Brewhouse Efficiency

[JosephN]

This is my process. I keep my cooler indoors with my grain so that they're both at the ambient temperature of my house, that is typically 70°. I do measure the temperature of my grain whenever I calculate what my water temperature needs to be. I do not preheat my cooler because the calculator that I use claims to Factor in me not preheating the cooler. I always dump in my water first, then dough in, stir it up really good and drop in a floating thermometer, Then I'll cover it up and check it after 15 minutes. If the temperature is only a few to degrees off of the expected I just cover it back up and let it ride. I have not noticed more than a 1°-2° drop from the time I check the temperature, after 15 minutes, until the time the mash is done, 60 minutes. Now I saw someone the other day that had a digital thermometer, kind of like the one I have as a temperature control for my freezer or fermentation chamber, and they are using it to check the mash temp the whole time. Now I will also admit that my first try at all grain brewing kind of want to little crazy, mainly because I had drank too much and I miss read my floating thermometer. I ended up having my temperature about 12° cooler than what it needed to be. It was sending it 138°F. The next time went much better.

 

[MagicRat]

I know that I lose about 10F from my strike water temp if I preheat the tun so I just worry about hitting the target temp. I also know that my 10G Igloo loses less than a degree over the course of an hour even with stirring every 15 minutes. After 4 batches with this system, I have a pretty high level of confidence that I can hit the temps I need to. I really only use the recipe calculator for color estimation and to calculate how much grain I need to reach the gravities I want to get to for the particular strain of yeast I want to use.

 

[JosephN]

Also, what is your temp control? If your fermentation temps are at the high end of the yeast range you will get a little higher attenuation than at the bottom of the range. I would also wonder if you thermometer is off and you are mashing a little cooler than you think so you are getting more fermentable wort. 4 degrees will make a difference.

I have an Inkbird dual stage temp controller. View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1438810162.350501.jpg
I will typically rep the temp between 68-70F, and at times, before I got my freezer I used a swamp cooler and ended up getting my IPA down to 62-63F. I can't say if my floating thermometer is off, but when my wort gets close to boiling the thermometer is around 205-210F. I'm strongly considering getting an Inkbird temp gauge that just check temp, so I can leave the sensor in the mash and watch it from outside without opening the lid and losing any heat. I normally shoot for 149-148, and my temp has started at around 150 and dropped right in my range, according to my floating thermometer

 

[JosephN]

I know that I lose about 10F from my strike water temp if I preheat the tun so I just worry about hitting the target temp.

What is you don't preheat your tun? Do you lose more. And that's interesting about you losing less than one degree from stirring every 15 mins.

 

[MagicRat]

What is you don't preheat your tun? Do you lose more. And that's interesting about you losing less than one degree from stirring every 15 mins.

I assume that there would be a greater loss of strike temp if I didn't preheat but it's so easy to do and I know what the loss will be so I just plan to stick with what I know I can rely on.

 

[JosephN]

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[rlmiller10]

I have an Inkbird dual stage temp controller. View attachment 294540
I will typically rep the temp between 68-70F, and at times, before I got my freezer I used a swamp cooler and ended up getting my IPA down to 62-63F. I can't say if my floating thermometer is off, but when my wort gets close to boiling the thermometer is around 205-210F. I'm strongly considering getting an Inkbird temp gauge that just check temp, so I can leave the sensor in the mash and watch it from outside without opening the lid and losing any heat. I normally shoot for 149-148, and my temp has started at around 150 and dropped right in my range, according to my floating thermometer

148 for a mash temp will push the ferment-ability of the wort so that would help push attenuation to toward the upper side of the range for a given yeast. Also 70 is at the upper range for WP005 so that is probably pushing the attenuation a bit more as well. Both of those would help explain you getting lower FG than expected.

You might try WPL002, as it has a little less attenuation.

 

[JosephN]

148 for a mash temp will push the ferment-ability of the wort so that would help push attenuation to toward the upper side of the range for a given yeast. Also 70 is at the upper range for WP005 so that is probably pushing the attenuation a bit more as well. Both of those would help explain you getting lower FG than expected.



You might try WPL002, as it has a little less attenuation.

I used Wyeast 1056 for most of my batches and once I used WL001

 

[JosephN]

They make some other ranges of precision hydrometers that I am going to start buying. That way you use the right hydrometer for the range you expect to be within.



Right tool for the job!

I just purchased that refractometer and the lower end scale hydrometer last night. I also purchased another dual stage temp control relay like I use for my chest freezer. I'm gonna use that, which measures to the .01 of a degree, for my mash tun mostly, and to also see where my wort temp is as I chill it.

Knowing is half the battle!!!

 

[MrHopScotch]

If your attenuation is low it's possible that you may not be mashing at the temperature you think you are. Have you calibrated your thermometer? If you thought you were mashing at 152 and were instead mashing at 158-160 that could produce a ton of unfermentable sugars. Unfermentable sugar means your OG would be accurate but the FG would be high because the yeast can't ferment all the sugar.

 

[JosephN]

^^^ I'm sorry, but I think I miss spoke at one point. My final gravity was lower on the scale, meaning I hit a number closer to 1.000 than I expected, so I think that means my attenuation is actually higher..?? If anything I think my temps are hitting lower. I did fix this problem by creating a temp control box that tells me the mash temp by .1 of a degree. I haven't used it yet but I'm going to this weekend. And as it was suggested earlier in this thread I got a refractometer and a low level hydrometer that reads 0.980-1.020

 

[JosephN]

View attachment ImageUploadedByHome Brew1439423974.041126.jpgthis is what I'm using from now on in my mash tun for temp observation.

 

[MrHopScotch]

^^^ I'm sorry, but I think I miss spoke at one point. My final gravity was lower on the scale, meaning I hit a number closer to 1.000 than I expected, so I think that means my attenuation is actually higher..?? If anything I think my temps are hitting lower. I did fix this problem by creating a temp control box that tells me the mash temp by .1 of a degree. I haven't used it yet but I'm going to this weekend. And as it was suggested earlier in this thread I got a refractometer and a low level hydrometer that reads 0.980-1.020

Cool, sorry if I missed that. Just a warning: I'm fairly sure the STC-1000 probes you have pictures are not water resistant so I'd suggest using a thermowell or something else to keep the probe dry during the mash. Happy brewing!

 

[JosephN]

Everything I've read, except one person, has said its waterproof and they use it regularly. If I was to use a therowell in my mash tun how would you suggest doing so in a 10 gallon cooler with 28.25# of grain? That's this weekend. I think it's gonna be full!!!

 

[rlmiller10]

Everything I've read, except one person, has said its waterproof and they use it regularly. If I was to use a therowell in my mash tun how would you suggest doing so in a 10 gallon cooler with 28.25# of grain? That's this weekend. I think it's gonna be full!!!

Quarter inch copper tubing (make sure the probe will fit). Crimp and silver solder the end shut. Drill a hole in the lid of the cooler sized so the tubing will fit but is a tight fit. Put the probe down the new copper thermowell.

By putting it in the lid you don't have to worry about a water tight seal and it is out of the way when you remove the lid to stir.

 

[JosephN]

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