Yikes! my efficiency just jumped from

[GIusedtoBe]

around 68% to around 78% and I did not change any of my procedures? The only thing I can think of is that the base grain was maris otter vs. Briess 2 row on my other brews.

Anyway here are the numbers:

Brown Ale

target OG 1.052 actual 1.062

5.5 gallon recipe w/

9# maris otter
1# 120L Crystal
.75# Chocolate
1# Biscuit

Total grain 11.75

I have a 10 gallon cooler mash tun w/ the steel braid hose. I did my usual hand dipped fly sparge w/ roughly 175 F water. I guesstimated the efficiency at 78% which is roughly 10% better than my other brews using the same methods.

Any ideas?
Thanks,
Al

 

[ericd]

Congrats! See if you can keep it up!

 

[john from dc]

did you crush the grain yourself? if not were they from the same brew shop?

that could be the variable that makes up the difference. congrats on the good efficiency!

 

[Zymurgrafi]

did you crush the grain yourself? if not were they from the same brew shop?

that could be the variable that makes up the difference. congrats on the good efficiency!

Agreed. If you did everything the same I think the crush is your answer. Without knowing the info about your grain crush there are many possibilities of how.

 

[chainsawbrewing]

did you change thermometers? did the ambient air temp of where the mlt is at change drastically? ask your LHBS if they changed the rollers in their mill. that happened to me once.

 

[missing link]

The best part of overshooting your target is you can water it down to the target real easy. Undershooting makes things more difficult!!

Linc

 

[GIusedtoBe]

The best part of overshooting your target is you can water it down to the target real easy. Undershooting makes things more difficult!!

Linc

Yes! This is what I did. I wound up w/ about 6 gallons. I crush my own barley so that isn't the answer. The ambient temp was definitely much lower than my recent beers but I don't understand how that could effect the efficiency since the grain temp and mash temps were similiar. Obviously a higher efficiency is a good thing but I am still trying to get more consistent.

Thanks for the replies.
Al

 

[happymonk]

Did you check to see if your mill gap has slipped? Briess is pretty notorious for not being that great of a malting co could be there.

 

[AnonyBrew]

Same water used for mash on both batches?