Mash Efficiency On A Speidel Braumeister

[Malted]

1.5 hr boil ill boil off 10 L and 7 plato is 1.028 (get a hydro).

You have to correct for the alcohol; fermented or unfermented plato tells different stories. 7 plato of fermented wort is 1.010 SG. 7 plato of unfermented wort is 1.028 SG.
So he is getting 1.066 OG and 1.010 FG - sounds pretty good to me. If anything I would advocate more sprage (as Gav80 has suggested) so that it is not quite as alcoholic.

 

[tiprya]

Big-W 19L pot is perfect for the 20L malt pipe. The pegs hold it just above the bottom, and you can leave it to drain. I normally throw those in the boil.

 

[Stormahead]

+1 for the BigW pot..made to fit

My efficiency with the 20L has been suffering around the 65-70% mark. I believe a poor malt crush is to blame as previously using pre-crushed malt was yielding 80%+

I used to do a sparge but never found it to be worth the effort since you'd need to heat some water separately which spoils the automation of the process (why else do you buy one to begin with)

 

[glenwal]

My efficiency with the 20L has been suffering around the 65-70% mark. <snip> I used to do a sparge but never found it to be worth the effort

Are you sure these 2 aren't related? Did your efficency start suffering when you stopped sparging?

 

[tiprya]

I got an 8L urn for $50, set it up to heat water to mid 70's, just fill it up and whack it on when the mash starts to ramp to mash out temps.

Works well, but I can understand if you can't be bothered. You'd probably get pretty similar efficiency from adding the extra 8L to the mash (assuming it would fit).

Perhaps I will try a no-sparge next time.

 

[Stormahead]

Are you sure these 2 aren't related? Did your efficency start suffering when you stopped sparging?

Pretty sure. I sparged on the last two brews and it made no noticable difference.

I think its more in line with Malted's comments before about too much flour in the grist giving lower eff. I need to work more on the crush and possibly the mash profile.

I had better results with the default profile (55/63/72/78) than just a single infusion.

 

[DeGarre]

...

I think its more in line with Malted's comments before about too much flour in the grist giving lower eff. I need to work more on the crush and possibly the mash profile....

I've had a couple of brews now using a ready crushed pale ale and there is a lot of flour in the grist. So much that I've had to increase the mashing times longer to circulate longer in order to get clear wort and still it stays muddier than before. And I still get the usual 89% mash efficiency with 26 litres mash and 6 litres rinse (slowly for 20-25 minutes).

 

[Stormahead]

I just did another brew with a step mash (using the default program rather than a single infusion for 60 mins). Performed a sparge with 7L and ended up with around 78% this time.

Now to work out if it was the sparging or the mash schedule thats given a decent boost

Given that I never used to sparge or worry about mash pH when hitting 80%+, I'm leaning towards the mash schedule giving a better conversion.

 

[tiprya]

It's much more likely to be a poor crush or pH than the mash schedule.

 

[Batz]

It's much more likely to be a poor crush or pH than the mash schedule.

I'm going for PH.

 

[Stormahead]

Interesting.

Without a working pH meter and recorded pH from before and after, its going to be speculative at best.

On a side note, thanks to an OCD mother in law, I might stick to pH strips instead.