Efficiency improvement... Woot!

[o4_srt]

After using my new rig for 6 batches, and averaging 65% brewhouse efficiency, I just achieved 89%...

The only change I made was recirculating the sparge water through the mash for 15 minutes, instead of just letting it sit.

Looks like my 5% abv kolsch is now going to be a 7ish percenter...

Hopefully I can manage to keep my efficiency up, should save me a few bucks worth of grain.

 

[djsethall]

Yup yup. Be careful not to get our efficiency too high, I've heard that extracting tannins from the husks can happen if it gets above a certain percentage.

 

[o4_srt]

Yup yup. Be careful not to get our efficiency too high, I've heard that extracting tannins from the husks can happen if it gets above a certain percentage.

I wasn't really trying to increase it, it was consistent at 65%, and that was good enough for me, I care more about consistency than efficiency.

I was just surprised to see an increase of almost 25 percent from recirculating.

 

[trigger]

Yup yup. Be careful not to get our efficiency too high, I've heard that extracting tannins from the husks can happen if it gets above a certain percentage.

I believe this to be a misattribution. I average 90% eff and have had some small session beers in the 94% range. I have never had tannin extraction problems.

The tannin extraction happens at higher pH and hotter temps, which can be achieved by oversparging with untreated water. I make sure to keep my sparge pH below 6 and temp below 170 and that seems to do the trick.