Is 60% efficiency bad?

[buntung483]

Hi. Just a simple question.
I am fairly consistently getting around a 60% efficiency. I don't want to be one of those people stressing about it but just wanted to know if it is something to try and improve.


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[rekoob]

It's not great.
Are you doing AG?
Do you crush the grain yourself or at LHBS?
Fly sparge or Batch sparge?

Okay, so I will assume your doing AG or you wouldn't be worried about it. depentding on your system/process you can try to change your sparge, I used to fly sparge but on my Brutus 10 system I put together a few years ago I found batch sparging with that system gave me a better efficiency. I'm sure I could refine my fly sparge to get me there but other things on the list before I get to that (if it's not broke type of thing).
If your not crushing your grain yourself, get a corona (I don't think thats spelled right) mill and dial it in. They are cheap and work great. I use on in a (bucket in a bucket) with no dust and I am getting around 80% minimum.
I would only try one thing at a time and changing sparge technique is free but if you would rather stay with your current process then the corona mill and setup will work great and is cheap to set up.
And of course if your not ready to do either of those things, just add some extra grain to increase your OG.
Good luck.

 

[brewmadness]

The first thing I would adjust is your crush. Made a huge difference for me....all I did was switch LHBS.

 

[buntung483]

I do crush my own grain . So far have only done single infusion mashing. I fly sparge slowly over about 45 min. Never tried batch sparging. I have tried playing with the adjustment but it never got better only worse so I left it and just focused on making beer


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[kombat]

Another vote for "crush" here. Once I adjusted the roller gap on my Barley Crusher to tighten it up just a hair from the factory setting, my efficiency took a noticeable jump.

Don't be afraid to loosen those screws and play with the gap setting.

 

[PRE66_6TART]

It is pretty low. But the question was whether that's bad. I'm not sure low efficiency is inherently bad. It will cost you maybe a couple bucks for the extra grain to make up the difference. But if that doesn't bother you and it's not coming from a ph issue or something I don't think low efficiency is bad in and of itself. That being said if it were me and it was that low I'd probably want to figure out what was going on.

 

[opiate82]

I wouldn't say "bad," something is only bad if it results in bad beer. But there is definitely room for improvement, I would try to get to 75% just because it tends to line up with most peoples recipes. My top-2 "improve my efficiency" checklist:

1.) Grain Crush

2.) Mash PH (see Water Chemistry Primer in Brew Science section)

I do crush my own grain . So far have only done single infusion mashing. I fly sparge slowly over about 45 min. Never tried batch sparging.

It is my understanding that monitoring mash PH is more important when fly sparging. Give a single batch sparge a try. I get 85% efficiency using a single batch sparge and sparging takes me less than 10 minutes (rather than 45).

 

[buntung483]

Ph is something I have not even looked at yet. I have spoken to the brewer at the local brewery which would be on the same water as me and he said he only filters and ads gypsum for pale ales and ipas but he is mostly a lager brewer with a bo pils that's very tasty.
I'm not really into water chemistry yet. Local brewery said that our water is very soft does that mean my ph is low or high or is this an unrelated thing
I am going to upgrade to a rims setup later so I can step mash and better hold my mash temp. Would this help




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[buntung483]

I wouldn't say "bad," something is only bad if it results in bad beer. But there is definitely room for improvement, I would try to get to 75% just because it tends to line up with most peoples recipes. My top-2 "improve my efficiency" checklist:

1.) Grain Crush

2.) Mash PH (see Water Chemistry Primer in Brew Science section)



It is my understanding that monitoring mash PH is more important when fly sparging. Give a single batch sparge a try. I get 85% efficiency using a single batch sparge and sparging takes me less than 10 minutes (rather than 45).

I have heard that fly sparging gives a better efficiency
I guess I could try a batch sparge. If I get a much higher efficiency would this mean it us ph related. And not the crush.


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[opiate82]

I would suspect you probably need to add a small amount of acidulated malt to your grist, but couldn't say for sure. Again, check out the Water Chemistry Primer. It is a very straight forward and simple way to adjust your water chemistry.

 

[thisisbeer]

Ph is something I have not even looked at yet. I have spoken to the brewer at the local brewery which would be on the same water as me and he said he only filters and ads gypsum for pale ales and ipas but he is mostly a lager brewer with a bo pils that's very tasty.
I'm not really into water chemistry yet. Local brewery said that our water is very soft does that mean my ph is low or high or is this an unrelated thing
I am going to upgrade to a rims setup later so I can step mash and better hold my mash temp. Would this help




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I'm in the same boat as you. It was in the water for me. I had a hard time getting my ph to be where I needed it. Everybody screams crush and it seems to me water is over looked a lot.