I brewed my first lager a few weeks ago, and I hit 93% efficiency on a system that generally produces 83%. I think I understand why, but I wanted to bring this to a larger audience.
Recipe was:
85% Pilsner Malt
14% Munich Malt
1% Melanoiden Malt
Rice Hulls
OG: 1.047
As I began running off, and fly sparging, my first runnings were in the 1.070 range, middle runnings were 1.050, and late runnings were 1.010. On a planned efficiency of 80%, I achieved 93% and overshot my gravity by about 8 points.
I've never sparged down to where my runnings were 1.010 before, and I'm thinking this is the reason for the higher efficiency. Anything over 1.000 represents sugar left in the mash tun, and if I'm rinsing more and more of it off, more is going in the boil kettle and increasing the extraction efficiency.
Conversely, when I've made RISs and my final runnings were at 1.040, I've seen efficiencies in the high 70s. There, again, I'm leaving sugar in the mash tun, which therefore decreases the extraction efficiency.
Of course, extraction efficiency is influenced by many things such as crush, technique, but I conclude also that extraction efficiency is influenced by specific gravity of final runnings. Seems pretty obvious, but I don't hear this community talking about efficiency in this way. Am I thinking about this correctly?
(My setup is a 2 tier, 3 keggle HERMS)
Recipe was:
85% Pilsner Malt
14% Munich Malt
1% Melanoiden Malt
Rice Hulls
OG: 1.047
As I began running off, and fly sparging, my first runnings were in the 1.070 range, middle runnings were 1.050, and late runnings were 1.010. On a planned efficiency of 80%, I achieved 93% and overshot my gravity by about 8 points.
I've never sparged down to where my runnings were 1.010 before, and I'm thinking this is the reason for the higher efficiency. Anything over 1.000 represents sugar left in the mash tun, and if I'm rinsing more and more of it off, more is going in the boil kettle and increasing the extraction efficiency.
Conversely, when I've made RISs and my final runnings were at 1.040, I've seen efficiencies in the high 70s. There, again, I'm leaving sugar in the mash tun, which therefore decreases the extraction efficiency.
Of course, extraction efficiency is influenced by many things such as crush, technique, but I conclude also that extraction efficiency is influenced by specific gravity of final runnings. Seems pretty obvious, but I don't hear this community talking about efficiency in this way. Am I thinking about this correctly?
(My setup is a 2 tier, 3 keggle HERMS)