Looking for advice

[Dylan42]

This was my second all grain brew and I didn't hit the SG/efficiency I was looking for. Everything went well up until I took my SG reading. I brewed the Drydock Pale Ale recipe from NB I just changed the grain bill slightly. Here is my equipment/process:

My equipment is the 10 gal all grain brew kit from NB

Drydock Breakwater Pale Ale (NB Clone)
Type: All Grain
Batch Size: 5.00 gal
Boil Size: 6.22 gal
Boil Time: 60 min

Efficiency: 72.00 %
Est Mash Efficiency: 79.2 %
Taste Rating: 30.0
Heated mash water to 166-167 degress and achieved 153 degree sac rest.
Mashed Grains
Mash Ingredients
Amt
9 lbs Pale Malt Great Western
8.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L
5.0 oz Biscuit Malt
Mash Steps
Name Description Step Temp Step Time
Mash In Add 12.27 qt of water at 164.8 F 153.0 F 60 min
Mash Out Add 7.85 qt of water at 194.9 F 168.0 F 5 min

Note:Sparge water empty in 12 minutes, wort drained 20 minutes
Fly sparged with 3.17 gal water at 168.0 F
I achieved a boil volume of 6.5 gal

Pre Boil Gravity=1.050

Boil Ingredients
Amt Name Type # %/IBU
0.25 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min Hop 5 10.6 IBUs
0.25 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 45.0 min Hop 6 9.7 IBUs
0.25 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 30.0 min Hop 7 8.2 IBUs
0.50 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 15.0 min Hop 8 10.5 IBUs
1.00 tsp Irish Moss (Boil 10.0 mins) Fining 9 -
0.50 oz Chinook [13.00 %] - Boil 5.0 min Hop 10 4.2 IBUs

Pitch Yeast: 1L starter of 1056 American Ale

5.5 gal post boil
After cooling 5 gal of wort in fermenter
1.045 post boil gravity

I used Beersmith for my step by step. According to beer smith my total eff. is 72% and my, measured eff. is 63%
Like it said in my notes my sparge was rather fast, I had my ball valves only 1/4 open the whole time and it still went that fast.
Please critique my process, as I would like to improve. Thanks and CHEERS!

 

[CBelli]

I have never seen a gravity go down after a boil..... that is not possible unless you added water.

I suspect there is an error in your post boil gravity reading?

 

[chickypad]

Yeah, my suspicion is you either had some wort stratification pre-boil or you measured it hot and tried to correct. It looks like the kit is supposed to be 1.049 at 5 gal so 5.5 gal of 1.045 post boil sounds right. Eyeballing it looks like about 70% efficiency. Not too bad but if you want to up it you already mentioned slowing down the fly sparge. Also, are you just going with their crush or did you crush your own? That may be the best way to make a difference if the former.

 

[Dylan42]

Im not sure what happened I cooled both samples before taking a reading. I did break the very tip of the glass on the hydrometer. It was a clean cut, so I taped it back on maybe that was the difference. It broke right between the 1.000 and 1.010 mark.
Yeah I have heard crushing your own makes for better efficiency. I had my LHBS crush it for me.

Are there any other ways I can slow the sparge down? Or is it just valve control?

And I forgot to add that after pouring it in the fermenter I actually had about 5 gallons right on the money.

Another thing. On beer smith do I go by the brewhouse efficiency or the measured efficiency? Whats the difference?

 

[chickypad]

Sounds like you need a new hydrometer. Buy two.

There are different ways to set up beersmith. I prefer to set the trub losses to zero, and batch size to what I expect my post boil/post chill volume to be. In that case the total efficiency equals the estimated mash efficiency, which I find easier to work with and more reproducible for my system. You just need to figure out what works for you. I found this thread helpful, and the attached pdf in the third post by steve explains what I was talking about.

 

[RonPopeil]

Your hydrometer is def wrong. They're counter weighted so if you get a chip you throw the balance off. Take the tape/chip off and put it in ice water. See how far out it is. You can do the same for the hot side. Then you'll have an idea of how far out it is.

And yeah, Northern Brewer is notorious for their poor crush.

 

[peterj]

Yeah, the hydrometer is precisely calibrated by weight so those measurements are not accurate. You can put it in 60F (or whatever temp it's calibrated to) water to see how far off of 1.000 it is and then correct the readings by that much. Then you need to get a new hydrometer.

And like CBelli said, it's not possible for the gravity to go down during the boil. One or both of those measurements must have been wrong. I would just say you're probably not going to know what the OG was exactly for this batch.