I hate to come here crying every time I brew, but...here I am. I have been trying to improve my efficiency and have yet to make any progress. I brewed a pumpkin beer yesterday with: 7.5 pounds pale malt 4.5 pounds rye 2 pounds caramalt 30 3 small cans Libby's pumpkin (2.8 pounds) 2 small squash from the garden 5 ounces molasses 4 ounces brown sugar The recipe is not a clone, and using calculating software, the estimated OG was 1.076. I hit 1.056. When I plugged all this into the calculator it gave me an efficiency of 45%. I have whined about this before in another post, but I have made improvements to my process (several suggestions from this forum) and have not upped my efficiency. Among them: I bought a grinder. Yesterday I milled on a very fine setting (not twice, which may lead to some improvement). The grain looked great - very fine and comparable to some pictures I've seen of well-ground malt. I have a 10 gallon kettle (she's a beaut!) and I start with a 6 gallon sparge. I hit my temp (160º) and mashed for 90 minutes. The last temperature reading I got was 150º at the end, which doesn't seem too low. I do BIAB and dunk sparge in my old, smaller kettle with 1.5 gallons of previously boiled water, cooled to strike water temp. This water had a nice color when I added it to the boil kettle. This process was much smoother than the last time (I added less water and had no spillage). I tested my hydrometer and with tap water it reads just about 1000 (not off enough to lead to the discrepancy that I have). The wort looked great - nice color and 'thickness', which I know is probably not any kind of indicator. I took a sample with a turkey baster, and even doing temperature adjustments it would only give me an OG of 1058. I am a little bummed because as fall beer, I was kind of hoping for an ABV of 7 -8% and it looks like I'll be lucky to hit 6. I am kind of at a loss here and would greatly appreciate any insight.
I have never trusted Brew in a bag. I fly sparge to ensure I hit my numbers correctly. My suggestion would be to take a pre boil gravity reading and adjust with DME.
This is a step I always forget and need to make part of my routine. I even bought some DME a few batches ago and could have made the adjustment. Thanks!
@butterygold could you please provide more detail on your mashing regime. For example, do you thoroughly stir the grains to ensure a very even mash temperature throughout and also to ensure there are no 'dough balls'? Any further details you provide would be helpful. Also you mentioned: "...have made improvements to my process (several suggestions from this forum)". Could you please detail what steps you have made. Also, what is your mash pH? Cheers!
This is the equivalent of saying you don’t trust cars so you continue to ride a bike. I’ve never had issues with my numbers and I’ve switched from Fly—>Batch—> No sparge BIAB. You either understand your system to but your numbers or you don’t.
Thanks for the reply. I did not thoroughly stir the grains once they were in the kettle. I do jostle the brew bag around and make sure all the grains are submerged with a metal spoon. Basically, I grind the grains on the finest setting, once, transfer to the bag, put the bag in about 6 gallons of water, situate as described above, cover with the lid and check the temp every 20 minutes or so. I am not really at the pH level yet, though I have added gypsum to a few IPAs. As for the improvements, they are actually the ones I listed above: mill, bigger kettle, BIAB, dunk sparging. Before I mashed less grain (ground at brew shop or smashed with a rolling pin) in a smaller kettle and just made a smaller batch or used malt extract syrup.
Well, this is very much sub-optimum. If you do not vigorously stir for several (e.g., 5) minutes you likely are not getting all of the grains properly in contact with the water. One aspect that can occur is the aforementioned 'dough balls' I referenced previously. When 'dough balls' are formed there is essentially zero contact of water with the grains in the middle of the ball. The other reason to vigorously stir is that you want to obtain a uniform temperature throughout the entire mash. Well, that is a potential issue as well. You want (need) to target a mash pH between 5.2 - 5.6/5.8 to ensure a proper mash occurs. Do you own a homebrewing book (e.g., How to Brew by John Palmer)? I strongly encourage you to obtain a book (e.g., this book) and read it cover to cover prior to brewing your next batch. Cheers!
Back when I started all grain brewing I was in the same place. Jack has you on the correct path. Do you know what your brewing water is? Your tap water may not work for the style you are trying to brew so i’d recommend trying a batch with ro or distilled water and use a calculator for adding salts to get your ph into range. After milling my own grains and checking ph my mash conversion improved greatly
Just brewed a mango wheat today (mango to go in later) and I am happy to report that, heeding your suggestions, I hit over 60% efficiency. I milled on the finest setting twice and stirred the grains quite a bit to get everything in contact with the water. Upwards and onwards! Thanks to all for the advice.
Glad it's working out for you @butterygold Now that you’re well one your way, I have an off-topic question that I've been wondering about since the first time I saw this thread...........Is the thread title a play on “Crying” by Roy Orbison (rip)/
