IPA

[Jake]

Batch Size (L):           20.0
Total Grain (lb):         14.000
Total Hops (oz):          5.80
Original Gravity (OG):    1.060  (°P): 14.7
Final Gravity (FG):       1.015  (°P): 3.8
Alcohol by Volume (ABV):  5.89 %
Colour (SRM):             12.8   (EBC): 25.2
Bitterness (IBU):         98.1   (Average)
Brewhouse Efficiency (%): 62
Boil Time (Minutes):      60

Grain Bill
----------------
11.000 lb American 2-Row (78.57%)
1.500 lb Munich I (10.71%)
1.000 lb Crystal 60 (7.14%)
0.500 lb Caramunich II (3.57%)

Hop Bill
----------------
1.00 oz Galena Pellet (11% Alpha) @ 60 Minutes (Boil) (0 oz/L)
1.00 oz Centennial Pellet (10.5% Alpha) @ 30 Minutes (Boil) (0 oz/L)
1.00 oz Cascade Pellet (5.3% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil) (0 oz/L)
1.00 oz Centennial Pellet (10.5% Alpha) @ 15 Minutes (Boil) (0 oz/L)
0.80 oz Simcoe Pellet (12% Alpha) @ 5 Minutes (Boil) (0 oz/L)
1.00 oz Cascade Pellet (5.3% Alpha) @ 1 Minutes (Boil) (0 oz/L)

Single step Infusion at 153°F for 60 Minutes.
Fermented at 65°F with Safale US-05

Notes
----------------
18.25L Mash @ 153F (1.33qts/lb)
8.25L Grain Absorption/Equipment Loss (0.15Gal/Lb)
18.25-8.25 = 10L from mash
= 15L Sparge Water = 25L into brewpot

[sdixon]

Your recipe format looks familiar. Are you using BrewMate?

[Kyle]

that looks really good!

[Jake]

Yea that would be brewmate!

Pretty excited for this one. I'm a little pissed about the efficiency though. I'm getting around 62% while I was aiming/expecting for around 70%ish . Not sure why I'm coming in so far below. I was aiming for the 1.070 range but got closer to 1.060.

Not sure what it would be. I think I'm going to try a tighter grind on my mill, and see how that turns out. I mashed at 153 for an hour and hit 167 on the sparge, which I was happy about. Is there any chance I'm not getting full conversion with an hour long mash? any reason to extend it?

[Dave Savoie]

do the Iodine test and maybe your thermometer is out of wack try another

[Richard]

Unfortunately you're gonna get lower efficiency with the bigger mashes if the sparge water is less than the mash water, or at least that's my experience.

[Jake]

Yea I went 19L for the mash, 15 sparge ... would you suggest doing a thicker mash?

[Dave Savoie]

or take hydrometer readings throughout transfering wort from mash tun to boil kettle and stop your sparge when your OG is where you want it its not the best thing in the world to do but you will hit your targets every time

[Dave Savoie]

but you would need to take into consideration the temp and pre boil OG VS actual OG after the boil Im sure there is some formula to figure this out

[Richard]

or take hydrometer readings throughout transfering wort from mash tun to boil kettle and stop your sparge when your OG is where you want it its not the best thing in the world to do but you will hit your targets every time

Was going to suggest that (specifically checking that he gets down to 1.010 or close), but he's batch sparging. Doesn't quite work unless you're fly sparging.

[Richard]

Would suggest if you really care that much about the efficiency that you use more sparge water and boil down... does force you into a longer boil, which you might not want. Thicker mash brings its own changes - in that it favours the alpha amylase due to sugar concentration limiting the overall conversion. Basically if you do a thicker mash it's almost as if you mashed at a higher temp *but* just lowering the temp to compensate doesn't work.

I tend to just assume about 60-65% for 20lbs of grain, 65-70% for 15, and 75-80%+ for 10... and throw more grain in to compensate.

[DandyMason]

I watched a decent video on youtube about efficiency for higher gravity beers...

Part 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94Oe-YZVbGg
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SLSNXmSQ ... re=related

One thing he does is split is sparge into two sparges... Also he gathers more wort, and boils longer.

[Richard]

Splitting the sparge into multiple steps is splitting the difference between a batch and fly sparge, and yeah - if you're going for efficiency without dicking around with mash parameters, your only option is more sparge water.