RYE IPA with T-58 & US-05

[sdixon]

Type: All Grain    Date: 13-03-10
Batch Size (fermenter): 18.00 gal    Brewer: Stephen
Boil Size: 23.26 gal    Asst Brewer:
Boil Time: 60 min    Equipment: Grimross Pilot Brewery (20 gallon)
End of Boil Volume 19.76 gal    Brewhouse Efficiency: 72.00 %
Final Bottling Volume: 16.50 gal    Est Mash Efficiency 76.4 %
Fermentation: Ale, Two Stage    Taste Rating(out of 50): 30.0

Ingredients
10.00 kg    Pilsner (2 Row) Ger (2.0 SRM) 54.0 %
2.50 kg    Rye Malt (4.7 SRM) 13.5 %
1.50 kg    Caramel/Crystal Malt - 40L (40.0 SRM) 8.1 %
1.00 kg    Caramel/Crystal Malt - 60L (60.0 SRM) 5.4 %
1.00 kg    Wheat Malt, Ger (2.0 SRM) 5.4 %
1.00 kg    Wheat, Flaked (1.6 SRM) 5.4 %
0.40 kg    Caraaroma (130.0 SRM) 2.2 %
0.11 kg    Chocolate Malt (350.0 SRM) 0.6 %
1.00 kg    Sugar, Table (Sucrose) (1.0 SRM) 5.4 %
90.00 g    Magnum [14.00 %] - Boil 60.0 min
90.00 g    Cascade [5.50 %] - Boil 30.0 min
70.00 g    Crystal [3.50 %] - Boil 1.0 min
2.0 pkg    Fermentis #T-58
1.0 pkg     Fermentis #US-05

Beer Profile
Original Gravity: 1.060 SG    
Est Final Gravity: 1.012 SG
Estimated Alcohol by Vol: 6.4 %
Bitterness: 58.4 IBUs
Est Color: 15.0 SRM

[feldmann]

I tried brewing this today but scaled down to a 5 gal recipe. I got terrible efficiency and I was looking for some advice for the next time I try it.

1. I got around 40% efficiency. I mashed @ 65C for 60 minutes, should I push it to 90 minutes?

2. I wasn't too sure of when to add the sugar. I used regular table sugar and added it with 15 minutes left in the boil because I read adding it too early can eliminate some of hop flavour.

[Roger]

From my experience I get better efficiency from very slow lautering. So I only open the valve on the mashtun so it trickles out this requires a great deal of patience. Also quite hot sparge water near boiling. A longer mash time might help. But if you drain the mashtun very slowly the bulk if your wort is still mashing. I think your spot on with the sugar addition. These are only my experiences I'm sure you'll get more feedback.

[DandyMason]

Yeah try slowing down the lautering... 40% seems pretty low. What are you mashing in?

For the sugar, not sure it matters. When you boil hops with a higher gravity wort you get lower hop utilization compared to a lower gravity wort, so depends on what you want

[brew]

Yeah 40 is real low. 65 C is a bit low as well, although I mash around there frequently as it helps dry out my beer as well - which I like. I often mash for 2 or 3 hours (strike over lunch, sparge after work). Even still, 60 minutes should still give you much better efficiency than that... sounds like something might have gone wrong, maybe a scaling error on the grain? Thermometer problem? More water than you thought? Something like that? I've mis-measured before and been confused with the end product - easy to do...

[feldmann]

I lauter so that if the ball valve was open any less, it wouldn't drain. I fly sparge and it takes me about an hour. My sparge water was 80C. I'm mashing in a rectangular cooler with a SS braid, its a newer set up that I've probably only mashed in 5 or 6 times but I've consistently hit 75-80% on all but this recipe. I did have more wort pre-boil (max half a gallon) and post boil (max 1 gallon) I didn't loose anywhere near as much from evaporation or hop absorption as I normally do.


Here is my scaled down version:

6.74 lb German - Pilsner
1.68 lb Rye Malt
1.01 lb American - Caramel / Crystal 40L
0.67 lb American - Caramel / Crystal 60L
0.67 lb German – Wheat Malt
0.67 lb Flaked Wheat
0.27 lb American - Caramel / Crystal 120L
0.07 lb American - Chocolate

My O.G. was 1.040

[Roger]

Maybe your wort got confused on what to do with all those specialty grains. 
But seriously just let it ferment worst case scenario it makes beer. If this keeps happening it's probably got do do with your method if not it's probably the ingredients. I know that doesn't help much but your method seams solid enough.

[DandyMason]

Chalk it up as a one off batch! 75-80% is great effiiency

[Al-Loves-Wine]

That is unusually low for 11ish pounds of grain. Did you end up with a poor crush by chance? I just did a Belgian wit a few days ago and ended up with 84% at 11 pounds of grain, and I drain at half a valve. However I try to drain my mash tun dry before I start my sparge.

Did you do a hydro reading at a higher temp maybe that threw off your reading?

[feldmann]

Nope, did a reading at 20C before pitching to be sure. I guess I'll try again and just hope it was an off batch.