How do you get your effeciency up

[photoguy]

I know it sounds dirty. Tee Hee. I am running at about 60% from my all grain batches. Any hints or tips on increasing that closer to 65-70%?

cheers.

[rich]

First, we have to know what your mash and lauter equipment and processes are. Do tell.

[Bugeater]

Most often efficiency problems are related to the crush. If you mill your own, crush it a little finer. If your LHBS mills it, have them either adjust their mill or run it through the mill twice.

Another thing to look at is your sparge. The more wort you collect, the more sugar that is rinsed from the grains. If you stop your sparge too soon, you will leave a lot of sugar behind and your efficiency will suck.

When I first started all grain, I used an old Corona flour mill. On a good day I could get 65% effciency. Most often it was in the 55-60% range. I then bought a roller mill (a Phil Mill I) and started "crushing until I was scared" and my efficiency immediately jumped to 70-75%. Later I got a bigger brew kettle that had a greater rate of evaportation than my old one. I started collecting more wort (I batch sparge) to make up for the additional evaporation and my efficiency jump another 5%.

This should give you someplace to start. Good luck.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[Kaiser]

Wayne already mentioned most of the important aspects. Here is what I want to add to that:

- sparging method: Though fly sparging is known to provide a better efficiency, if done incorrectly you can end up with a very poor efficiency. I recommend batch sparging for that reason since it is fairly fool proove.

- conversion: do an iodine test to check for conversion at the end of your mash. I have heard of cases, where the thermometer was broken and the mash temp was totally off.

I batch sparge and collect ~24L (5.5 gal) of wort for a 21L batch (5 gal). For a standard 12 *P wort my efficieny is in the upper 70s. I always check the crush at the HB store to make sure almost all of the kernels are well crushed.

I don't believe that one should aim for ever higher efficiency, but if the numbers are out of the acceptable range, the root cause should at least be found.

BTW. when talking about efficiency, we should also keep in mind that there are 2 metrics for efficiency used in brewing:

- achieved extract relative to the total amount of grain used. This is the metric used by German brewers.

- achieved extract relative to the maximum possible extract of the grains used. This metric is used here in the US and is build into tools like BeerSmith and ProMash. When looking at numbers posted here, I'm assuming this metric.

Kai

[josephus]

It looks like you are using a cooler for a mashtun. When I built mine I had a copper manifold and my efficiencies were about 60-65% consistently. I changed to a stainless hose-braid and I now get about 72% with a single infusion.
The type of base malt will make a difference. For example when I use Briess two-row I get about about 10% efficiency than if I use something like Maris Otter or Munton's Pale Malt.
And the crush is important like BugeaterBrewing mentioned.

[photoguy]

I am indeed using a 10 gallon cooler, with a stainless false bottom from MoreBeer. I have been fly sparging, the water is held in a 5 gallon cooler and then gravity fed through a sprinkler. I will ask my beer store about the grain mill and also try the batch sprage. Does effeciency go down if you are mashing with to much water. For instance the other day I added additional water to bring the temp up.
Thanks for your help.
cheers!!

[josephus]

I am indeed using a 10 gallon cooler, with a stainless false bottom from MoreBeer. I have been fly sparging, the water is held in a 5 gallon cooler and then gravity fed through a sprinkler. I will ask my beer store about the grain mill and also try the batch sprage. Does effeciency go down if you are mashing with to much water. For instance the other day I added additional water to bring the temp up.
Thanks for your help.
cheers!!

Your efficiency will probably go up if you go with a thinner mash but it will take a lot longer to boil.

[northern brewer]

There will also be a decent loss in efficiency if the ph of your mash is not correct. 5.2 to 5.3 is the way to go. I know that there is a product made by 5 star chemicals that is supposed to convert any mash to a ph of 5.2. I have not played with this chemical personally and wonder if anyone has done any expiriments with it. By the numbers it should increase efficiency.