Horrible Efficiency...in a good way?

[JRinke]

I just did a big beer yesterday. 20.75# of grain.

15# 2-Row
2# Marris Otter
1.5# Roasted American Barley
1# Special B
.75# Pale Chocolate Malt
.5# Carapils

4.5oz of Northern Brewer (60 min)
2.0oz of Williamette (20 min)

An ever so slightly modified version of a recipe I found here. My brewhouse efficiency is typically around 75% and very consistent. Everything I read says that efficiency should go down for big beers.

However, I switched things up and increased my water to grist ratio and I got a brewhouse efficiency of ~83%. 1.12 OG at 5.25 gallons. I know, most people wouldn't be complaining about something like this, but this is the first time I've had such high efficiency.

Is this going to hurt the typical full-bodied, thick mouth feel style of the Imperial stout?

 

[meltroha]

It depends where it finishes, not starts, what temp did you mash at? For how long? That has more of an effect than water/grist ratio.

 

[JRinke]

The more and more I thought about this, the more I realized my concern was ridiculous. Too many other factors that play into body of the final product.

I was just so accustomed to hearing that people typically get worse efficiency on big beers, and then I get the huge upswing in efficiency out of no where.

However, to fill in the gaps, I mashed 153* for 90 minutes at 1.30 water/grist ratio. Stirred vigorously with paint stirrer at 45 minutes and before mashing out. Single sparge with 2 gals at 170*.