Did insparge too fast?

[MplsUgly]

I just missed my target OG of 1.070 ending up with 1.060 and I'm trying to sort out what happened. I'm on a makeshift HERMS system with kegs. My first runnings were strong, 1.085. But by the time I had my 14.5 gallons I was down to 1.054. After an hour boil i put 1.060 into the fermenters. I'm not really mad about having a IPA closer to 6% but I'm trying to figure out what happened. The odd thing was that I was still pulling 1.020 wort when I was at my collection volume.

I think I either parked too fast, not sure how long it took to get my volume, maybe 45 minutes?? Or I screwed up by letting my mash grains dry out twice and not keeping my water above them consistently but this was minor. The other thing I can think of is maybe I didn't mash out hot enough? I think I got the grain bed to 168 by the end but I didn't really heat it up before I started collecting.

Any thoughts?

 

[wilserbrewer]

Perhaps you had channeling? The sparge water creating pathways through the grain bet leading to an inefficient sparge?

 

[jalc6927]

Batch sparging can help eliminate this type of problem

 

[RM-MN]

It's likely a double cause problem. Poor crush of the grains is one of these. The other is incorrect fly sparging. There is little to be gained by fly sparging so go to batch sparging and eliminate the problem.

Your low mash out temperature would have allowed conversion to continue longer which would have increased your OG so that can be eliminated as a problem.. With batch sparging it isn't even necessary so you could eliminate it completely.

 

[MplsUgly]

I didn't think about channeling but that could be part of it. I always had great results batch sparging but then I decided to try to be like one of these cool kids and fly sparge. Maybe I'll go back to batch sparging until I can dial in my feeds and speeds a bit better.

Question. Could you batch sparge but recirculate for that 15 minutes to try to get some filtering benefits or are you just better off to vorlauf until it's clear again? Part of the reason I really like recirculating and fly sparging is the clear wort you get.

 

[day_trippr]

You certainly can vorlauf/recirculate after thoroughly mixing in your batch sparge liquor, then draw off the wort...

Cheers!

 

[MplsUgly]

I think I figured this out and my efficiency wasn't the issue. In fact, my mash efficiency was about 75%. What was wrong was BeerSmith. I had my software setup as 72% brew house efficiency thinking that was my mash efficiency but it's not that at all. I did some reading and I'm still not 100% clear on how that brewhouse efficiency is calculated but I know I had it wrong. I think it's way off in my case because I like to leave about 1.5-2 gallons of trub in the boil kettle on these hop forward beers and that really makes the efficiency look bad. My brewhouse efficiency works out to 63% one way or another.

All this is kind of good in a way. This mans that I don't have a huge issue with my brewing process but I did have an issue with my recipe process.

I was going for an IPA with an OG of 1.072, and 65 IBUs making about 7%ABV but I'm ending up with a 1.060 OG, about 63 IBUs that will end up around 6% ABV. Sounds kinda delicious to me.

If that's all that went wrong on this batch I'm in for some decent beer. BeerSmith is just like any simulation software, garbage in=garbage out. I guess that's my fault but you think that setting mash efficiency would be an input and not a product.

Live and learn.

Thanks for the help guys. Cheers.

 

[RM-MN]

I think I figured this out and my efficiency wasn't the issue. In fact, my mash efficiency was about 75%. What was wrong was BeerSmith. I had my software setup as 72% brew house efficiency thinking that was my mash efficiency but it's not that at all. I did some reading and I'm still not 100% clear on how that brewhouse efficiency is calculated but I know I had it wrong. I think it's way off in my case because I like to leave about 1.5-2 gallons of trub in the boil kettle on these hop forward beers and that really makes the efficiency look bad. My brewhouse efficiency works out to 63% one way or another.

All this is kind of good in a way. This mans that I don't have a huge issue with my brewing process but I did have an issue with my recipe process.

I was going for an IPA with an OG of 1.072, and 65 IBUs making about 7%ABV but I'm ending up with a 1.060 OG, about 63 IBUs that will end up around 6% ABV. Sounds kinda delicious to me.

If that's all that went wrong on this batch I'm in for some decent beer. BeerSmith is just like any simulation software, garbage in=garbage out. I guess that's my fault but you think that setting mash efficiency would be an input and not a product.

Live and learn.

Thanks for the help guys. Cheers.

I think your mash efficiency could be higher. That usually only takes a little finer crush and perhaps some added rice hulls to avoid a stuck mash.

Clear beer does not require clear wort. There really is no benefit to making your wort clear.

Leaving any wort behind in the boil kettle is unnecessary and will reduce the brewhouse efficiency because any liquid in the trub you leave behind is potential beer. Dump it all into the fermenter and do your separation there when you are ready to bottle or keg. If you give the beer time, most of the trub will compact in the bottom of the fermenter and the beer racked off above it. If bottling, rack to the bottling bucket, then let it sit there for a few minute to settle out again before you bottle or keg and you'll leave nearly all of the trub behind.

 

[MplsUgly]

All true and valid points. Grain crush is a little out of my control. The Northern Brewer by my house has the mill fixed. I expect it's not as close as it could be because they don't want people getting stuck sparges. Maybe I can talk to them about getting a better crush. I could buy my own mill but why spend dollars to save cents? Building the electric brewery (in progress) has me wondering just how deep down the rabbit hole I've already fallen.

I'm starting to realize that I don't need to leave all the junk behind in the kettle but my carboys can only hold about 5.5 gallons each. I could start with less volume pre boil but I like to have some margin for spilling.

If I could get to 80%mash efficency that would be great but I'd be happy with anything that was consistent. That's what I need to help make good recipes and good beer.

Thanks again, you guys know your stuff and I appreciate the comments.