Critique my Brewing Technique

[Warped04]

Before today’s Brew, I have been averaging a consistent 68% efficiency. I know I could improve it, but I wanted to make sure I was being consistent, hitting my temps, measuring water, etc. My best efficiency was 72% which was my first AG batch and the only one I did not crush myself, so I knew my crush needed to be adjusted. I also always ended up 1 gallon short going into the boiler.

Here are my Grains for Friday’s brew session:

Ingredients​

Amount	        Item	                                Type	% or IBU
10 lbs 6.0 oz	Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM)     	Grain	82.57 %
1 lbs 12.0 oz	Munich Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM)     	Grain	13.93 %
7.0 oz	        Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM)	Grain	3.50 %

And my mash:

Mash Schedule​

Name	        Description	                                Temp	Time
Dough In	Add 15.58 quarts of water at 167.4 F (1.24 q/g)	153	60 min
Mash Out	Add 10.05 quarts of water at 201.4 (2.04 q/g)	170	10 min

I know it says a step of 170, but with my system it brings it to 169, and I stir down to 168. Beersmith gave me 1.38 gallons of sparge water for batch sparging.

I made two changes to my brewing today. When I got my Barley Crusher I measured the gap at .037mm not the .039mm that is supposed to be coming from the factory, so I adjusted that down to .035mm.

Since I had been coming up 1 gallon short into the boiler, I figured there was still some sweet wort in the MLT that I could get instead of having to add more top up water to the fermentor. So instead of sparging with 1.38 gallons of water I sparged with 2.38 gallons of water.

I took 4 gravity readings today. The first was the first runnings. I took 16 quarts of wort. At 69 degrees I read a gravity of 1.069 which corrected to 1.070. My second reading was after my second batch sparge, in which I collected 10 quarts. The gravity at 74 degrees was 1.034 corrected to 1.036.

After being combined I had collected a total of 26 quarts of wort. My pre-boil volume was 26 quarts. At 76 degrees it read 1.057 corrected to 1.059. Beersmith calculated my Effeciency into the boiler at 84.47%.

After my boil, chill and whirlpool, My kettle (which I use to measure all of my water) read 24 quarts (6 gallons). So I siphon into the fermentor and it’s coming up below my 5 gallon mark. So I pour out as much wort as I can and I leave behind maybe a quart, and I’m at the 5 gallon mark. This is where I get a little squirrely. I was hoping to be post boil 5.5 gallons, so since I’m so used to topping off my fermentor, I just top off to my 5.5 gallon mark. Obviously 1 of my means of measurement is wrong. Since I’ve measured that particular fermentor myself, I’m guessing it’s right, which means that my kettle is wrong. So I take the gravity with 5.5 gallons and I come up with a reading of 1.062 at 80 degrees, corrected to 1.064 which Beersmith calculates as 77.53% efficiency.

Clearly, the first thing I need to do is calibrate all of my water vessels. I will do this next week.

1) What I am concered with though is the difference in efficiency between “Into the Boiler” and "Overall Effeciency." How do I get them closer in %.

2) How can I improve? There has to be more sweet wort left in that MLT if I'm reading a 3rd runnings of 1.036.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and help.

 

[boo boo]

If you are batch sparging and doing 2 equal sparges after you drain your tun of your initial mash wort, then you can't be adding much sparge water, stirring when adding the sparge water or your sparge water isn't hot enough to leech out the remaining sugars. Also are you acidifing your sparge water and what is the PH of your mash to begin with?

On a normal gravity brew between 1040 and 1050, for a 5 gallon brew of which I collect aprox 7 gallons of wort, I get 3rd runnings of about 1012 to 1015.

Promash tells me I average 77% usually, but I don't worry about efficiency when I know I'm extracting those kind of numbers form my wort.

 

[korndog]

I certainly wouldn't be dissatisfied with that efficiency, but I admire your desire to improve.

I am a little concerned about the .035" setting on your rollers though. That seems a little too tight and risky, but I guess if it's working for ya.....

 

[ajf]

Increasing the amount of sparge water to make up for the shortage is obviously a good idea, and will increase the extraction compared with topping up with water.
You took 2 runnings, one of 16 qts and one of 10 qts. For the best efficiency, these two runnings should be approximately equal in volume.
You admit that either your pre boil or post boil volume measurement is wrong, yet the efficiency calculations need accurate volume measurements. Comparing the pre and post boil efficiencies when one of the volumes is wrong is like comparing apples to oranges. You may be able to redo the calculations when you know which volume is wrong.
You will also lose some efficiency to dead space, hop absorption, trub etc. when transferring to the fermenter, so your brew house efficiency will always be less than your mash efficiency.
As for the gravity of your second runnings being 1.036, that does seem rather high, and if you have substantial dead space in the MLT, you could be leaving some good wort behind. However, if you were to do another sparge, you would find that the gravity of those runnings would be very much lower, so you may not be leaving as much sugar behind as you think.
My recommendation would be to skip the mash out. After the mash, stir well, let it rest for a few minutes, vorlauf until clear, and then drain completely. Measure the volume you have collected, and subtract that from your required pre boil volume. This gives you the required amount of sparge water. Do two equal sized sparges by adding the sparge water, stirring, resting for a few minutes, vorlaufing, and draining. The temperature of the sparge water should be in the range of 180 - 185F which should raise the grain bed temperature up to about 165 - 170.
I think this will increase your efficiency.

