Hate to boast but....88% efficiency!

[Bromley]

I've been stuck at 73% efficiency for about 5 batches of AG now. Today I did a low gravity Bitter with a calculated SG of 1.038 and I got 1.046 out of it. That's 88% efficiency! Wish I could pin down one thing I did differently, but it really was just a combination of every step going exactly the way you hope it will.

OK, I'll stop now. I was brewing by myself today so I just had to let someone know who would understand why I'm so excited. SWMBO just rolls her eyes.

 

[Section1]

Congrats and lets hope it stays there or get even better.

 

[brett]

I've found that most of my efficiency problems come from under-sparging. I'm always reluctant to use "too much" sparge water and overshoot my pre-boil volume...

Now I've learned to continue sparging until the runoff hits 1.010 or even 1.008... efficiency hits upper 70s almost every time.

What was your sparging technique? How much sparge water did you use?

PS: IMO, low to mid 70s efficiency is nothing to be ashamed about. To me that's pretty good, especially if you can get that consistently.

 

[Bromley]

I've found that most of my efficiency problems come from under-sparging. I'm always reluctant to use "too much" sparge water and overshoot my pre-boil volume...

Now I've learned to continue sparging until the runoff hits 1.010 or even 1.008... efficiency hits upper 70s almost every time.

What was your sparging technique? How much sparge water did you use?

PS: IMO, low to mid 70s efficiency is nothing to be ashamed about. To me that's pretty good, especially if you can get that consistently.

I agree, the 73% I have been getting is fine, especially since I seemed to get that exact number everytime. I have just been adjusting little things here and there to see if I can get any kind of improvement and I finally did. And pretty dramatic at that.

As for sparging, I batch sparged in two batches. Both were 2.5 gallons at 170F. Final runnings on the first batch sparge was 1.031. My final runnings on the second batch sparge was 1.014 SG, so there actually was still a little sugar left in there, but I didn't want to push it.