Frustrated with all grain...going back to extract

[Kauai_Kahuna]

For the OP: I have paid a lot of attention to Efficiency since I started AG, but by no way is it the primary issue.
I enjoy the process of AG, and I love the taste. The fact that I may really miss the targets, I adjust up the recipe or fix with adding DME / Honey depending on what I'm going for. The fact that I sweat like a horse, stink like a pig and am totally exhausted just shows how much I enjoy it.
Efficiency just gives you an idea of where you are in your process and equipment, and gives you a guide to adjust your recipe. If you want to stop all grain for any reason it is fine, but I would hope that EFF should be last.
Best of luck.

 

[JamesKY]

As I stated in an earlier post, my friend and I have generally hovered around the 60-65% efficiency range ever since we started brewing AG. This happened even when we crushed the grains with our own Barley Crusher set to a very fine crush. Up until last night, I had always used a SS braid to drain my MLT. Last weekend I decided to make a manifold out of CPVC and last night we used it for the first time.

I'm happy to report that our efficiency jumped to 83%. When I went through some "dry" runs with the MLT filling it with hot water and letting it drain, I found that the SS braid was leaving about a quart or so of liquid behind before it finished draining. The manifold now drains the MLT almost completely. Granted there wasn't any grain to absorb the water, but it still stands to reason that this would have a detrimental effect on our efficiency.

So it will take some more experimentation to tell whether or not this was just a fluke, but I wanted to say that if you're frustrated with low efficiencies, don't ignore a seemingly small problem as it could turn out to be a bigger one than you thought.