mrbugawkagawk
Well-Known Member
i know many things can affect this but i am using .31 gallons or 1.24 quarts for the grain to water ratio , i know that not enough water can make your efficiency go down, is this too little?
I have seen people on here experiment with up to 2 qts/lb. I believe The Pol has had good results with that ratio. Others have seen their efficiencies drop. From what I've gathered, if you are getting good efficiency with a lower ratio, stick with it. Otherwise you can experiment with a thinner mash. Personally I use 1.5 and get somewhere in the high seventies if I mill the grain twice, low seventies if I mill once.
1.25 qt/lb is neither an optimal mash thickness nor a standard mash thickness. It seems that it has become a quasi-standard b/c brewers didnt really question it and, for some reason, have been afraid of thin mashes.
I have consistently achieved an 80% effeciency on my brewdays with a 1.25qt/lb ratio. I have read many threads about people having efficiency issues, and IMO a good crush and correct mash temperature along with proper pH should bring about a decent efficiency.
When I bought my barley crusher my efficiency not only went up but became very consistent at 75% batch after batch mashing at either 1.25 or 1.33 qt/lb. Prior to that I was having my LHBS precrush my grains and i was averaging anywhere between 55-65% efficiency.
TheSanch here on HBT recently sent me a pic of the crush from our LHBS and there were whole grains of barley cracked in half with the endosperm still enveloped in the husk. He had a less than ideal efficiency from his last brew.
I've only been taking note of my mash efficiency for the last three or four batches. I've been consistently getting 72-73%. I have more beer crush my grain for me. I've also been using the 1q/p ratio.
Mash efficiency?
Conversion efficiency?
Lauter efficiency?
Efficiencty to the boiler?
Brewhouse efficiency?
Which one is 72-73%?
Thinner mashes CAN increase eff., they can to a large degree depending on your system. I wrote an article explaining this on www.brewersfriend.com, search "Thin Mashing" and you will see what it is all about.
When I started milling my own grain, my conversion eff. jumped, then I started mashing thin, 2-3 quarts/lb my conversin eff. jumped again. You really need to dial it in for YOUR system.
I had the owner check and it was set to around .50mm.
I take a gravity reading from my pre boil wort(cooled). Then I do the math. So mash efficiency?
Problem with that number is that it doesnt tell you anything about the process. It is simply a combination of 2 processes, conversion and lauter.
You could have poor conversion (75%) and excellent lautering (98%), meaning that your mash is messed up... or just the opposite. You cant tell from a simple pre-boil number.
It is like shooting in the dark when you make changes to a process like the mash, or the lauter, when you have no way to quantify each of them. Pre-boil efficiency is a good way to test the consistency of your brewhouse, but poor way to judge any process and make changes.
Pre-boil efficiency is a good way to test the consistency of your brewhouse,
I don't recall what Palmer, Papazian, et al have said about optimal thickness, but it doesn't hurt that that is the standard default setting in Beersmith (and possibly other software I haven't used). I always have to switch mine to 1.5; haven't looked to see if I can change it globally.
Please correct me - I thought brewhouse efficiency was a measure from grain to primary (including trub, cooler losses, etc)? If not, what do you call it?
thanks,
TheSanch here on HBT recently sent me a pic of the crush from our LHBS and there were whole grains of barley cracked in half with the endosperm still enveloped in the husk. He had a less than ideal efficiency from his last brew.
Next time he brews we're going to crush his grain with my BC and see how much of an improvement it makes with his efficiency.
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