Where did I go wrong?

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bcray

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I spent some time yesterday trying to make a 2 gallon batch of barleywine, just to try my hand at it. Here's the grain bill I used:

8lb Maris Otter
2lb Crystal 20
1lb Crystal 10
.5lb rice hulls

Mashed in 5 gallons of water for 75 minutes at 154 to yield 3 into the kettle which I boiled for 70 minutes down to 2.125 gallons.

According to the BrewR android app that I set to 54% I should have ended up with 1.113. I hit 1.085. that's about 43% :(

I milled my own grain, and usually hit 78% with my system.

Was the lack of sparge where I went wrong here? Could that really have effected the efficiency that much to not do it? I thought that was a common thing with barleywines.

EDIT: forgot rice hulls
 
yes, quick sparging can noticeably affect your efficiency much less the not sparging at all. Next time take a gravity reading before you boil, this will let you know what your gravity will be post boil allowing you to plan ahead. For example if you have a low gravity you can correct with dry malt extract.
 
yes, quick sparging can noticeably affect your efficiency much less the not sparging at all. Next time take a gravity reading before you boil, this will let you know what your gravity will be post boil allowing you to plan ahead. For example if you have a low gravity you can correct with dry malt extract.

So how is the post boil gravity determined by the pre boil reading? Is it a simple matter of increasing the reading by the percentage of water lost? Or is it a more complex calculation?
 
volume inital * starting gravity = volume final * original gravity

so if you know your SG and initial volmue and assume your final volume you can calculate your OG.
 
example

SG: 1.042
V initial: 6
V final:: 5

convert SG to GU

GU = (SG - 1)*1000

42*6 = OG*5

(42*6)/5 = OG

OG = 50.4 or 1.050
 
Do you normally brew no sparge?

I think you would have had better efficiency if you mashed much thinner and then batch sparged.
 
Do you normally brew no sparge?

I think you would have had better efficiency if you mashed much thinner and then batch sparged.

No I usually do a double batch sparge. At the time it made sense but looking back on it now it seems rather obvious that I would have problems :)

Oh well hindsight is 20/20 I guess. I think next time I will go back to 1.25 qt/lb and then batch sparge to hit enough volume for a 120 minute boil.
 
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