Will any of these help my Efficiency?

[asdtexas]

I am getting okay efficiency but want to tweak my process. I realize that efficiency does not equal good beer but again, just want to fine tune

Assuming a decent crush, proper conversion that is checked and water treatment:

1 My mast tun is a large cooler. I batch sparge and tip it to extract as much as possible. Will going to a ten gallon help? I probably lose a quart of runnings

2. After draining the first runnings and stirring in first sparge water, does letting it sit for 10 to 15 minutes help?

3. Again batch sparging, my water is very alkaline, will acidifying it help?

thanks for input.

 

[MalFet]

Hello,

1) I'm not sure I understand. The quart you are losing is presumably due to deadspace, no? Depending on its design, a ten gallon cooler might have more or less irretrievable liquid. You don't mention how big your cooler is now, and I'm not sure we could say definitively that you'd get more or less deadspace in a 10gal even if you did.

2) Some people report better efficiency if they let the batch sparge rest for a few minutes, others report no difference. If you are using your first sparge as a mashout, it shouldn't make a difference so long as you are stirring long enough to let the water permeate appropriately, but there's no harm it trying it out for yourself.

3) How alkaline is alkaline? Different enzymes (particularly alpha-amylase and beta-amylase) have different optimal pH levels, and thus tweaking your acidity can affect your fermentability. If you are significantly off, I suppose it might affect your starch conversion as well. Check out one of the many water calcs or ajdelange's sticky. Water adjustments can do more harm than good if you don't know what you're doing, but if you understand the process they can be quite helpful.

 

[Catt22]

1. Assuming that the losses would be the same for either MT, then yes, but the difference will be small. The only reason I would increase the MT size would be to increase it's capacity.

2. There should be little difference, but IMO it does no harm. IMO, stirring the grain bed thoroughly and frequently (followed by a short vorlaugh) is the key to better efficiency whether batch sparging or fly sparging.

3. Probably yes, but read up on water treatment and know what you are doing when making adjustments.

You never said what your current efficiency is. I used to get about 75% eff. on average. I discovered if I stir the grain bed often and thoroughly several times during the mash and especially immediately prior to the sparge, my efficiency improved dramatically. I discovered this correlation by accident when I had a stuck mash and was forced to stir the grain bed multiple times. Got the best efficiency ever and the difference was large. Been doing it that way ever since.

 

[Mike_A]

Catt, are you sure the stirring had more to do with the efficiency, rather than the cause of the stuck sparge? I would think that a finer crush would lead to both stuck sparges and a higher efficiency. I purposely stopped recirculating and stirring my mash about 20-30 minutes prior to fly sparging in order to settle the grain bed so to avoid a stuck sparge. But up until then, I do stir regularly and recirculate with a pump.

How about other mash conditions - temperature, step(s), time @ steps, more exact info on the crush (type of grains, gap setting for each type), mash ratio qts/lb, current efficiency and where do you want to be?

I need to do some searching myself and find a hierarchy of the importance of these factors. Right now for example, I don't concern myself much with mash pH because I have a lot of other things to worry about, and I feel that it makes less of an impact for the amount of effort it requires.

 

[Catt22]

Catt, are you sure the stirring had more to do with the efficiency, rather than the cause of the stuck sparge? I would think that a finer crush would lead to both stuck sparges and a higher efficiency. I purposely stopped recirculating and stirring my mash about 20-30 minutes prior to fly sparging in order to settle the grain bed so to avoid a stuck sparge. But up until then, I do stir regularly and recirculate with a pump.

How about other mash conditions - temperature, step(s), time @ steps, more exact info on the crush (type of grains, gap setting for each type), mash ratio qts/lb, current efficiency and where do you want to be?

I need to do some searching myself and find a hierarchy of the importance of these factors. Right now for example, I don't concern myself much with mash pH because I have a lot of other things to worry about, and I feel that it makes less of an impact for the amount of effort it requires.

Yes, and I say that because the results have been very consistent ever since I began the stirring regimen. IMO, there is a point of diminishing returns when crushing the malt finer and finer. I have a good handle on the crush. I'm running a direct fired RIMS and I expect the grain bed to compact at least once during the mash. No big deal at all as I simply stop, stir and resume. I think it is a mistake not to stir the grain bed just before starting the sparge and that's really the only thing I have recently changed in my procedure. IMO, channeling is more common than generally realized and it is difficult to detect when it's happening. Stirring is the cure.