Beer Forum

I did my second all grain batch today and all went rather well, however I based my recipe on the 70% efficiency I achieved on my first batch. Today I had a 83% efficiency. My one anomaly was that I realized to late that my sparge water was too hot. Is this the reason for the 13% jump. I'm happy with either % I just would like to know what to expect from my system so I can figure my recipes properly.

How hot, was too hot?

208 I mixed up my strike water for my sparge water

Well there's yer problem.
You were only about 38-40* off.
Ouch!
What sparge method do you use?

The illiterate sparge,

I was fly sparging. Maybe next time I will drink less while brewing, maybe

You shouldn't have any problem with the hot sparge water as long as your mash bed temperature did not go above 170°. If you did not do a mash out, I doubt your bed got that hot. I have batch sparged with 200°+ water and did not get the bed above 165°.

Wayne

Bugeater wrote:You shouldn't have any problem with the hot sparge water as long as your mash bed temperature did not go above 170°. If you did not do a mash out, I doubt your bed got that hot. I have batch sparged with 200°+ water and did not get the bed above 165°.

Wayne

+1 takes a lot to get that mash temp to move....

So is that still the reason for the higher efficiency? I just want to figure out how to stay consistant with my system.