First AG batch: too much efficiency?

[Tamingthabrett]

Okay so I have been extract/steeping grain brewing for 5 months now. This past weekend I made the switch to all grain. I formulated a Dusseldorf Altbier recipe using pro mash and BYO recipe. Set my efficiency for 72%. I have 2 keggles, 2 burners, and a 10 gallon round orange mash tun with false bottom. I set my target temps of: mash @ 157 for 60 min in 4 gallons, mash out @ 168 with 1.5 gallons 212 degree water, sparge with 4 gallons of 170 degree water (4 gallons from second runoff). I formulated the recipe to yield me the same from the first and second run offs and hover around 1.5 qts./lb. Anyways, long story short I hit all of my target temps. and yielded 84% efficiency, resulting in a 1.070 og when the target og was 1.052. My question is this; I do not plan on doing a mash out for my next beer, I also plan on mashing @154. What should I set my efficiency to? I also yielded half a gallon less than my expected final volume, don't worry I adjusted all of this in pro mash to recalculate my efficiency after the og reading.

 

[duboman]

2 things

You may have gotten a better crush
You got more boil off than anticipated and condensed the wort yielding less in the primary.

If you make the changes to your efficiency and don't make the same assumptions and they don't happen your beer will again be off in the other direction

Sometimes these things happen, if you continue to brew a few more batches and consistently get better efficiency and make those adjustments then change it, but after 1bath....NIMO

 

[Tamingthabrett]

Thank you for the reply, I used a power drill operated dual mill crusher, running the drill at around half speed. What technique is best for using this type of crusher and achieving a consistent crush? Also, I had the desired amount of wort into the BK, I must have just did an aggressive boil.