Super low efficiency on my all grain system!!??

[Dog House Brew]

I don’t think you’re nuts. Here is a quote from George Fix ( http://hbd.org/hbd/archive/977.html#977-3 ) “I have found that to get a very high malt flavor the sparge must be omitted as well. This is an expensive way to brew since the amount of grains needed must be increased by a factor ~4/3. Nevertheless, some of the world's great ales and lagers have been brewed this way, and I have found it works in homebrewing as well for special beers. Clearly this is not the way to brew our standard beers.”

Thanks for the link, great read. Even though I’ve always been a fly sparger, I’m considering no sparge. It does have O2 benefits as well. Maybe that is part of the malt flavor boost. Not sure where to start my efficiency target for no sparge. I was thinking starting at 60%. I usually do 12.5 gallon batches, so 60% maybe to high. I did pay attention to my ph and gravity at the end of my fly sparge. I think that is probably where I feel I lost “the Malt” in beers as efficiency increased. Thanks again

 

[Dog House Brew]

I'm VERY curious :/) ... As you increased your efficiencies, were you still hitting all of your target gravities? ...how did you go about adjusting your grain bill to account for the higher percentages?

I was hitting my numbers after my initial over runs. I use BS and scaled my recipes to keep my percentages the same. The beers were still good, just lost some flavor.

 

[Soulshine2]

Mill gap 0.035 ,my last batch the first run through looked just like yours so I milled twice it was about the size of grits . Not sure of my efficiency but my OG for my pre-boil volume was spot on the predicted so I'm guessing they went together.

 

[philjohnwilliams]

I worked to get 85-88% and my beers fell off. They lacked that fullness and flavor. Maybe I’m nuts, but I think it is true.

I have noticed this too, I worked hard to up my efficiency, but doing so seemed to make my beer lose some of the dimension of flavour. I now keep my efficiency at 75%, as this seems to me to be the best balance of efficiency and taste.

 

[bracconiere]

Efficiency is the least important thing in all homebrew imho. It's consistency that counts. Cheers

not unless your trying to make profit...and worried about losing customers...Are you homebrewing to practice to be a Brewpub, or are you just trying to make a decent alcoholic beverage for personal consumption...

 

[Blazinlow86]

not unless your trying to make profit...and worried about losing customers...Are you homebrewing to practice to be a Brewpub, or are you just trying to make a decent alcoholic beverage for personal consumption...

I'd still say efficiency is less important than making consistent repeatable product even more so in a pro environment. Of course this being a HOMEBREW forum making a profit and losing customers is about as relevent as what I had for lunch... I doubt the op is going to be opening a brewpub with his 5 gallon system so I don't think the efficiency of his current system would help with that either. Cheers

 

[bracconiere]

I'd still say efficiency is less important than making consistent repeatable product even more so in a pro environment. Of course this being a HOMEBREW forum making a profit and losing customers is about as relevent as what I had for lunch... I doubt the op is going to be opening a brewpub with his 5 gallon system so I don't think the efficiency of his current system would help with that either. Cheers

lol, you never know, he might open up a food truck though!