Efficiency Gain with Protein Rest?

[nickharbour]

I have been systematically troubleshooting chill-haze and in my last batch I tried a protein rest in my mash. I just did a 20 minute protein rest (for the record i didn't infuse enough water, it ended up way too thick) and i infused up to sacc rest for 60 minutes and the rest of the mash went as usual and at its usual thickness.

my efficiency is normally around 65-70% but I came out at 85% on this batch.

Are efficiency gains with protein rests expected or was this a fluke? I'd like to know what to expect so i can plan my next brews accordingly.

 

[MalFet]

You might see some slight bumps north due to better saturation of your starches, but nothing like that. Something else is going on, I suspect.

 

[DSmith]

My mash efficiency has followed a trend where 1.070 OG recipes are 70% efficient and 1.050 OG recipes are 80% efficient (Single infusion mashing with single batch sparge). You might have something similar going on if you're not comparing recipes of the same original gravity. In-between OG's have efficiencies between 70%-80%. I always plan for 70% and discard some wort for plain brewing water if the efficiency is too high. That's wort for yeast starters.

Equations for Efficiency Too High

(PBV) Pre-Boil Volume [Gallons]
(PBG) Recipe or Brewing Program Pre-Boil Gravity
(AG) Actual Mash Gravity
(RV) Removed Volume to be Replace with Brewing Water [Gallons]

RV = PBV – PBV*PBG/AG

Example

PBV = 4.125
PBG = 48
AG = 54
RV = 4.125-4.125*48/54 = 0.46 gallons (Remove this volume of wort and replace with this volume of brewing water)