Help With Crap Efficiency

[DWC]

I'm still doing BIAB while I build a HERMS setup.
Efficiency is a fairly constant 70%
Last week I did my first brew with an urn for the HLT and used Beersmith for water quantities.
While I didn't qutie hit my temp targets, all my volumes and target gravity was spot on.
A bock today, and nothing went right!!
Heated my kettle prior to mashing today but was still 5deg short(63deg)
Pre-boil was expected to be 1.066, but, was only 1.052. This is about 55%!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So WTF went wrong?? Apart from not stirring regularly I didn't do anything out of the ordinary
Beersmith doughs in at around 2.6:1, so, 22.5L for 8.7kg grain.
Any thoughts??

Dave

 

[dougsbrew]

im thinking temp, did you hold 63 for the whole hour or however long?
did it get a good stir as in top of mash 63, bottom 61maybe? are you using a different thermometer?
where is the thermometer mounted/used?

 

[kelbygreen]

Hey Dave I am in windale maybe I can come around or you come around here for a brew day to nut things out. To me efficiency in beersmith is some what weird. Ok I work out on beersmith my eff is 70% like the beer I done on the weekend I go to MHB and say 73% his OG comes out at 1050 @ 73% beersmith @ 70% comes out at 1055OG??? I got 1056 so close to what beersmith says but with marks software it would be over 75% I would say so not to sure.

Was this brew still BIAB or was it mashed in a tun with sparge and all?? as there could be something in your process thats been missed or looked over. The temp to could play a big roll in this I am not clued up on extraction at certain temps. Also could be grain crush, can be lots of things really

 

[felten]

2.6 L/KG is pretty small for BIAB. It would help to know what equipment/process you're using. And also how/where you're measuring your efficiency.

 

[mje1980]

Pre boil of 1.066, must be a pretty big beer. I dont make many big beers but my eff usually suffers when doing them, might be the case?. That's a big drop though. How big is your tun, and have you done a beer that big in there before?? you might just be reaching your tuns limit

 

[DWC]

Thanks for the replies.
I'm still doing BIAB in a 50L kettle and using the urn as hlt
Last week was a Smurto's Golden Ale, 34L. Was a bit short
of temps but as I said, everything else went to plan.
Kelby, we might have to get together.
Bock was meant to be 7.5%
cheers

Dave

 

[DWC]

Hey Mark, i'll come in later in the week and have a chat.
I never thought to compare the two, as I said, I only use Beersmith
For water calcs and it is usually good for gravities within a
Few points, however this one was 1.077 for 70% eff.(had your sheet
in the fridge with the hops)
Maybe an anomaly in Beersmith with high grain ratio??
I remember my only other A/G bock being fairly well out as well.
Cheers

Dave

 

[kieran]

Dave

Hey MHB, Head's up.. you can still read his home address on that JPG..

 

[MHB]

Have pulled the post
Apologies Dave here is the body of the post, without the attachment.

Dave
You will have to come and have a talk about Efficiency and what it means, there are lots of different ways to view efficiency. It can be difficult to just take a number from a tool like beersmith that just uses typical values (unless you have updated them) and compare it to one that is generated from the COA for the malt you have actually used.
Have had a glance at the recipe and all the numbers stack up. Just a first impression but I suspect that you should have mashed into about 38 L of 66oC water (assuming a 10% boil off rate) for a traditional BIAB, less if you are doing a sparge step.
But best would be to call in and have a talk about your process and what could have happened.
MHB

 

[Acasta]

Seems like your in good hands with MHB, good luck figuring it all out. I know people on here say its not important what you get but that you can reproduce it. I agree with this, but i'd also like to do things as efficient as possible, consistently.