Missing Efficency

[nman13]

I've been an all grain brewer for 2-3 years now and in the last six months my Brewhouse efficiency has been plummeting, but more importantly totally not consistent. Was wondering if anyone could try and point to a specific thing that might have caused a 50% Brewhouse on today's brew.

Grain bill:
3lb- pilsner
2lb- flaked wheat
1lb- unmalted wheat
.5 lb- rice hulls

Grain was purchased from Northern Brewer and was crushed by them

Did a single infusion mash, held at 150F. Mashed for 70 min. PH was anywhere from 5.1-5.5.

I fly sparged by poring 168F water into the mashtun through a pasta strainer.

My mash tun is a rubbermaid cooler with a braid filter at the bottom.

any idea what might be causing the problem???

 

[CA_Mouse]

What were your mash and sparge volumes? Total collected volume? Are you collecting too much wort and having to boil it for a longer period to reach your final volume?

 

[Beernik]

I thought it might be the diastic power of your mash, but it works out to 55L, so that should be more than enough to convert.

What's the water to grain ratio of your mash?

 

[doug293cz]

I've been an all grain brewer for 2-3 years now and in the last six months my Brewhouse efficiency has been plummeting, but more importantly totally not consistent. Was wondering if anyone could try and point to a specific thing that might have caused a 50% Brewhouse on today's brew.

Grain bill:
3lb- pilsner
2lb- flaked wheat
1lb- unmalted wheat
.5 lb- rice hulls

Grain was purchased from Northern Brewer and was crushed by them

Did a single infusion mash, held at 150F. Mashed for 70 min. PH was anywhere from 5.1-5.5.

I fly sparged by poring 168F water into the mashtun through a pasta strainer.

My mash tun is a rubbermaid cooler with a braid filter at the bottom.

any idea what might be causing the problem???

Have you made any changes to your equipment or process since you were getting better efficiency? Are you sparging faster than you used to? Did you used to buy your crushed grain from somewhere else?

With a braid in the bottom of the mash tun, you have a configuration that is more susceptible to channeling during the sparge, and that can severely degrade your efficiency. Have you considered trying to batch sparge to see if that helps your efficiency?

For guidelines on how to determine where in your process your efficiency losses are occurring, check out my posts here, here, and here.

Brew on