Hi All,
I put a brew on of a golden ale in the weekend in my brew in a bag setup, this is the second time I have made this beer and made only minor tweaks to the grain bill to adjust the flavour. I usually mash in 10L, then drain, then sparge the bag in 7L in a separate pot, then drain.
Last time I mashed at 65 degrees, sparged at 65 degrees and came up with an OG of 1.050 (which was what I expected from my calculations in brewpal - with 70% mash efficiency).
However, this time I did the same recipe and came up with an OG of 1.060, with mash at 67 degrees and sparged at 75 degrees.
grain bill is as below (with changes in brackets):
1.2kg Bestmalz Vienna Malt
1.8kg Simpson Golden Promise Ale Malt
0.15kg Bestmalz Melanoidin malt (was 0.10kg for first brew)
0.25kg Weyermann Carapills (was Carahell in first brew)
1.0kg light pilsen dry malt extract
Could it really be that my efficiency has stepped up that much with an increase in sparge temp, to 99% ??? :huh: (Doubt it) Could there be any other reasons? I didn't double check and weigh the dry malt extract, or the grain for that matter... Hydrometer (from the Coopers kit) doesn't look or feel any different to what it normally does.
I am truely stumped... Probably shouldn't have messed around with the sparge temp...
I put a brew on of a golden ale in the weekend in my brew in a bag setup, this is the second time I have made this beer and made only minor tweaks to the grain bill to adjust the flavour. I usually mash in 10L, then drain, then sparge the bag in 7L in a separate pot, then drain.
Last time I mashed at 65 degrees, sparged at 65 degrees and came up with an OG of 1.050 (which was what I expected from my calculations in brewpal - with 70% mash efficiency).
However, this time I did the same recipe and came up with an OG of 1.060, with mash at 67 degrees and sparged at 75 degrees.
grain bill is as below (with changes in brackets):
1.2kg Bestmalz Vienna Malt
1.8kg Simpson Golden Promise Ale Malt
0.15kg Bestmalz Melanoidin malt (was 0.10kg for first brew)
0.25kg Weyermann Carapills (was Carahell in first brew)
1.0kg light pilsen dry malt extract
Could it really be that my efficiency has stepped up that much with an increase in sparge temp, to 99% ??? :huh: (Doubt it) Could there be any other reasons? I didn't double check and weigh the dry malt extract, or the grain for that matter... Hydrometer (from the Coopers kit) doesn't look or feel any different to what it normally does.
I am truely stumped... Probably shouldn't have messed around with the sparge temp...