Honestly, I'm not quite sure which forum to put this post in... But for right now, I'm going to go with the "equipment" forum.
I brewed today for the first time with my new Spike 15gal mash tun. Super duper nice piece of equipement, but I only got ~41% mash efficiency. Beersmith was estimating 1.055 pre-boil gravity (@75%eff), but I only came in at 1.043. (It may not only be related to my mash tun setup, I'll explain futher down). Trying to figure out what I need to do in the future to improve, maybe you guys can give me some ideas?
Equipment:
15 gal Spike mash tun
PID controlled RIMs
(I had the RIMs recirculate through a silicone hose inside the tun, kinda resting on top of the mash. I also sparged through the same hose.)
Recipe: Belgian Wit
6 lbs White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 1 38.1 %
2 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) UK (1.0 SRM) Grain 2 12.7 %
2 lbs Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 3 12.7 %
1 lbs Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 4 6.3 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 5 6.3 %
1 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM) Grain 6 6.3 %
12.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM)
~a couple handfuls of rice hulls
(About 14.25lbs of grain total)
Water Profile:
6gal distilled, used Bru'n Water to build my own Hoegaarden profile
Calcium (ppm) 51
Magnesium (ppm) 10
Sodium (ppm) 24
Sulfate (ppm) 85
Chloride (ppm) 57
Bicarbonate (ppm) 63
Calculated Mash pH 5.4
Mash Schedule:
Mash in @ 127deg F to hit target of 122deg F
Let mash settle for 10min
Recirc @ 122deg F for 20min
Step to 152deg F
152deg F for 60 min
Step to 168deg F
168deg F for 10 min
Sparge with 168deg water
Collect 7.9 gal in brew kettle
I mashed in and hit 122 exactly. After letting the mash settle for 10 min, I took a pH measurement. It was up around 6! Usually I'm pretty close after calculating with Bru'n Water, so I was pretty surprised... I added 6tsps of 10% phosphoric acid, and got the mash down to ~5.5ph.
I have two theories:
1) Due to the mash pH being way off at the beginning, I didn't get full convernsion.
2) Sparging with just a coiled hose on top of the mash caused me to not rinse enough sugars off the grain. However, my end runnings gravity was somewhere around 1.013...
What do you guys think? Now that I've re-read my post, I'm actually leaning towards the pH issue because my end runnings was pretty low...
Thanks in advance!
Eric
I brewed today for the first time with my new Spike 15gal mash tun. Super duper nice piece of equipement, but I only got ~41% mash efficiency. Beersmith was estimating 1.055 pre-boil gravity (@75%eff), but I only came in at 1.043. (It may not only be related to my mash tun setup, I'll explain futher down). Trying to figure out what I need to do in the future to improve, maybe you guys can give me some ideas?
Equipment:
15 gal Spike mash tun
PID controlled RIMs
(I had the RIMs recirculate through a silicone hose inside the tun, kinda resting on top of the mash. I also sparged through the same hose.)
Recipe: Belgian Wit
6 lbs White Wheat Malt (2.4 SRM) Grain 1 38.1 %
2 lbs Pilsner (2 Row) UK (1.0 SRM) Grain 2 12.7 %
2 lbs Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) Grain 3 12.7 %
1 lbs Biscuit Malt (23.0 SRM) Grain 4 6.3 %
1 lbs Caramel/Crystal Malt - 10L (10.0 SRM) Grain 5 6.3 %
1 lbs Pale Malt (2 Row) Bel (3.0 SRM) Grain 6 6.3 %
12.0 oz Oats, Flaked (1.0 SRM)
~a couple handfuls of rice hulls
(About 14.25lbs of grain total)
Water Profile:
6gal distilled, used Bru'n Water to build my own Hoegaarden profile
Calcium (ppm) 51
Magnesium (ppm) 10
Sodium (ppm) 24
Sulfate (ppm) 85
Chloride (ppm) 57
Bicarbonate (ppm) 63
Calculated Mash pH 5.4
Mash Schedule:
Mash in @ 127deg F to hit target of 122deg F
Let mash settle for 10min
Recirc @ 122deg F for 20min
Step to 152deg F
152deg F for 60 min
Step to 168deg F
168deg F for 10 min
Sparge with 168deg water
Collect 7.9 gal in brew kettle
I mashed in and hit 122 exactly. After letting the mash settle for 10 min, I took a pH measurement. It was up around 6! Usually I'm pretty close after calculating with Bru'n Water, so I was pretty surprised... I added 6tsps of 10% phosphoric acid, and got the mash down to ~5.5ph.
I have two theories:
1) Due to the mash pH being way off at the beginning, I didn't get full convernsion.
2) Sparging with just a coiled hose on top of the mash caused me to not rinse enough sugars off the grain. However, my end runnings gravity was somewhere around 1.013...
What do you guys think? Now that I've re-read my post, I'm actually leaning towards the pH issue because my end runnings was pretty low...
Thanks in advance!
Eric