Mash efficiency calc..any help appreciated

[malt_shovel]

Hi there,

I am brewing at the moment an all grain wit consisting of 9lbs 50/50 pilsner & flaked wheat.

Here is what I did

7.5 Qrts @ 140oF to hit 120ish for 15 mins

Added 6.8 Qrts @ 210oF to hit 152 - 158ish for further 45 mins.

(I hit closer to 148oF but my temp gauge is a little suspect I think)

then I added a further 9Qrts at 175oF to mash out before clearing and draining to the brew kettle.

I measured a first runnings gravity of 1.042 (corrected to 60oF).

Using Kaiser's mash efficiency calculation, I should have a FW extract of around 12.9oPlato (1.052 SG).

If my calculation is right, my mash efficiency is 80%....

Is this right?

If my mash effeciency is 80%, it sounds like I am missing a fair amount of potential extract. Could this be because I am using flaked wheat? Is my protein rest not long enough?

Just for added info, I drained 15.8 Qrts for wort runnings, then added a further 11.6 Qrts and batch sparged to give a second runnings of 1.018SG (corrected to 60oF), so I am not sure how to calculate my lautering efficiency. Any help on this would be great also.

Cheers

 

[Walker]

IMO, 80% I pretty respecatble. What number are you striving for?

 

[devildancer]

I'm curious because I've been collecting my full boil volume (7 gallons yesterday), then taking a gravity reading after it is mixed up for efficiency calculation.

 

[malt_shovel]

IMO, 80% I pretty respecatble. What number are you striving for?

Hey there Walker,

In my recent AG attempts, I am getting overall brewhouse efficiency around the 60% mark (calculated from pre-boil numbers), so I am trying to work out step by step what is the matter. The first thing I wanted to check was that I was at least converting all the starches during the mash, which from what I gather with highly modified malts and a reasonable crush should be pretty close to 100%. If I am already down 20% on this, and my lautering is not that efficient (still to work this one out) then I won't be able to get my overall efficiency over 80%. Hope this makes sense.

I am hoping it is to do with using flaked wheat rather than a fully malted grain. I got myself a mortar mixer for the drill and whipped it into a freenzy before leaving it to mash, so definately no dough balls in sight...

Cheers

 

[malt_shovel]

I'm curious because I've been collecting my full boil volume (7 gallons yesterday), then taking a gravity reading after it is mixed up for efficiency calculation.

Yeah I think that is the right way to understand your overeall brewhouse efficiency, which shoud be made up of two main aspects. The mash efficiency (how well the mash converts all the available starches into fermentable and non-fermentable sugars), and then the lautering efficiency (how well the hardware setup is to take the converted starches and put them in the brew kettle). Each is controlled by different things. I was getting a pretty crappy overall brewhouse efficiency but I wanted to nail down the culprit and I suspect that an 80% mash efficiency is to blame for a large amount.

I could be talking complete crap so would be good to get someone with more AG experience to sense check this, but I like to think I can understand what Kaiser and a few others were going on about in their various posts on AG efficiency.

Cheers

 

[mummasan]

I have used Kaiser's website to troubleshoot my efficiency. I was able to discover that my conversion efficiency was right around 100% but my lauter efficiency was (is) where my efficiency suffers.

When you say that your mash eff was 80% do you mean that you took a sample from the first runnings, cooled it then measured with the hydrometer and discovered that you only converted 80%? Be sure that you measured the first runnings. Also be sure that the sample was cooled to 60 degrees.

If I were you, I would not worry about this batch's poor eff and drink some beer. Then I would do another batch with a more standard grain bill, (mostly 2-row with some crystal, munich etc) and measure carefully. I suspect you have gotten less than ideal conversion because the grain bill is half flaked wheat.

If another batch ends up at only 80% conversion eff then you should take some steps to get closer to 100%. One thing Kaiser recommends is a thin mash.

Keep on brewing!

 

[malt_shovel]

When you say that your mash eff was 80% do you mean that you took a sample from the first runnings, cooled it then measured with the hydrometer and discovered that you only converted 80%? Be sure that you measured the first runnings. Also be sure that the sample was cooled to 60 degrees.

Yep, that's what I meant (and did). I measured at higher than 60oF but converted using online chart.

If I were you, I would not worry about this batch's poor eff and drink some beer.

Keep on brewing!

Duly noted.

Cheers