Junk Efficiency With Keg Setup - Need Help

[jdoiv]

I wouldn't change to a manifold. If you are fly sparging, a false bottom is the best thing. Don't add the 3 gallons below the FB into your strike water calculations. Instead subtract it from your sparge volume. Put a dip tube in, sparge away and your efficiency should take a huge leap.

Yes, just a piece of copper tubing will work.

Here are a couple of pics of mine.

 

[BBboomer]

I use a converted keg for mashing with a Sabco false bottom. It is hinged in the middle and the dip tube goes through that to nearly the bottom of the keg. The drain valve is about 4 inches above the bottom of the keg. It leaves about a quart of liquid in the bottom when drained completely.
I also re-circulate my mash with LOW flame under the MT to maintain and adjust mash temps. I use my sparge hookup to re-circulate through.
I regularly get 80% or higher and very clear wort.

 

[Warrior]

I wouldn't change to a manifold. If you are fly sparging, a false bottom is the best thing. Don't add the 3 gallons below the FB into your strike water calculations. Instead subtract it from your sparge volume. Put a dip tube in, sparge away and your efficiency should take a huge leap.

Yes, just a piece of copper tubing will work.

Here are a couple of pics of mine.

I agree as I just brewed that bock last night and missed my O.G. because a 5.5 gal batch is not linear when you scale down form doing an 11 gal. I did not lose near as much water to the mash because the grain bed was much smaller than what I usually have in a 11 gal batch. Plus there was not an extra 2 3/4 gal of water (which scaled up would've been 5 1/2) under the FB when brewing the 11 gal batch. I'll adjust the gravity tonight using DME to get it up to an O.G. of 1.070

I used
6 gal for the mash
5.5 gal for sparging
This gave me about 7 gals at 1.053 O.G. from 13 1/2 lbs malt which is 1.0275 pts/lb/gal

That wasn't the best extraction rate as I have had in an 11 gal 1.051 boh pils I did that was 1.031 pts/lb/gal

Next time
I'll add more to the mash because I used about 1 qt per lb in this batch.
6 3/4 gal for the mash
3 1/4 gal for the sparge

I'll recirculate at least 2 3/4 gals at the start of the sparge to get the water below the FB to rinse through the grain bed.

This is the 1st 5.5 gal batch I've tried in the keg system. It's definately different than doing 11 gal because of the raised style false bottom.

 

[EinGutesBier]

That's a lot of great info there, Warrior. I'm going to have to rethink my approach.

 

[Warrior]

That's a lot of great info there, Warrior. I'm going to have to rethink my approach.

Have you tried a brew with a false bottom yet?

 

[Lil' Sparky]

I know I'm late on this thread, but you don't want all that dead space below your FB. It's what's killing your efficiency. You need to move it down to the bottom of the keg and build a dip tube to siphon from underneath. You can drill a hole in the FB since it sounds like it doesn't have one right now.

FYI, here's what my FB installed looks like. The dip tube is extremely easy to make from copper tubing and an elbow. This one came with the setup I bought, but I made the ones for my other vessels.