Efficiency problems help welcome

[mattdc26]

hello all,

I have had 2 imperial IPA's and both have only yielded 61% brewhouse.

Let's just worry about the last one today.

12 lbs 2 row
2 lbs crystal 10l

All crushed by me .030

153 mash hit perfect for 60 mins

Mashed out at 170 first sparge was .78 gallons

Second was 3.48

That gave me 6.20 gallons to boil, humidity was 99% today 32 degrees freezing fog here in England, I finished up with only 4 gallons of wort which is way lower then I'm used to for an hour boil. Added the 1.25 gallons of filtered water measured my OG and came up with 1.060. About 61% efficiency. Any suggestions?

 

[doug293cz]

hello all,

I have had 2 imperial IPA's and both have only yielded 61% brewhouse.

Let's just worry about the last one today.

12 lbs 2 row
2 lbs crystal 10l

All crushed by me .030

153 mash hit perfect for 60 mins

Mashed out at 170 first sparge was .78 gallons

Second was 3.48

That gave me 6.20 gallons to boil, humidity was 99% today 32 degrees freezing fog here in England, I finished up with only 4 gallons of wort which is way lower then I'm used to for an hour boil. Added the 1.25 gallons of filtered water measured my OG and came up with 1.060. About 61% efficiency. Any suggestions?

Sounds like you are batch sparging. If that is the case, then the best efficiency is achieved when all sparge steps are equal volume. See here for the details. The other important item to maximize efficiency is to minimize the amount of wort left in the MLT after each run-off step.

2.2 gal boil off per hour seems very high, but shouldn't have affected efficiency, since sugar doesn't evaporate during the boil. Also, adding make up water won't change the amount of sugar in the wort only the concentration. Efficiency is measured by total sugar extraction not wort concentration. You do measure the concentration (SG) and then multiply by volume to determine total sugar.

Brew on

 

[mattdc26]

Thanks Doug I just gotta keep brewing, I have made some great extract beers but the all grain is kicking my butt so far. Thanks again for the link I'll give it another go. Cheers!

 

[mlafnitzegger]

I almost exclusively batch sparge. I had efficiency issues as well.
Grain; seems like you crush fine
Temp; you got that too
Sparge; Definitely drain all the way between steps (mash out, sparge 1 and sparge 2) always have at least two sparge steps when batch sparging
Temp of sparge is very important; get your mash up to 168
AND MOST IMPORTANT; STIR LIKE YOU MEAN IT... I heat up my mash and stir for 5 to 10 minutes during each sparge step.

Raised my eff up from low 60% to mid 80%

 

[ColoHox]

It will depend on if you are asking about brewhouse efficiency or mash efficiency. You are probably asking about extraction (mash) efficiency, though. Your brewhouse efficiency is probably between 60-65% based on the numbers your provided and depends on volumes, but it sounds reasonable.

However, I calculate your mash efficiency as ~62%, close to what you got. Is there a chance a measurement error was made when you were brewing? It sounds like you trust most of your numbers. Do you have accurately calibrated thermometers and hydrometer? Something is happening between the MLT and the boil, but clearly you can boil just fine.

At only 32 degrees, did your mash stay at a consistent temperature for the whole hour, or were you even outside? Perhaps you should have collected more preboil volume, as the others have suggested, or did you fully drain your mash tun? Did the spent grain taste sweet? Can you do an iodine test, or maybe consider one in the future?

Just throwing some things out there.

Sounds like you are batch sparging. If that is the case, then the best efficiency is achieved when all sparge steps are equal volume. See here for the details. The other important item to maximize efficiency is to minimize the amount of wort left in the MLT after each run-off step.

It is the volume of the first two runnings that needs to be nearly the same, not the sparge volumes. The first addition of <1gal was to be able to pull off about 3 gallons of first runnings from the mash. The second sparge then gives you about 3 gallons of second runnings.

 

[Yooper]

Don't forget that adding water (with an SG of 1.000) will lower the brewhouse efficiency.

Sparging more will produce more wort, so there would be more sugars in the wort but that's hard to guess when you're not sure of your boil volume.

What was the amount of water you used in the mash? I assume about 1.25 quarts/pound?

 

[mattdc26]

I was in my garage with my igloo coolers, the mash stayed at 153 for the whole hour, I added 172 degree water for the first sparge. The boil off was due to the ridicules humidity and freezing temps. I just gotta work on batch sparging better and refining the process a bit. What temp is your sparge water? Or what is a decent ballpark? Looking back on it there is no way 172 is going to warm 153 to 168......

 

[blizz81]

I just gotta work on batch sparging better and refining the process a bit. What temp is your sparge water? Or what is a decent ballpark? Looking back on it there is no way 172 is going to warm 153 to 168......

Your temp here shouldn't really affect your efficiency - it's more a measure of a) attempting to get the bed to a temp to stop conversion and b) make the wort easier to runoff