Can't shake my Horrible Efficiency

[ajf]

With 26# grain, you may need more than 2g boiling water to raise the mash temp up to 168 - 170. I usually use about 1.25g for about 10# grain. This would translate to about 3.25g for 26# grain. I always heat up more than I will need, (the cost of heating on the kitchen stove comes from the household budget - not my brewing budget), and carefully monitor the temperature as I add the water.

Apart from that, it looks pretty good except for the last step.
I'd sparge out 6 gallons rather than 6 grains.

One other thing. When you get used to it, you can skip the boiling water addition and increase the temperature of your first sparge water to compensate.

Let us know how it turns out.

-a.

 

[digdan]

I'm actually doing 10 gallons, but I just say 12 for boil off sakes, I know I'm off about a half gallon or so.

 

[digdan]

I have a question. If I was to go 1.3q/lb ratio I would need to strike with 33.8qt, or 8.45 Gallons for initial Strike. After grain absorption I would be left with 5.85 gallons. To achive the amount needed for first run off I would need to add around 0.65 gallons to the mash. That is not enough to increase my mash to spargable temps. Should I draw out 3.9 gallons from my mash, heat it up to near boiling and put it back into my mash to raise my mash to sparge temps?

I'm soo confusereded :cross:

Okay, for the initial mash at 1.0quarts per lb of grain ratio, you'll need 26quarts (6.5gal) of water. (though Denny goes with 1.2-1.3 q/lb and so do I and it works great.) Denny figures that your initial run-off and your sparge should be the same volume for efficiency's sake, and this makes sense. To achieve this is the tricky part. The initial run-off of your tun with no extra added water will be equal to the strike water volume - the grain absorbtion (0.1gal/lb), in this case 6.5gal-2.6gal=3.9gal.
For a 12 gallon batch, with a 60min boil and a 15% boil off rate, your pre-boil volume should be 13.8gal. So, if we want our two run-offs to be equal in volume and add up to 13.8gal they both need to be 6.9gal. This means that you need to add 6.9gal-3.9gal=3.0gal of near-boiling water for the first run-off (mash out) and then add 6.9gal of hot water to the mash for the second run-off (there will be no absortion on this one since the grain is already wet.)

Any questions?

 

[Brewpilot]

I generally am doing a three step infusion mash in my 5gal. cooler with 10lbs of grain. For the mash out, I take the initial runnings, about 4-5qts and bring that to a boil and return it to the mash tun... let it sit, then sparge with 175F water. This keeps the bed at 168F constantly. Final qt/lb comes out to 1.58. It is quite tight, but I have a spreadsheet that allows pretty precise temps.

Brewpiot

 

[digdan]

I did everything to plan and my OG came out pretty low. my eff came out 55%

I my temps, or something must be off.

 

[ajf]

I did everything to plan and my OG came out pretty low. my eff came out 55%



I my temps, or something must be off.

Have you brewed again since your first post? I notice that your efficiency has increased from 50% to 55%. As an optimist, you could truly say that your efficiency has increased by 10% as 55% is 10% bigger than 50%.



How do you weigh your grains? Your scales may be inaccurate, or you supplier may be short changing you. (Very unlikely, but possible)



Is your thermometer accurate? I recently bought one that was not adjustable, and was off by 8 - 12 degrees. (Iced water read 40 degrees, boiling water 224 degrees). The supplier refunded me my money without any problems.



Is your hydrometer accurate? It should read 1.000 in 60 degree tap water



If all the above is OK, then you could send me 1 lb pale malt, crushed the way you use it, and I will happily mash and sparge it, and see what gravity I can get out of it compared with my own home crushed malt. If you're interested, PM me, and I will send you my address. I'll do a mash and sparge of your malt and my malt and let you know what differences there are. This should isolate any problems with the crush.
Finally, in your first post, you mentioned that you had modified your mashing technique. If you change more than one thing at a time, you'll never know what the individual effects of the multiple changes are.

-a.