New Brunswick Craft Brewers Association
Brewing => Technique => Topic started by: Chris Craig on March 10, 2012, 12:44:08 PM
-
I've made a couple of changes to my equipment and process in the last couple of brews, and I think I'm now going crazy.
I used to use a corona style mill for my grain. Now I use a barley crusher. That's the first change.
I've made changes to my mashing procedure. I used to sparge with water that was 168F, not bring the grain bed to 168F. Now I raise the grain bed to 168F and let it rest for 10 minutes before draining. I do this a second time with the remainder of my sparge water. The grain bed does not exceed 170F.
Here's what I'm not sure of. I used to get somewhere around 70% mash eff according to BeerSmith. My last brew was 97%, and this one was 95%. Am I going a bit crazy, or is hitting those numbers par for the course for you guys? This means that my brewhouse efficiency works out to around 90% or so.
-
97% :shock:
Just.. no. How do you come to that figure?
I've heard talk of 85% but 97... you've got to be measuring something wrong :P
-
I get 70-75ish. Ya 90+ I don't think is a good thing. Aren't you gonna extract tannins at that %?
-
I don't know...
I measured my pre-boil gravity with a hydrometer AND a refractometer. They were the same.
Here are the screenshots of Beersmith. Maybe I've got something screwed up.
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/616115/Screen%20Shot%202012-03-10%20at%20Mar%2010%20%202.28.45%20PM.png)
(http://dl.dropbox.com/u/616115/Screen%20Shot%202012-03-10%20at%20Mar%2010%20%202.29.01%20PM.png)
-
You hit exactly 7.7 gal per boil?
-
You hit exactly 7.7 gal per boil?
I did.
-
Well if you hit your volumes, use the correct amount of grain for that recipe, and over shot the OG, I would say your set up works great.
-
Yeah really... are you positive you didn't add extra grain or something?
-
Are you sure the wort volume after boiling was accurate in the measurement? It could be that the gravity is high, hinting at near perfect eff, when actually the volume is less than the target for the calculation.
-
Yeah really... are you positive you didn't add extra grain or something?
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I didn't add extra grain. The hopper only holds 7lbs, and I only filled it once.
-
Are you sure the wort volume after boiling was accurate in the measurement? It could be that the gravity is high, hinting at near perfect eff, when actually the volume is less than the target for the calculation.
I measured 7.7 gallons pre-boil, and I measured the wort just after I finished the boil. It was at 6.2 gallons. At 4% shrinkage, that works out to 5.95 gallons into the fermentor. Almost exactly what I was looking for.
-
I'm sure I've made a mistake somewhere, but I can't find it. The recipe was based on 78% efficiency. Would that affect things at all?
-
Well I just plugged your recipe into beercalculus. For 6 gallons if you measured the OG it should be 1.045 for 78%... 1.057 would be 95%+
If you definitely got six gallons out, your temperature was 16C, and you definitely didn't put too much grain in... well damn I guess the numbers don't lie.
-
This is the second time in a row I've gotten efficiencies like this.
-
Maybe I should start watching you brew for that I can get those numbers
-
I definitely want to see your mash tun and how you mash out to get those numbers. That's amazing.
What are you using for a mash tun? And I noticed you put a 5.2 ph for your mash...you using 5.2ph stabilizer?
-
I have a wooden dowel that I marked in 1 gallon increments for my keggle. I measured out the water using a 2qt jug. I measured the jug with a measuring cup and marked the side. For sparge water, I just measure using the 2 qt jug. No dowel.
Today, I verified the markings on the jug and the dowel. They're accurate enough.
I eyeball the fractions. It was a mistake to write 7.7 gallons. I meant 7.75. It's pretty hard to eyeball 5/100ths :) It looked like 3/4 of a measure. I didn't measure 5.95 after shrinkage. I just did the math.
-
If my measuring stick was off by an entire gallon, and I actually only had 6.7 gallons in the kettle, then I'd have 83% efficiency. But, I know I have really close to gallons in my carboy. And I measured what was left in the kettle by pouring it out into a smaller pot, and then into the measuring jug. There was 1 gallon left. That's consistent with what I measured.
-
I'm sure I did something wrong, and it's driving me crazy. I've spent hours thinking through it.
-
I'd have to watch you brew to figure it out, I don't think you should be able to reach those numbers with a single batch-sparge.
-
I sparged twice.