Help major efficiency issues!

[marjen]

SO i have a couple threads going on my new setup but looking for some more eyes on my issues as I just had a pretty disasterous brew day.

Been brewing for 2-3 years. Prior to last 2 days used BIAB propane setup. Never had major issues, efficiency averaged 70-75%.

Have a new 2.5 kettle electric setup. Have a mash tun, boil kettle and using a counter flow chiller as an external herms.

I have done 2 brew days so far. First one was terrible. Had pre boil gravity of 1.024 was supposed to be 1.040. Today I got a pre boil of 1.034 was supposed to be 1.054. That’s only 42% efficiency!!!

I kept a close eye on temps in the mash tun. Strike was set to 155f. I measured that on the Mash in port. Mash out was showing 140=142f. Not sure why so lower on a recirculating setup. I used a hand held in the mash and got around 154 throughout the hour with a high of 156 and low of 152.

What could I possibly be doing wrong? Kept the mash recirculating. No issues i could see there. 60 min boil. RIght now I am throwing another 5 lb of 2-row in to try and get pre boil gravity up as if i moved forward it said i would have a 4.2% beer, this was supposed to be 6.8%. Really frustrated. Ready to bail and go back to BIAB.

 

[burntchef]

How was your crush? What jumps out at me is a low mash in temp. My grain temp is usually in the 70 degree range. Brewers friend usually calls for 168-170 strike water, to hit 152 mash in temp. Poor starch conversion is your issue imho.
Eric

 

[grampamark]

What are you taking SG readings with? Do you have more than one way to measure gravity? If you only have one tool, and it’s inaccurate, your problem might not be temp related.

 

[marjen]

I have my own mill and have always crushed my own grains so don’t think that is it.

I have a hydrometer to measure and also have a tilt so actually used both and they were close to each other. Temp seemed fine. I am ready temp as it enters the top of the mash tun. I also a, reading it as it leaves the mash tun and also used a handheld. Temp in and handheld were both pretty much the same and during the mash were between 152-155. Temp on the out, as it recirculates kept showing around 140-142.

to save the batch I added another 5 lb of 2-row and mashed it for 30 mins. That took pre boil from 1.034 to 1.055. Seemed to get more out of the 5 lb of extra grain than the 13.5 lb I started with.