Mashtun Size And Efficiency Woes

[paulwolf350]

I have a toheeys keg for my mash tun, and i am unable to beat 60% efficiency yet.

I have tried using different water, I moved my rig to a mates house and brewed with his water, no difference

I have come to the shape of the tun as a problem, i am usin g a tooheys keg as a tun, shorter and fatter than my 2 boilers ( which are carlton kegs ) and a cratbrewer false botttom.

other than that i have no idea about my efficiency woes, can anyone shed any light on my problems?


Paul

 

[paulwolf350]

I have a toheeys keg for my mash tun, and i am unable to beat 60% efficiency yet.

I have tried using different water, I moved my rig to a mates house and brewed with his water, no difference

I have come to the shape of the tun as a problem, i am usin g a tooheys keg as a tun, shorter and fatter than my 2 boilers ( which are carlton kegs ) and a cratbrewer false botttom.

other than that i have no idea about my efficiency woes, can anyone shed any light on my problems?


Paul

I have also crushed with my mates mill, no difference, and vice versa he has brewed with mine

Paul

 

[geoff_tewierik]

How are you calculating your efficiency?

Have you varied your milling gap?

Does you mash tun hold it's temperature across the whole mashing period?

IIRC there is a recommended ratio of height to width that's in How to Brew. Will hunt it out for you.

 

[A3k]

what does your process include?

 

[geoff_tewierik]

Found it:

Grain bed deeper than 4" and preferably 1 foot deep.

http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixD.html

 

[Pollux]

1 foot deep.........

I don't think my willow esky is that tall.....


Must subscribe to this thread, I've been having similar issues since I went 3V, although I did adjust the gap on my mill today, lets see if that makes it any better...

 

[yardy]

I'd play around with recirculation, sparging and the crush before worrying about the tun mate.

cheers
Dave

 

[matho]

whats your sparge rate with a false bottom you might be sparging to quick.

cheer's matho

 

[paulwolf350]

I'd play around with recirculation, sparging and the crush before worrying about the tun mate.

cheers
Dave

Have done all that, including both batch and fly sparging, different water, diffeent crush on both my mill and mates

get 80% on my mates rig, 60 on mine same watrer, same grain ( tried it )

efficiency calculated into boiler at both volume and gravity

grain bed deeper than 4 inch more like 10

sparge at 78 (reg by PID control)



Ps i can mill grain, brew on mate system at 80, crush on his mill, brew on mine get 60. Brew on my mill, my system. get 58%. dont know where else to go

Paul

 

[bradsbrew]

Whers does the tap come out of your tun Paul? I use a similar Tun with a 9" falsie but have it draining from the centre of the bottom and average 70%. I will be doing some minor adjustments to try and get it to the 80%.

Cheers Brad

 

[paulwolf350]

Whers does the tap come out of your tun Paul? I use a similar Tun with a 9" falsie but have it draining from the centre of the bottom and average 70%. I will be doing some minor adjustments to try and get it to the 80%.

Cheers Brad

Brad, about 2 1/2 inchs up the side, but it pulls from the centre of the falsie. ( you bought yours about 20 mins before me at the mid year grain pick up.) I have a mate who drains from the centre below the falsie and gets 80 odd. not sure where to go

Paul

 

[paulwolf350]

whats your sparge rate with a false bottom you might be sparging to quick.

cheer's matho

Matho, prob 90 mins all up, i thought that was reasonably slow but could be wrong.

 

[paulwolf350]

what does your process include?

as in what, mate

i have varied mash times, types, infusion, temperature, decoction, water, pH, grains, recipes............the only thing I have not changed yet is the falsie and the tun, hence the reason for help, is there anything i am overlooking OR is Pit my tun?


Paul

 

[enoch]

Are you confident you are measuring the volumes into the kettle correctly? Huge impact on apparent efficiency.

 

[shawnheiderich]

Is 78c the temp of your sparge water? I sparged last weekend with water that was 95 and measured the grain bed temp whilst draining and the temp of the bed was 78c. Sparge water hot enough (assume batch sparge).

Shawn

 

[paulwolf350]

Shawn, sparge at 80 (HLT) assumed 78 at end of hose
Paul

 

[Sammus]

did you calibrate for hot wort in the kettle? that would explain low efficiency into the boiler.

I use a falsie and a t**heys mash tun and used to get around 60% and after adjusting my crush and fly sparging I get 85%, all else the same.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

I suspect deadspace under the false bottom as an issue with teh tun if there is one; and perhaps an endemic error in volume calculations. Your set-up is not particularly different to lots of other people and you have changed a bunch of other stuff... so it must be something you haven't changed.

If you are pulling from just under the "dome" of the tun - you run off geometry isn't as good as if you are pulling from the bottom of the keg "under" the center of the tun.

So this


isn't as efficient as this


for a continuous sparge from a run-off geometry perspective for continuous sparging, and is less efficient for batch sparging because it leaves more deadspace.

I doubt if thats nearly enough to be giving you such a low efficiency.. but it might be contributing. What exactly are the physical differences between your systems and your mates where you get better efficiency??

TB

 

[paulwolf350]

If you are pulling from just under the "dome" of the tun - you run off geometry isn't as good as if you are pulling from the bottom of the keg "under" the center of the tun.

This is how my tun is currently set up

What exactly are the physical differences between your systems and your mates where you get better efficiency??

His system is completely different unfortunately, he brews in 60L batchs, bigger tun with different dimensions, home made false bottom, runs off from a different spot

looks a bit like this


Paul

 

[yardy]

Is 78c the temp of your sparge water? I sparged last weekend with water that was 95 and measured the grain bed temp whilst draining and the temp of the bed was 78c. Sparge water hot enough (assume batch sparge).

Shawn

Shawn, sparge at 80 (HLT) assumed 78 at end of hose
Paul

my sparge water pretty much goes in the same as shawn's and I consistently hit 78 to 80, would it be worth doing another brew mate and take temp readings, gravities of first runnings, sparge etc

Dave