-a.

 

[Warped04]

Thanks guys for the responses.

Also are you acidifing your sparge water and what is the PH of your mash to begin with?

I am not doing anything to my sparge water. My Mash PH is 5.4.

I certainly wouldn't be dissatisfied with that efficiency, but I admire your desire to improve.

I am a little concerned about the .035" setting on your rollers though. That seems a little too tight and risky, but I guess if it's working for ya.....

Yeah, I too was a little nervous about the .035mm setting, but I figured since the crusher arrived at .037mm, which was supposed to be .039mm either my feeler gages were inaccurate, or I'm a crappy measurer. So I just went down 1 setting. I also know that my best effeciency was with Morebeer's crush, and I hadn't changed anything else in my brewing.

I'm not dissatisfied with the 77% eff, I just know that there is probably something else I am doing wrong to not get the magic 80% .

You took 2 runnings, one of 16 qts and one of 10 qts. For the best efficiency, these two runnings should be approximately equal in volume.
You admit that either your pre boil or post boil volume measurement is wrong, yet the efficiency calculations need accurate volume measurements. Comparing the pre and post boil efficiencies when one of the volumes is wrong is like comparing apples to oranges. You may be able to redo the calculations when you know which volume is wrong.

Will do. This all makes sense.

As for the gravity of your second runnings being 1.036, that does seem rather high, and if you have substantial dead space in the MLT, you could be leaving some good wort behind. However, if you were to do another sparge, you would find that the gravity of those runnings would be very much lower, so you may not be leaving as much sugar behind as you think.

I thought about this, it's a rectangular cooler with a stainless steel braid. I realized I was leaving behind a lot of wort when I was emptying my spent grains from my MLT. Now when I drain my tun, I prop up the MLT at an angle, and get an extra quart of wort and I have relatively dry spent grains.

My recommendation would be to skip the mash out. After the mash, stir well, let it rest for a few minutes, vorlauf until clear, and then drain completely. Measure the volume you have collected, and subtract that from your required pre boil volume. This gives you the required amount of sparge water. Do two equal sized sparges by adding the sparge water, stirring, resting for a few minutes, vorlaufing, and draining. The temperature of the sparge water should be in the range of 180 - 185F which should raise the grain bed temperature up to about 165 - 170.
I think this will increase your efficiency.

-a.

I'll give this a shot and see what happens.

 

[WBC]

I have to commend you for the effort you are putting into finding out what is going on with your efficiency. So many of us complain about efficiency but do nothing to find out why. This thread addresses this well and others will learn from this thread. I think if you try to measure accurately you will find out what is happening. Get every bit of the mashtun runnings and boiler contents that you can because anything left behind is lost efficiency. Good going.

 

[Kauai_Kahuna]

Warped04 - I agree, your pretty much there to the point where you have pretty good efficiency, heck I would be dancing a jig if I could get 77% consistently. I think that getting a good handle on your volumes and doing two equal batch sparges will give you the final control that your looking for and be up to 80% pretty easily. Great job and the best of luck.

 

[Saccharomyces]

Keep the lessons you've learned you're right on!! :rockin:

It may not be that your calibration is 'off'. Keep in mind boiling liquid has a larger volume than room temp liquid, about 5%. In other words your system may show 5.25 gal at end of boil when you actually will have 5 into the fermenter assuming zero trub loss in the kettle... The apparent 84% vs 78% may be entirely due to that.

My eff. is consistently 77-82% like yours which is great because I can hit my OG and have within a quart one way or the other in the fermenter. I wouldn't stress over getting better than that.

- Eric

 

[Warped04]

It may not be that your calibration is 'off'. Keep in mind boiling liquid has a larger volume than room temp liquid, about 5%.

That's a great argument. I'll take that into account, but I still think I was off somewhere. I'll find out tonight when I start my calibrations.

My eff. is consistently 77-82% like yours which is great because I can hit my OG and have within a quart one way or the other in the fermenter. I wouldn't stress over getting better than that.

I'm not stressing over it, I guess I was disappointed mostly in my volume into the fermentor. I'm happy with the 77% efficiency, in my current technique, I want to squeeze just a little bit more out of it.

I have to commend you for the effort you are putting into finding out what is going on with your efficiency. So many of us complain about efficiency but do nothing to find out why. This thread addresses this well and others will learn from this thread. I think if you try to measure accurately you will find out what is happening. Get every bit of the mashtun runnings and boiler contents that you can because anything left behind is lost efficiency. Good going.

Thanks WBC! I appreciate that. I've had the weekend now to kinda get over the little dissappointment (in the volumes) and realize that I did just make a 10% effeciency jump.

That seems to be my true battle here.