Hello All,
It was suggested I move this post from the topic I was in to maybe give it a bit more attention, so here goes:
I am fairly new so be gentle.
I did a brew a few weeks ago and missed a bunch of steps but essentially got about half of the ABV I was shooting for.
Last weekend I did another brew and took measurements throughout and ended up with a 51% efficiency after boil. This is obviously terrible.
I used the pre-milled grains from Northern Brewer the first brew and the premilled grains from More Beer on the second batch.
A homebrew friend of mine has a monster mill and gets much higher efficiencies.
My question is, can going from a pre-crushed grain, to a fresh crush on a good mill get me up 20-25% on overall efficiency, or am I missing the boat somewhere else?
I agree that good beer is good beer regardless of efficiency, but I also don't want to throw away money if there is something I can be doing to get more out of my system.
I am brewing on a 10gal all-grain cooler system.
Here is the brew info:
11lbs 2 row
1 lb 40L
1/2lb Carafoam
1 oz - Amarillo
1 oz - Simcoe
Mashed with 4 gal
Fly-Sparged with 5.5 gal
Mash temp of 149 (I was hoping for 152 but missed the mark)
Mash time - 60 mins.
No water adjustments, but our city water is slightly hard.
Mash pH 5.5
Pre-boil gravity - 1.033
Boil off rate - 1 gal
Post-boil gravity - 1.041
Used bucket and boil kettle measurements for volumes.
Used a Hanna to get the refractometer readings
Ending kettle volume - 6 gals
Volume into fermenter - 5.5 gals
Any idea why my efficiency would only be 51%?
I would like to bump up to 72+% - any suggestions on getting there?
It was suggested I move this post from the topic I was in to maybe give it a bit more attention, so here goes:
I am fairly new so be gentle.
I did a brew a few weeks ago and missed a bunch of steps but essentially got about half of the ABV I was shooting for.
Last weekend I did another brew and took measurements throughout and ended up with a 51% efficiency after boil. This is obviously terrible.
I used the pre-milled grains from Northern Brewer the first brew and the premilled grains from More Beer on the second batch.
A homebrew friend of mine has a monster mill and gets much higher efficiencies.
My question is, can going from a pre-crushed grain, to a fresh crush on a good mill get me up 20-25% on overall efficiency, or am I missing the boat somewhere else?
I agree that good beer is good beer regardless of efficiency, but I also don't want to throw away money if there is something I can be doing to get more out of my system.
I am brewing on a 10gal all-grain cooler system.
Here is the brew info:
11lbs 2 row
1 lb 40L
1/2lb Carafoam
1 oz - Amarillo
1 oz - Simcoe
Mashed with 4 gal
Fly-Sparged with 5.5 gal
Mash temp of 149 (I was hoping for 152 but missed the mark)
Mash time - 60 mins.
No water adjustments, but our city water is slightly hard.
Mash pH 5.5
Pre-boil gravity - 1.033
Boil off rate - 1 gal
Post-boil gravity - 1.041
Used bucket and boil kettle measurements for volumes.
Used a Hanna to get the refractometer readings
Ending kettle volume - 6 gals
Volume into fermenter - 5.5 gals
Any idea why my efficiency would only be 51%?
I would like to bump up to 72+% - any suggestions on getting there?