Hey guys, would like to know your experiences in regards this matter.I ´ve never acidified my sparge water, I think this(among some other factors) could be the culprit that I never get a mash efficiency above77%.My Ph sparge water is about 7,5 -7,7 .Even I crush very fine and have a steady controlled mash temp and the proper mash Ph(5,2 - 5,4) my efficiency sucks.I always fly sparge to get 6 gals of runnings,when I reach 5 gals I take a sample from the draining spigot to take a read with my Phmeter, reading in most cases is between 5.95-6.03 so I stop sparging to avoid tannins extraction.Then I dilute wort with water to get my OG target(usually about 1 gal) .Should I need to acidify my sparge water?.If I shoud, wich Ph do I need to get? TIA
I adjust my sparge water to pH 5.8 with phosphoric acid. If you have a proper mash pH and a sparge water pH of less than 6.0, you don't have to worry about extracting tannins.
I do exactly was spartan said. I typically collect around 7 gallons, so the sparge could be where you're taking a hit. Although 77% is a pretty decent efficiency. I'm happy with ~75% and rarely approach 80.
Acidifying sparge water will improve flavor rather than efficiency. How long does your sparge take? It should be at least 45-60 minutes on most systems for good efficiency. There's nothing wrong with adding a little extra malt to the recipe and sparging fast to save time though. And 77% is pretty good for an average gravity beer anyway.
Why would you want to go higher than 77%? That is a very goog number, and I see no reason if the beer is good. It is possible that tannin extraction can occur when you get much above 80% from some things I have read. Personally, I am happy with the 74-75% I am getting. Consistency is better than a high number to me.
Wouldn't an easy test to see if that really is the problem would be to use distilled water? Seems a better/cleaner test than to just adding in chemicals. That is if it works, more asking then advising.
Mash pH influences conversion. Sparge pH is more about not extracting tannins. The only way I can think of that sparge pH influences your efficiency is if it affects extraction of sugars (because conversion has already taken place). I don't immediately see why pH is of great importance to this. FWIW, I do not acidify my sparge water, but I batch sparge, which should diminish the potential for tannin extraction.
OP, I'm a bit confused with you having a low efficiency and then adding water. Are you adding DME too? As for your efficiency for a small beer I'm over 80% and for a big beer I'm in the low-mid 70's. It's just with a big beer I have to stop sparging or I'd over fill my kettle. So what is your gravity of your run off when you stop sparging? Personally I like to stay above 1.013.
This what I've done. I can get 85% efficiency on my system, but it takes 45 minutes to an hour. I've cut my sparging time back to 20 - 25 minutes and my efficiency dropped to 72%. This works for me as I prefer the shorter brew day and don't mind spending a few extra bucks for extra grain. I do buy my base grains in bulk. I've also read that dropping your efficiency below 75% will improve your beers. I'm not sure if that's true, but I read it on the internet so it must be.
When I stop runnings they are somewhere in between 1013-1015 but Ph is almost 6 or a little bit higher . When I stop sparging my gravity is always higher than target OG(but I need more wort), when I dilute it I hit the target.However, I can not get any higher than 77%, I see and I know it is a good efficiency for somebody,but I see people here getting over 80%. I was suspecting that if I could low down my sparge water Ph then I will be able to run off longer,thus I would be able to get an efficiency a bit higher.May be am wrong,that´s why I have posted this question. Also, it is possible that I need to sparge slower, it takes me about 30 min to finish .Maybe the answer is SLOWER instead LONGER,or both, I don´t know
I know your question is a specific one, lowering your pH and I'm talking about something else but: So it sounds like you know that you set up your grain bill with an even lower than actual efficiency, that lets you be able to add water w/o DME. If I understand efficiency correctly, if you use less grain with the same amount of water then your finial running will be of a lower gravity and your efficiency will actually go up. But I think that your original question has been answered by spartan. And I think that you could use distilled.
I guess where acidifying sparge water could improve efficiency is that it theoretically could allow you to sparge more without negative effects on flavor (no tannin extraction). So, if after you are done sparging, your spent grains taste sweet, it means you have more sugar that you could have extracted. Then more sparging could help. However, I would think it would not be a huge increase in efficiency though. If your grains taste sweet, it probably means you developed preferential flow channels in your grain bed. If that's the case, you would be better off batch sparging, I think. Also, extra sparging means extra boiling time to get to desired volume. I used to do three batch sparges, moving about 6 gallons of sparge water through my mash tun (plus my first runnings). My efficiency would be a bit higher, but then I'd have to boil for another hour. I would rather plan on 72% efficiency and spend an extra dollar or two on grain then add an extra hour to my brew day.
