Brewhouse efficiency help

[izraehl]

I just cannot figure out where my problem lies. I'm getting an average around 56% brew-house efficiency over 6 brews. I'm going to try and be as detailed as possible.

My grain is crushed a LHBS. 2/6 of the beers I've made all grain have been double milled. I didn't see much of a difference in gravity. These images are examples of double milled grain, post mash.

http://i.imgur.com/yeNqgPW.jpg

http://i.imgur.com/eviFrqX.jpg

Here's my mash setup: No bag. 2 ga rectangle cooler, wrapped in blanket, heating pad underneath throughout the mash. I took temp readings of today's mash using a calibrated ThermoWorks thermometer. They are as follows:

0 mins = 150.1/65.6
15 mins = 149.8/65.4 (turned heating pad up)
30 mins = 152.9/67.2 (turned heating pad down a bit)
45 mins = 151/66.1
60 mins = 150.1/65.6

I do not figure out Mash efficiency because it's a pain to do it accurately without cooling the liquid. I don't have a refractometer and I don't want to endanger my hydrometer with hot water.

After the mash I slowly pour the contents of the tun through a stainless spaghetti strainer into brewpot 1. I then take the strainer full of grain and set it above the opening on brewpot 2 and pour the liquid through it again using a pyrex 4 cup measuring cup. Cup by cup. I repeat the process and fill brewpot 1 again. I then take the sparge water (temp directed by beersmith) and, again cup by cup, put it over the bed of grain which resides in the strainer into brewpot 1.

From there on it's boil as usual.

Do you see any holes in my process?

 

[AnOldUR]

What you're doing may be common practice, but I've never seen it used before. Where did you learn your mashing methods?

Both fly and batch sparging, along with no sparge, rely on maximizing liquid contact with the grain. In batch sparging you thoroughly stir before lautering. In fly sparging you try to maintain a constant level of wort above the grain bed until all you liquor is used. By pouring over your dry grain in a strainer, I can only imagine a lot of channeling and that there is not enough sparge water contact with the grain before it passes through. You're not throughly rinsing the sugars from the spent grain. Also, I’ve never seen a spaghetti strainer that would not allow some husk material and other particles pass through.

My suggestion would be to convert your cooler into an MLT (Mash Lauter Tun) with a spigot and some type of filter so that you don’t have to use your dumping method. Read a tutorial on fly and batch sparging methods and builds. Either that or read into BIAB (Brew-In-A-Bag.)

 

[Ryfi]

I would try batch sparging instead. Mash as you have been doing then dump your grains into your strainer and let them drain. Pour your grains back into your cooler and then add your sparge water to the cooler. Let that sit for 10 mins and drains again. If your sparge water volume is too big to do it in one shot repeat draining and add grains back to cooler with the remaining sparge water wait 10 mins and drain again.

 

[billl]

You really need to take gravity measurements of the mash to troubleshoot. If you don't want to spring for a hydrometer, that means you have to cool a sample. You can do it pretty quickly. Pre-chill a metal bowl. Make an ice bath in a larger pan. Fill the bowl with enough wort for your measurement and stir it until it cools.

For sparging, it is REALLY hard to do well by hand. After you drain it completely, toss the grain back into the sparge water and stir like mad - as in several minutes. Then, strain back the same way. Lot of people prefer a bag for this since its kinda like making tea.

Not sure what you are hoping to accomplish transfering the first runnings back through the grain? That wort is already saturate and won't pick up any additional sugar that way.

 

[finsfan]

not sure why you would be straining before the boil. when you collect your first runnings after the 60 minutes mash, do no strain and just fill your brew pot until it completely stops. Then fill your cooler back up with enough water to get to your pre-boil water volume that you need. Let it sit 20 minutes, and then drain again until empty. Like anoldur said, try looking up batch sparging, this will work best for your setup. Here is a link that might help

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter17.html

http://www.homebrewjunkie.com/2008/05/how-to-batch-sparge.html

 

[BlackGoat]

I used a very similar method for a few of my PM beers when I first made the jump out of extract brewing. I also got terrible efficiency on those brews but didn't care as the extract that I used did all of the heavy lifting in regards to providing my fermentables. I think the comments above are accurate, considering looking into BIAB brewing and employing some of the methods from that. You can still use the cooler but keep the grains in a bag, then dunk sparge (basically put the grains in a bucket or pot of water that can be either cold or heated and then let them sit in the water for awhile - 10/15 minutes stirring often). You'd be able to skip the strainer and would likely get better efficiency.

 

[SuperX]

It might be the software, I've seen some bugs in 2.1 that could affect water volume. Are you hitting your target volume into the boil pot and into the fermenter?

 

[duboman]

In looking at your pictures the crush looks decent but it appears that it could be a bit finer. Other than that, as mentioned your mash/lauter/sparge technique needs some help as you are definitely not getting all those tastey sugars into your wort.

Check this easy sparge method put together by Denny at http://www.dennybrew.com. He show you how to build a simple mash/lauter tun and how to properly and easily batch sparge. I'm sure you will see a marked improvement!

 

[duboman]

In looking at your pictures the crush looks decent but it appears that it could be a bit finer. Other than that, as mentioned your mash/lauter/sparge technique needs some help as you are definitely not getting all those tastey sugars into your wort.

Check this easy sparge method put together by Denny at http://www.dennybrew.com. He show you how to build a simple mash/lauter tun and how to properly and easily batch sparge. I'm sure you will see a marked improvement!

 

[ThreeSheetsBrewing]

What's your water makeup? My efficieny was garbage until I figured out my water chemistry. I had to add some Sauermalz to the mash with each brew to bring my pH down to a good level. Any chance you have/can get some pH strips/meter?