Corosis
Active Member
Hey all,I would like to pick your brain on mash efficiency and water testing a little bit though, if you don't mind. I've been having TERRIBLE efficiency. typically about 50%. On my last batch, i tried some new interventions to try to change what I thought must be the problem. As background, I am using a 55qt rectangular cooler with a steel braid as a mash tun. I live out of town, so am using well water here in southern Minnesota (all limestone bedrock) but our water goes through not only the water softener, but also a mineral filter. So, really, I have no clue what mineral content is in my water. Where can I get this tested? are there any labs that will test water, and what kind of price tag does it carry?
As for efficiency, here is what I tried in my last batch. It was an american stout recipe, using a good 15.5lb of brains. The software I was using (beer calculus from hopville.com) set to a 69% efficiency (I was hoping my new stuff would help) said I should have an O.G. of 1.065, but my O.G. actually came out to 1.058. volumes were correct for pre-boil, boil off etc. Calculated out to about a 61% efficiency. This is an improvement from the 50 i usually get, but still not great. Here is what I did: I used a friends mill who usually gets about 80% efficiency, so the crush was good; I mixed in some about 10% water that comes fro the one faucet in the house that doesn't go through the water softener, I added the appropriate amount of 5.2 pH stabilizer from 5-star, and I stirred the mash every about 15 minutes. I batch sparge, and my sparge water was 180F, and frist and second runnings were of about equal amounts. With all of that, I still only had about a 61% efficiency.
Any thoughts on what may be causing this junk efficiency? It seems to me that it must be either the mineral content of the water, or the equipment itself.
As for efficiency, here is what I tried in my last batch. It was an american stout recipe, using a good 15.5lb of brains. The software I was using (beer calculus from hopville.com) set to a 69% efficiency (I was hoping my new stuff would help) said I should have an O.G. of 1.065, but my O.G. actually came out to 1.058. volumes were correct for pre-boil, boil off etc. Calculated out to about a 61% efficiency. This is an improvement from the 50 i usually get, but still not great. Here is what I did: I used a friends mill who usually gets about 80% efficiency, so the crush was good; I mixed in some about 10% water that comes fro the one faucet in the house that doesn't go through the water softener, I added the appropriate amount of 5.2 pH stabilizer from 5-star, and I stirred the mash every about 15 minutes. I batch sparge, and my sparge water was 180F, and frist and second runnings were of about equal amounts. With all of that, I still only had about a 61% efficiency.
Any thoughts on what may be causing this junk efficiency? It seems to me that it must be either the mineral content of the water, or the equipment itself.