. 15 lb grain bill, 0.1 gal/lb absorption, 6.5 gal pre-boil volume. The lauter efficiency will be: 100% * 6.5 gal / (1.5 gal + 6.5 gal) = 81%

Unfortunately BeerSmith does not account for the effect that grain bill size has on lauter efficiency, so you are left to guess at how to adjust the BrewHouse efficiency that you input to BS to compensate.

Raising from mash temp to mash out temp decreases the wort viscosity only about 20%. This should allow the wort to drain a little faster at mash out temp than draining at mash temp, however the lauter efficiency is determined by how much wort is left at the end of draining/squeezing, not by how fast the wort drains.

To get predictable mash efficiency, you need to have a consistent conversion efficiency, and drain/squeeze to a consistent grain absorption rate. Even then your mash efficiency will go down with larger grain bills, unless you increase your pre-boil volume to maintain a constant ratio of grain bill weight to pre-boil volume. Any increase in pre-boil volume will require a longer boil to hit the same post-boil and to fermenter volumes. If you double your batch size, but have a similar total boil off, that has the same effect as increasing the grain weight to pre-boil ratio, and leads to a small drop in lauter and mash efficiency.

When doing efficiency calculations, there are numerous sources of inaccuracy: errors in grain weight, errors in volume measurements, uncertainty in grain potentials, variability in grain moisture content, SG measurement errors (and maybe some others I forgot.) When netted out, any efficiency measurement is only accurate to about +/- 4%. Thus there is no statistical difference in the efficiency between your 4th and 5th batches.

Mash efficiency equals conversion efficiency times lauter efficiency, so to diagnose and address low mash efficiency you need to know whether you conversion efficiency is low (should be 95% or better), your lauter efficiency is low, or both.

You can determine conversion efficiency using the method here. Your brewing software should calculate your mash efficiency for you, and then you calculate your lauter efficiency as: lauter efficiency = mash efficiency / conversion efficiency. Maximum possible lauter efficiency can be calculated by knowing grain bill weight, grain absorption rate, and pre-boil volume.

Lauter efficiency for no-sparge BIAB should follow the solid lines in the chart below, with the higher curves corresponding to lower grain absorption rates.

View attachment 655984

Estimating your grain absorption rate at 0.05 gal/lb because of your aggressive squeeze (between the top two solid lines on the chart), the grain weight to pre-boil volume ratios for your 5 batches in the OP would have been: 1,43, 1,38, 1,62, 1,68, and 1,68. And the corresponding lauter efficiencies (@ 100% conversion) would have been: 86.5%, 87%, 85%, 84.6%, and 84.6%.

We can use the same spreadsheet that calculates the theoretical lauter efficiency to back calculate the actual conversion efficiency given the measured mash efficiency and the assumed grain absorption. Doing that the conversion efficiencies would have been: 95.6%, 97.6%, 98.7%, 85.3%, and 81.6%.

So, it looks like something is making your 10 gal batches have significantly lower conversion efficiency than your 5 gal batches, assuming that you had the same grain absorption rate, and the wort in the mash was homogenized prior to draining. It is possible that your grain absorption rate was higher for the larger batches, since you were squeezing ~twice as much grain. Higher grain absorption would have decreased lauter efficiency and increased the calculated conversion efficiency. I can't think of a reason why a larger batch should reduce conversion efficiency.

Brew on

Doug,

Thanks so much for your explanation. Not sure if you recall but you helped me last year while I was trying to design my own program for my unique E-Kettle BIAB system. You were nice enough to share your Mash and Lauter Simulator program with me. It helped greatly in developing my own program and it's helping me brew better beers. This makes much more sense than it would have a few years ago. The link you posted has great information and it is always good to revisit these articles from time to time. I'm going back to my 5 batches and run the numbers.

Now that I can mill my own grain I can be sure of that being more consistent.
I'm going to do what you and others have suggested, mash longer. I also had issues with hitting my numbers on a 5 gallon big beer I did a few months ago and it may be a simple fix like most are.

Thanks again.

Bill

 

[Bigarcherynut]

Mashing longer shouldn’t have any effect on hop additions.

Opps, you're right. Confusing that with my boil time.

 

[RM-MN]

I always do a 90 minute mash and I'm hitting low to mid 80's in efficiency percentage. I crush really fine too.

Try the longer mash.

All the Best,
D. White

I think your concept of pretty fine and mine are different. I exceed 80% efficiency in less than 30 minutes. If your equipment will allow it try a finer crush.

 

[Bigarcherynut]

Greatly appreciate everyone's comments and suggestions. I'm going to increase my mash time to 90 minutes and see what I get.

This also got me to do some revisions to my software program I designed with help from doug293cz. It's so nice to have a program designed for my unique E-Kettle. Every brew is getting better.

A question to those who follow this thread is, after tweaking the program today I have a cell that calculates my Mash Thickness. I base my full volume of water on my finished batch size I want to keg or bottle plus all my losses. I see on the #5 batch my mash thickness is 2.58 Qts. Water/Lb. of Grains. I believe this is fairly thin. Is there any issues with this approach?

Thanks again for everyone's help.

 

[doug293cz]

Greatly appreciate everyone's comments and suggestions. I'm going to increase my mash time to 90 minutes and see what I get.

This also got me to do some revisions to my software program I designed with help from doug293cz. It's so nice to have a program designed for my unique E-Kettle. Every brew is getting better.

A question to those who follow this thread is, after tweaking the program today I have a cell that calculates my Mash Thickness. I base my full volume of water on my finished batch size I want to keg or bottle plus all my losses. I see on the #5 batch my mash thickness is 2.58 Qts. Water/Lb. of Grains. I believe this is fairly thin. Is there any issues with this approach?

Thanks again for everyone's help.

Nope. Thin mashes actually convert faster than thick mashes.

Brew on

 

[pricelessbrewing]

+1 for Doug.

It's always best to isolate the issue, first step is usually volume losses and conversion efficiency.