Apollo
Well-Known Member
I used Kaiser's Efficiency Analysis Calculator yesterday and could use some help in improving things. I'll try to be very detailed on the recipe and my process and equipment. I realize this may be long, but I appreciate any help.
First the recipe. I used The Goodness scaled down to 5.5 gallons. Mashed at 156 for 60 min. Crushed at the LHBS at I believe .02 and ran the grains through twice.
9# 2-row
1.25# Caramel 40L
.5# Aromatic Malt
.5# Munich Malt
.5# Flaked Oats
.1# Chocolate Malt
Next my equipment: My mash tun is an old Coleman rectangular cooler which I believe is about 12.8 gallons (I calc'd it from determining how many square inches). I wanted to keep it as a functional cooler as well as a mash tun so when I brew I just stick a hose in the drain stick and put a ss braid on the end of the hose. My kettle is a keggle with a dip tube.
I mashed with 14.8 Qt with a 4 Qt mash out. Batch sparged with 15.4 Qt. Found out I was 4 Qt short of my preboil volume so I heated 10 Qt more and did a second sparge. 4Qt of that sparge went into the kettle and the additional approx 4.5Qt went into a separate pot for a future starter.
First runnings: 10.75Qt @ 1.075 grav
Sparge 1: 11.81Qt @ 1.028
Sparge 2: 8.7Qt @ 1.018
Preboil: 26.6Qt @ 1.042
Postboil: 22Qt @ 1.052
Here's the results from the efficiency calculator:
Conversion efficiency: 96.8%
Efficiency lost in wort not drained into kettle: 5.0%
Efficiency lost in work held back by spent grain: 13.3%
Lauter efficiency: 81.1%
Starches not converted 3.2%
Extract potential lost in wort drained from lauter tun after collecting into the kettle 5.0%
Extract potential held back in the wort held back by the spent grain 13.3%
Extract potential into the boil kettle 65.2%
Extract potential left behind in the kettle -3.0%
Extract potential into the fermenter 68.3
Total. This number should be close to 100% 86.8
I think this about covers it. If I forgot anything let me know. My goal with this is to bump my overall efficiency up to at least 70% (if not 75%). To me it looks like the biggest area that is holding the efficiency low is the extract potential being held back by spent grains. I don't know if there's anything I can do about that. I realize this is a lot of information to analyze but I'm looking to improve my process. Thanks!!
First the recipe. I used The Goodness scaled down to 5.5 gallons. Mashed at 156 for 60 min. Crushed at the LHBS at I believe .02 and ran the grains through twice.
9# 2-row
1.25# Caramel 40L
.5# Aromatic Malt
.5# Munich Malt
.5# Flaked Oats
.1# Chocolate Malt
Next my equipment: My mash tun is an old Coleman rectangular cooler which I believe is about 12.8 gallons (I calc'd it from determining how many square inches). I wanted to keep it as a functional cooler as well as a mash tun so when I brew I just stick a hose in the drain stick and put a ss braid on the end of the hose. My kettle is a keggle with a dip tube.
I mashed with 14.8 Qt with a 4 Qt mash out. Batch sparged with 15.4 Qt. Found out I was 4 Qt short of my preboil volume so I heated 10 Qt more and did a second sparge. 4Qt of that sparge went into the kettle and the additional approx 4.5Qt went into a separate pot for a future starter.
First runnings: 10.75Qt @ 1.075 grav
Sparge 1: 11.81Qt @ 1.028
Sparge 2: 8.7Qt @ 1.018
Preboil: 26.6Qt @ 1.042
Postboil: 22Qt @ 1.052
Here's the results from the efficiency calculator:
Conversion efficiency: 96.8%
Efficiency lost in wort not drained into kettle: 5.0%
Efficiency lost in work held back by spent grain: 13.3%
Lauter efficiency: 81.1%
Starches not converted 3.2%
Extract potential lost in wort drained from lauter tun after collecting into the kettle 5.0%
Extract potential held back in the wort held back by the spent grain 13.3%
Extract potential into the boil kettle 65.2%
Extract potential left behind in the kettle -3.0%
Extract potential into the fermenter 68.3
Total. This number should be close to 100% 86.8
I think this about covers it. If I forgot anything let me know. My goal with this is to bump my overall efficiency up to at least 70% (if not 75%). To me it looks like the biggest area that is holding the efficiency low is the extract potential being held back by spent grains. I don't know if there's anything I can do about that. I realize this is a lot of information to analyze but I'm looking to improve my process. Thanks!!