I brewed my first all grain brew today, which is only my third brew overall. I've done one extract, one BIAB, and now one traditional AG. I'm just trying to find out which system is for me, and I enjoyed the traditional all grain brew the best. However, my efficiencies were absolutely horrible. I'll outline my equipment, recipe, and process, and hopefully someone can shed some light on what my issues may be.
My equipment is pretty limited, as I'm just getting started. I have a 10 gallon stainless steel brew kettle, and I converted a 70 quart Coleman extreme cooler into a mash tun. I used an extra cooler that I have as a hot liquor tank.
The recipe that I used today is for a Founders Porter clone. The grain bill is:
9.5 lbs Maris Otter
1.25 lbs chocolate malt
1 lb Munich
10 oz carapils
8 oz crystal 120
4 oz black patent
Hops:
.75 oz nugget at 60 min
.75 oz crystal at 20 min
.75 oz willamette at 20 min
.25 oz crystal at 5 min
.25 oz willamette at 5 min
White labs California ale yeast wlp001
I made a 2 liter starter yesterday and had it on a stir plate since noon yesterday.
As for my process, I heated my strike water (4.1 gallons/1.25 qt per lb) to 171 and put it in my mash tun to warm it up. I lost three degrees to the mash tun and then added my grains. I stirred well and broke up all dough balls. The mash temp stabilized at my target temperature of 155°. I mashed for 60 minutes and only lost 1°. I drained the wort from the mash tun and took a sample. Gravity of first runnings was 1.070, which gave me a conversion of only 80.4%.
Next I batch sparged with 5 gallons of 170 degree water for ten minutes. I drained the sparge water into my boil kettle and stirred it thouroughly to mix with the first runnings. I took another sample and had a pre boil gravity of 1.041. The recipe estimate for pre boil gravity was 1.048. This gave me a pre boil efficiency of only 65%, or 24 ppg.
My total boil volume ended up being 7.67 gallons. I was shooting for 7.2 gallons. I brought the wort up to a boil, and made my hop additions. The boil lasted for 75 minutes. At flame out, I used my immersion chiller to bring the wort down to 66° within 14 minutes. I whirlpooled by hand a let the wort sit for 20 minutes. Then I drained the kettle to my fermenter and took another sample. The gravity of this sample was 1.053, well short of the 1.066 the recipe estimated. I ended up with 5.5 gallons in the fermenter, which is what I was aiming for, but ending kettle efficiency was only 63%. This gave me a final brewhouse efficiency of only 60%. That being said, I hit all my volumes dead on except boil volume. I had about a half gallon extra boil volume over what I was aiming for.
Now, I have a couple of theories of what could have happened. I buy all my grains pre crushed from Austin Homebrew Supply. I had them double crush this batch of grains as I was intending to do BIAB again. When the grains arrived, however, a lot of the barley appeared whole. I wish I would have taken a picture, but I didn't. I think it's possible that the crush is no good. Has anyone else had this issue with AHS?
Second, I had my water tested and it is highly, highly alkaline. My RO system is currently down, so I'm brewing with this highly alkaline water. According to bru'n water, my mash ph should've have been around 6.0. I don't have a ph meter to verify this, so I guess that's on my short list of upcoming purchases. Could that high of a ph have that negative of an effect on my efficiencies?
Perhaps my ph issues coupled with a poor crush combined to reduce my efficiencies. I'm just not sure. I don't have the brewing experience to be able to say for sure what went wrong. That's why I'm turning to the experts here. If any of y'all can help shed some light on what went wrong, I would be eternally grateful.
My equipment is pretty limited, as I'm just getting started. I have a 10 gallon stainless steel brew kettle, and I converted a 70 quart Coleman extreme cooler into a mash tun. I used an extra cooler that I have as a hot liquor tank.
The recipe that I used today is for a Founders Porter clone. The grain bill is:
9.5 lbs Maris Otter
1.25 lbs chocolate malt
1 lb Munich
10 oz carapils
8 oz crystal 120
4 oz black patent
Hops:
.75 oz nugget at 60 min
.75 oz crystal at 20 min
.75 oz willamette at 20 min
.25 oz crystal at 5 min
.25 oz willamette at 5 min
White labs California ale yeast wlp001
I made a 2 liter starter yesterday and had it on a stir plate since noon yesterday.
As for my process, I heated my strike water (4.1 gallons/1.25 qt per lb) to 171 and put it in my mash tun to warm it up. I lost three degrees to the mash tun and then added my grains. I stirred well and broke up all dough balls. The mash temp stabilized at my target temperature of 155°. I mashed for 60 minutes and only lost 1°. I drained the wort from the mash tun and took a sample. Gravity of first runnings was 1.070, which gave me a conversion of only 80.4%.
Next I batch sparged with 5 gallons of 170 degree water for ten minutes. I drained the sparge water into my boil kettle and stirred it thouroughly to mix with the first runnings. I took another sample and had a pre boil gravity of 1.041. The recipe estimate for pre boil gravity was 1.048. This gave me a pre boil efficiency of only 65%, or 24 ppg.
My total boil volume ended up being 7.67 gallons. I was shooting for 7.2 gallons. I brought the wort up to a boil, and made my hop additions. The boil lasted for 75 minutes. At flame out, I used my immersion chiller to bring the wort down to 66° within 14 minutes. I whirlpooled by hand a let the wort sit for 20 minutes. Then I drained the kettle to my fermenter and took another sample. The gravity of this sample was 1.053, well short of the 1.066 the recipe estimated. I ended up with 5.5 gallons in the fermenter, which is what I was aiming for, but ending kettle efficiency was only 63%. This gave me a final brewhouse efficiency of only 60%. That being said, I hit all my volumes dead on except boil volume. I had about a half gallon extra boil volume over what I was aiming for.
Now, I have a couple of theories of what could have happened. I buy all my grains pre crushed from Austin Homebrew Supply. I had them double crush this batch of grains as I was intending to do BIAB again. When the grains arrived, however, a lot of the barley appeared whole. I wish I would have taken a picture, but I didn't. I think it's possible that the crush is no good. Has anyone else had this issue with AHS?
Second, I had my water tested and it is highly, highly alkaline. My RO system is currently down, so I'm brewing with this highly alkaline water. According to bru'n water, my mash ph should've have been around 6.0. I don't have a ph meter to verify this, so I guess that's on my short list of upcoming purchases. Could that high of a ph have that negative of an effect on my efficiencies?
Perhaps my ph issues coupled with a poor crush combined to reduce my efficiencies. I'm just not sure. I don't have the brewing experience to be able to say for sure what went wrong. That's why I'm turning to the experts here. If any of y'all can help shed some light on what went wrong, I would be eternally grateful.