zstar5000
Member
I'll keep this as short as possible, and TIA for your help/advice/constructive criticism.
I've done about 12 all grain batches over the past year. My problem is with overall efficiency, and it's getting to the point where it's taking some of the joy out of brewing.
I use iHomebrew on my iPad for recipes, calculations, etc. Over those 12 batches my average efficiency is less than 60%.
My mash tun is a 40 qt rectangular cooler with 16" SS braid toilet line and ball valve. My standard practice is to mash at 154 degrees with 1.25 qt/lb. Today, which was an efficiency disaster, I tried a thinner mash at 1.40.
What I typically do is pump the mash water into the mash tun, stir, close the lid at 152-154 degrees, and then stir occasionally over the next 60 minutes. Then, using the calculations from the software, I heat up my sparge water to approx. 190 degrees in order to hit 170 when I batch sparge, introduce that to my mash, stir, and let sit for 10-20 mins. I then slowly drain the wort to my kettle; it takes about 45 mins to get 6.5 gals.
Today I tried draining my wort after the mash, adding a few more gallons, heating that to 175, pumping that back into my tun, stir, sit, and drain 6.5 gal in about 35 mins. What was crazy today is that my preboil gravity was .1064 (or 21.7 ppg, with a 19.5 lb grain bill!), and my OG, on a 5 gal batch, only came in at 1.066. That seems nearly impossible to me, so I think I must have screwed up my preboil reading.
Yesterday I did something closer to my regular method and ended up with a preboil of 18.7 ppg. Ugh.
Anyways, part of my problem is I can't do a high gravity beer because I need so much freakin' grain to account for my crap efficiency that I run out of room in my mash tun. So this efficiency issue is a problem both because I'm a bit of perfectionist, and also from the pragmatic side of things.
Possible issues:
1. My mash tun. Any reason why my mash set-up could contribute to poor efficiency?
2. My method. I can't for the life of me see where anything I'm doing, either my typical method or what I tried today, is so clearly incorrect that it would be screwing up my efficiency.
3. Finally, and I'm going to address this for my next brew, is the crush of the grains. I have my LHBS do the crushing, and next time I buy from them I'm going to ask about adjusting the crush or running it through twice.
Despite all this frustration, my last few batches have been my best tasting brews yet, so that's definitely some consolation.
Anything else you all can point out that I could do better would be awesome. Thanks so much; I really enjoy the site.
I've done about 12 all grain batches over the past year. My problem is with overall efficiency, and it's getting to the point where it's taking some of the joy out of brewing.
I use iHomebrew on my iPad for recipes, calculations, etc. Over those 12 batches my average efficiency is less than 60%.
My mash tun is a 40 qt rectangular cooler with 16" SS braid toilet line and ball valve. My standard practice is to mash at 154 degrees with 1.25 qt/lb. Today, which was an efficiency disaster, I tried a thinner mash at 1.40.
What I typically do is pump the mash water into the mash tun, stir, close the lid at 152-154 degrees, and then stir occasionally over the next 60 minutes. Then, using the calculations from the software, I heat up my sparge water to approx. 190 degrees in order to hit 170 when I batch sparge, introduce that to my mash, stir, and let sit for 10-20 mins. I then slowly drain the wort to my kettle; it takes about 45 mins to get 6.5 gals.
Today I tried draining my wort after the mash, adding a few more gallons, heating that to 175, pumping that back into my tun, stir, sit, and drain 6.5 gal in about 35 mins. What was crazy today is that my preboil gravity was .1064 (or 21.7 ppg, with a 19.5 lb grain bill!), and my OG, on a 5 gal batch, only came in at 1.066. That seems nearly impossible to me, so I think I must have screwed up my preboil reading.
Yesterday I did something closer to my regular method and ended up with a preboil of 18.7 ppg. Ugh.
Anyways, part of my problem is I can't do a high gravity beer because I need so much freakin' grain to account for my crap efficiency that I run out of room in my mash tun. So this efficiency issue is a problem both because I'm a bit of perfectionist, and also from the pragmatic side of things.
Possible issues:
1. My mash tun. Any reason why my mash set-up could contribute to poor efficiency?
2. My method. I can't for the life of me see where anything I'm doing, either my typical method or what I tried today, is so clearly incorrect that it would be screwing up my efficiency.
3. Finally, and I'm going to address this for my next brew, is the crush of the grains. I have my LHBS do the crushing, and next time I buy from them I'm going to ask about adjusting the crush or running it through twice.
Despite all this frustration, my last few batches have been my best tasting brews yet, so that's definitely some consolation.
Anything else you all can point out that I could do better would be awesome. Thanks so much; I really enjoy the site.