y2jrock60
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- Jul 6, 2009
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Last night my brew buddy and I brewed a 5 gallon batch of a Scottish 80. We mashed at 155-156 for 60 minutes with a 1.45 q/lb ratio, mashed out with 1 gallon of boiling water, stirred, let sit for a few minutes, vorlaufed, then drained like we usually do. However, we forgot to put the lid on our sparge water that was sitting outside and the temperature fell from 172 to 160. We didn't feel like heating it back up so we just used it anyway. We boiled for 90 minutes and ended up with exactly 5 gallons in the fermenter. Our estimated OG was suppose to be 1.075, we ended up with a 1.065.
This was our second time batch sparging, we've previously fly sparged our first 20 batches. After talking to some home brew veterans I discovered most of them batch sparge, because it's easier and they say just as efficient as fly sparging, so I thought I'd give it a try. Our first go round with batch sparging was about 2 weeks ago with a 10 gallon batch of a pale ale. We used the same 1.45 q/lb mash ratio and followed the same procedure with the exception of a 60 minute boil rather than 90 and sparge water that was actually around 175 degrees. Our targeted OG was 1.054, but we actually ended up with a 1.056 and a little extra beer in our fermenters. The only difference between the two brews was the batch size, boil time, and sparge temperature.
I'm just confused as to why there is a huge difference in efficiency. I'm not too concerned about being a few points off, but 10 points is kind of upsetting. The only thing I can think of, and I'm hoping it to be the culprit, is the sparge water temperature. Would a low sparge water temperature of 160 degrees impact efficiency negatively 10 points?
This was our second time batch sparging, we've previously fly sparged our first 20 batches. After talking to some home brew veterans I discovered most of them batch sparge, because it's easier and they say just as efficient as fly sparging, so I thought I'd give it a try. Our first go round with batch sparging was about 2 weeks ago with a 10 gallon batch of a pale ale. We used the same 1.45 q/lb mash ratio and followed the same procedure with the exception of a 60 minute boil rather than 90 and sparge water that was actually around 175 degrees. Our targeted OG was 1.054, but we actually ended up with a 1.056 and a little extra beer in our fermenters. The only difference between the two brews was the batch size, boil time, and sparge temperature.
I'm just confused as to why there is a huge difference in efficiency. I'm not too concerned about being a few points off, but 10 points is kind of upsetting. The only thing I can think of, and I'm hoping it to be the culprit, is the sparge water temperature. Would a low sparge water temperature of 160 degrees impact efficiency negatively 10 points?