WTF is with my mash eff

Chris Craig · 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.

Richard · March 10, 2012, 01:15:01 PM

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

Ian Grant · March 10, 2012, 02:20:01 PM

I get 70-75ish. Ya 90+ I don't think is a good thing. Aren't you gonna extract tannins at that %?

Chris Craig · March 10, 2012, 02:31:54 PM

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.

Ian Grant · March 10, 2012, 02:38:16 PM

You hit exactly 7.7 gal per boil?

Chris Craig · March 10, 2012, 02:40:23 PM

Quote from: "Ian Grant"You hit exactly 7.7 gal per boil?

I did.

Ian Grant · March 10, 2012, 02:45:12 PM

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.

Richard · March 10, 2012, 02:54:24 PM

Yeah really... are you positive you didn't add extra grain or something?

Kyle · March 10, 2012, 03:17:30 PM

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.

Chris Craig · March 10, 2012, 03:27:55 PM

Quote from: "Richard"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.

Chris Craig · March 10, 2012, 03:34:22 PM

Quote from: "Kyle"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.

Chris Craig · March 10, 2012, 03:37:16 PM

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?

Richard · March 10, 2012, 03:46:19 PM

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.

Chris Craig · March 10, 2012, 03:55:46 PM

This is the second time in a row I've gotten efficiencies like this.

Jake · March 10, 2012, 06:31:06 PM

Maybe I should start watching you brew for that I can get those numbers