Mash & Sparge Temperature

[Gold_Robber]

Hi all,

I wanted to mash high in order to get less fermentables. The thing is, I had horrible efficiency and my OG which should have been 1.056 turned out to be 1.048. I usually get 78% efficiency and today I ended up with 66% efficiency.

My mash temp. was 160*F, perhaps a couple of degrees higher, and my sparge temps ( 2 sparges) were about 162*F. Could this have contributed to my terrible efficiency ( very low OG) , or does mashing and sparging high only effect attenuation?

Thanks in advance.

 

[brewkinger]

Mashing at 160 is at the upper end of the range for conversion so that may have caused poor efficiency. If you were even hotter than that, it would not have been helpful.

Sparging with water that is only 2degrees hotter is not an issue, although not helpful other than rinsing the grains.

Sounds like a bad efficiency recipe to me.

 

[Gold_Robber]

Mashing high gives you LESS fermentables.
Mashing at 160 is at the upper end of the range.

Sparging with water that is only 2degrees hotter is not an issue, although not helpful.

Sounds like a bad efficiency recipe to me.

It's actually a re-brew. It was a bit thin so I wanted to mash higher, I also changed the crystal. The efficiency was normal the first time I brewed this recipe.

In your opinion, will mashing a few degrees above 160*F ruin the batch?

Thanks.