I will be brewing the Mack and Jacks african amber recipe from BYO this weekend and will be my 4th AG brew.
So far, my efficiency has slowly gone down since my first brew and not sure why at this point. I have gone from about 80% on my first brew with a 15LB grain bill, to about 70% on my second with a 11lb grain bill, to 62% with a 13.5lb grain bill, 92% 2 row. Here is what I am doing to help keep the number up.
What is different about the 1st batch was that the last 2 came from B3 and their grain mills, the first was from the LHBS and I can tell that the B3 crush is not as fine. This may contribute to a large portion of efficiency loss.
These are the only things I can think of where I am loosing efficiency along with the dead space in the mash/tun.
Any suggestions to help this weekend? The recipe is based on 65%, but only for 5 gallons too. I like to have a little over 5G to test with.
So far, my efficiency has slowly gone down since my first brew and not sure why at this point. I have gone from about 80% on my first brew with a 15LB grain bill, to about 70% on my second with a 11lb grain bill, to 62% with a 13.5lb grain bill, 92% 2 row. Here is what I am doing to help keep the number up.
- I have a 10G rubbermaid cooler with a stainless sleel false bottom
- I am batch sparging at this point
- I hit my mash temps just right (I will check the thermometer for accuracy tonight though)
- I use the PH 5.2 product
- I use a 1.25Q to LB of grain when mashing
- I raise the temp of the grain bed when sparging
What is different about the 1st batch was that the last 2 came from B3 and their grain mills, the first was from the LHBS and I can tell that the B3 crush is not as fine. This may contribute to a large portion of efficiency loss.
These are the only things I can think of where I am loosing efficiency along with the dead space in the mash/tun.
Any suggestions to help this weekend? The recipe is based on 65%, but only for 5 gallons too. I like to have a little over 5G to test with.