My First All Grain (low Efficency)

[berazafi]

Just finshed me first all grain

the effeciency turned out around 49%

I think i may have rushed the sparge, i just added all the sparge water, mixed for a 1minuite or so, then opened the tap up fully, ran it clear, recycled then ran it out onto the pot

Dave

 

[MHD]

More info:
*What temperature mash and sparge
*What was the batch size
*what type of manifold

Opening the tap fully can lead to channeling... a slow sparge is a good sparge

 

[berazafi]

Mash temp 67
sparge temp 76
23 litre batch size, well it came out less because i didnt relise i had nearly 7 litres of dead space in the mash tun and 7 litres of trub in the boiler

I didnt know you had to sparge slowly, do you want just a trickle

David

 

[Malnourished]

23 litre batch size, well it came out less because i didnt relise i had nearly 7 litres of dead space in the mash tun and 7 litres of trub in the boiler

:excl:
This is your problem. That's probably 12L of wort lost right there. Say you captured 8L of that and you're up at 70% efficiency already.

 

[berazafi]

would sparging mix the deadspace up and dilute it into the sparge water, also the 7 missed liters of trub etc wouldnt effect the efficency, the effency doesnt take into account the final amount of wort, just the final gravity on beer smith i think

 

[Trent]

David
I thikn that you will find the efficiency is affected by volume quite a bit, unless you still calculated it on 23L, even though you ended up with less. I calculate the loss in my kettle with me efficiency. For example, if I get 23L into my fermenter, my kettle has 2.5L deadspace, I calculate my efficiency on 25.5L. If you get say 1050 in 16L and that is 50%, if you add the 7L lost to trub in the kettle, all of a sudden you have 23L at 1050, and an efficiency somewhere around 72%. You still made that 23L of 1050 beer out of your grain, so I figure that is what you should base your efficiency on. If, however, you punched in your finished kettle volume, and you still end up with only 49%, you are a bit low. First AG is usually between 50-65%, I think my first was 62%. Anyway, 7L deadspace is alot for a mashtun. Do you mean that you got 7L less out that you put in? Grain usually soaks up about 1L per kg of grain, so factor this into your calculations (if beersmith already hasnt). Maybe if you batch sparge and mix it up really well, you may get slightly better efficiency, but for now, I would concentrate on sparging slowly, and see if you can reconfigure your set-up somehow to reduce the dead space in the mash tun, and maybe reduce the wort lost to trub at the end of the boil. A stainless scrubby put over your pick up tube may help, and make sure you whirlpool, then take the wort from the side, rather than the middle.
Sorry if this post is a bit all over the shop, I spent the day in the yard, instead of drinking beer!
All the best
Trent

 

[Stuster]

Opening the tap fully can lead to channeling... a slow sparge is a good sparge

[post="120323"][/post]​

Only if you are fly sparging.

If you are batch sparging, after recirculating, you can let it run slow for a bit, then open it right up. :super:

Trent, I base my efficiency on the final volume in the fermenter. Isn't your efficiency how much wort of what gravity you can use to make beer? :unsure:

 

[Paleman]

Excuse my ignorance fellas, but i'm reading this thread with great interest.

I'm a kit/extract brewer, but want to partial, then maybe craft my own beers.

What do you mean by dead space in the mash tun ?

Sorry for stealing your thread berazafi.

 

[berazafi]

Paleman fire away

Dead space is just the area of the mash that cant be drawn off, eg the space under the outlet.

I was a K and K brewer until yesterday, dont worry about partials etc, just do an all grain, i think the bits to get me to day cost me

Mash tun (esky, stainlessbraid and plumbing bits) - $70
Boiler SS keg $30 plus fittings $10
Burner $35 (reg off bbq)
and a jerry can for holding the mash wort while i heated the sparge water in the boiler

 

[berazafi]

I should have my HTL by next week so will be able to set up a herms witch will be good, and hopefully will improve my efficency

On another note, i used powells malt i wonder if this contibuted to my low efficency

 

[berazafi]

I just noticed something while doing reading, i poured my water onto the grain, could this cause a lower effiecency

 

[Weizguy]

I just noticed something while doing reading, i poured my water onto the grain, could this cause a lower effiecency

[post="120378"][/post]​

Only if you're superstitious, or didn't mix/"dough in" after the combining of water and grain.

Dry spots in the grain bed are lost to the mash. Lost, I say. Please say that's not the case here.

Old Uncle Seth

 

[Stuster]

I certainly got low efficiency with Powells malts, berazafi.

Agree with weizguy that dough balls can be a problem. Make sure you stir well when mashing in. If you are batch sparging, make sure you also mix well after adding the sparge water. :super: