So today I brewed probably my 7th AG recipe, and once again I had terrible efficiency. I did Ed Wort's Robust Porter https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f126/bee-cave-brewery-robust-porter-56768/
All ingredients were exactly the same, and I am trying to figure out how things went so wrong. First a little of my set up. I have a 9 gallon Colemans Xtreme cooler with a stainless steel hose as my manifold. I then have a 9 gallon brew pot.
Here are the steps I followed today.
1.) I wanted to mash in at 1.6 qts/lbs as I was reading online you may get a bit better efficiency in a thinner mash. So according to Beer smith I brought 5.5 gallons of water to about 170 degrees to pour into mash tun and pre-heat it. I then dumped all ~14 lbs of grain in. It settled out at around 155 degrees which was a bit more than I was hoping for, but I stirred everything good and let it sit. I would up lightly stirring every 15 minutes or so. I let the mash go 75 minutes to try and get a few extra points out of it. Took my first running by recycling about .25 gallons until clear. Wound up collecting about 3.65 gallons on first running. I took these runnings pretty quickly. Once I saw it running clean, I opened the spiggot and let her rip.
2.) I had heated another 3 gallons to 200 degrees, and poured that in. I poured it directly on the grains pretty hard. I then stirred a little and let it sit 5 minutes. It seemed to settle out between 160 and 170 depending on where I put the thermometer. I then repeated the end of step one and wound up collecting just under 7 gallons total. I was shooting for a pre-boil size of 7 gallons. Since I thought I would be a little short, I had heated another 2 gallons to 200 degrees and poured it in again. I immediately took enough of those runnings until getting to 7 gallons.
3.) since everything was hot, I took a small sample in my hydrometer case and put it in my freezer to cool off to about 65 degrees. I immediately started my boil. When the sample was down to temperature, I took a hydrometer reading and it read 1.042. According to beer smith, I should have been at 1.053, so way off. That gave me a mash efficiency of 60.6.
4.) I brought everything to boil, threw in hops and let it go. I wound up doing about an 80 minute boil total. Put my wort chiller in and cooled everything down. Again when I took a hydrometer reading, I came in at 1.060 with just about 5 gallons collected. My goal was 5.5 gallons at 1.062, so my brewhouse efficiency came in at 65. I am worried that my OG would have been even worse if not for the Malto-Dextrine, which it appears beersmith does not account for.
5.) Once everything was cooled I transferred to 6 gallon glass carboy and poured in my rehydrated notty yeast.
I am trying to figure out what I could possibly be doing wrong here. I was pretty confident that I would have had great efficiency before the boil, but it was terrible. Could my higher mash temperature have impacted that?
One other thing I am worried about is my hose manifold. When I mix the grains around every 15 minutes, I see the hose moving around with the grain, and it does not stay on the bottom of the cooler. Could I be missing key wort at the bottom of the cooler if my hose is somewhere in the middle of the grain bed? I pretty much got every last drop from first runnings, so didnt think I missed much.
I have copper pipes that I am trying to make in to a manifold. I am currently using a hand saw to cut small slits in it. Would that be better?
Also I would have thought that since my pre boil gravity was 1.042 vs estimates 1.053 that my OG would have been more off. Granted I had about .5 gallons less of wort from expected, but it still only was 1.060 vs 1.062. This is why I worry that my 1.060 should be much lower if not for Malto-dextrine.
Does anyone see anything glaring that I am doing wrong here that I can improve on? Would a copper manifold help that much? Is my Batch sparge style wrong? Would a higher mash temp impact me that much?
Any insight here would be appreciated. I have thought my beer has been decent, but really bummed about not hitting targets during the brew process.
All ingredients were exactly the same, and I am trying to figure out how things went so wrong. First a little of my set up. I have a 9 gallon Colemans Xtreme cooler with a stainless steel hose as my manifold. I then have a 9 gallon brew pot.
Here are the steps I followed today.
1.) I wanted to mash in at 1.6 qts/lbs as I was reading online you may get a bit better efficiency in a thinner mash. So according to Beer smith I brought 5.5 gallons of water to about 170 degrees to pour into mash tun and pre-heat it. I then dumped all ~14 lbs of grain in. It settled out at around 155 degrees which was a bit more than I was hoping for, but I stirred everything good and let it sit. I would up lightly stirring every 15 minutes or so. I let the mash go 75 minutes to try and get a few extra points out of it. Took my first running by recycling about .25 gallons until clear. Wound up collecting about 3.65 gallons on first running. I took these runnings pretty quickly. Once I saw it running clean, I opened the spiggot and let her rip.
2.) I had heated another 3 gallons to 200 degrees, and poured that in. I poured it directly on the grains pretty hard. I then stirred a little and let it sit 5 minutes. It seemed to settle out between 160 and 170 depending on where I put the thermometer. I then repeated the end of step one and wound up collecting just under 7 gallons total. I was shooting for a pre-boil size of 7 gallons. Since I thought I would be a little short, I had heated another 2 gallons to 200 degrees and poured it in again. I immediately took enough of those runnings until getting to 7 gallons.
3.) since everything was hot, I took a small sample in my hydrometer case and put it in my freezer to cool off to about 65 degrees. I immediately started my boil. When the sample was down to temperature, I took a hydrometer reading and it read 1.042. According to beer smith, I should have been at 1.053, so way off. That gave me a mash efficiency of 60.6.
4.) I brought everything to boil, threw in hops and let it go. I wound up doing about an 80 minute boil total. Put my wort chiller in and cooled everything down. Again when I took a hydrometer reading, I came in at 1.060 with just about 5 gallons collected. My goal was 5.5 gallons at 1.062, so my brewhouse efficiency came in at 65. I am worried that my OG would have been even worse if not for the Malto-Dextrine, which it appears beersmith does not account for.
5.) Once everything was cooled I transferred to 6 gallon glass carboy and poured in my rehydrated notty yeast.
I am trying to figure out what I could possibly be doing wrong here. I was pretty confident that I would have had great efficiency before the boil, but it was terrible. Could my higher mash temperature have impacted that?
One other thing I am worried about is my hose manifold. When I mix the grains around every 15 minutes, I see the hose moving around with the grain, and it does not stay on the bottom of the cooler. Could I be missing key wort at the bottom of the cooler if my hose is somewhere in the middle of the grain bed? I pretty much got every last drop from first runnings, so didnt think I missed much.
I have copper pipes that I am trying to make in to a manifold. I am currently using a hand saw to cut small slits in it. Would that be better?
Also I would have thought that since my pre boil gravity was 1.042 vs estimates 1.053 that my OG would have been more off. Granted I had about .5 gallons less of wort from expected, but it still only was 1.060 vs 1.062. This is why I worry that my 1.060 should be much lower if not for Malto-dextrine.
Does anyone see anything glaring that I am doing wrong here that I can improve on? Would a copper manifold help that much? Is my Batch sparge style wrong? Would a higher mash temp impact me that much?
Any insight here would be appreciated. I have thought my beer has been decent, but really bummed about not hitting targets during the brew process.
