efficiency

[400d]

I made 4 batches by now, and I have to say I am not satisfied. All my beers were drinkable, but not even close to what I want to achieve....

I obviously have problems with efficiency, and don't know how to solve it. I just can't hit the desired efficiency levels.

I use BIAB method for all my brews, and though I didn't try MLT, I really don't see a reason why BIAB method wouldn't give me all the properties needed for hitting 80%+ efficiency...

I think my grains are the problem. Or maybe not...I got them from a malt factory in eastern europe (which is owned by a bigger belgian malt factory). I have huge amounts of these grains...

It's pale ale malt used in couple of local commercial beers.

I always mash at 156 F for 60 minutes in a bag. After the mash is done, I transfer the bag with grains to a bucket with a valve and double sparge with 176 F water.

For my last 6 gallons batch I used 11 lb of pale malt (very fine crush), and using the procedure mentioned above, I hit only 1.032 gravity... this is waaay to low because I expected at least 1.060....


Probably that's why my beer is kinda watery and with no body.

How can I improve my efficiency? I said that I really have a lot of these grains and I really would use AS MUCH AS NEEDED just to get a decent brew. So even if I have to use as much as double I used by now, I wouldn't mind really...

thank you all!

 

[Orfy]

You have a serious problem if you only getting 1032 from 11lbs of grain. (Presuming you are doing 5 gallon brews)

First thing you need to do is check that the malt is undergoing full converstion.

I'd do a small (cup full) mash and do an iodine test for starch. You should get full conversion after 20 minutes. I'd do this a couple of times from different batches of malt.

When you know the malt isn't at fault then you can look at your process. Ar you sure the malt in the bag is getting fully soaked and up to temperature? How much water are you using and in what size pot?

I'm aware of the BIAB method and my initial thought was allowing enough circulation of the mash water to the centre of the grain to get up to temp and to dissol3 e the sugars.

I presume you are batch sparging.

 

[Zen_Brew]

First off if you understand how to do the iodine test Orfy is describing that could help tell if the problem is with the grain.

As to your procedure, A little more infromation might be helpful. When you say you have a very fine crush, how are you determining that it is very fine? How are you crushing the grain?

11lbs of grain in brew in a bag can be done, but you need a vessel big enough to have good water circulation and a really good stir. How much water are you using in the mash, and in how big a container?

When you sparge are you also stirring the grains in the bag well before draining? Also this may be an obvious question, but are you then mixing the sparge water into the water from the original mash?

If you don't have a way to do an iodine test and you have a very large supply of grain as you say, try mashing with just a few lbs of grain just to see what kind of efficiency you get to test the grain.

 

[Kaiser]

Can you get me the gravity of the first wort (wort collected before sparging) and the mash thickness you used? This can be used to asses your mash
performance.

Kai