1) Can I determine how much my efficiency is off by figuring out how much I miss my starting gravity by? I.e. Intended SG: 1.040 Actual SG: 1.030 Efficieny 25% lower than I thought?
2) If I have figured out that my efficiency is 13% below what I previously thought (, do I make up for this by adding 13% more base malt or distribute the 13% out equally amongst all the malts in the grain bill?
2.) it is not quite that simple, you need to multiple the original amount of grain by your first estimated efficiency & then divide by your actual efficiency. For your example in 1) above, this would meen you need 33% more malt to get the gravity you wanted if your O.G. was off by 25%.
IMO, if you determine that your efficiency is poor you should try to figure out what is causing it to be that way. Sometimes a small change in technique (finer grind to your grist, increased sparge time, different sparge technique) can lead to a significant increase in efficiency.
For my first two all-grain batches I have gotten decent efficiency up in the 80% range but really got bad efficiency on my last batch that had 55% wheat malt in it which resulted in my wort being 11 pts under what was expected (1.044 instead of 1.055). After reviewing my process, and reading on the different forums, I found out that even if I adjusted my mill to a finer grind, it was still probably too coarse for the wheat malt. I was worried about getting a stuck mash, but I will grind it finer next time.
Efficiency is currently my biggest problem. I’ve only done one all grain so getting my mash technique right is an issue. I’ve been using a mash bag in the past when I was doing partial grain but I guess now I need to do away with the bag and just mix the grain and brewing liquor together, do the mash and then strain out the wort somehow?
Originally posted by Unclerudy
Just get a 10 gallon igloo cooler to mash in. SOmething like 35 bucks at Home Depot. And buy a bazooka tube for another 35. Mash problem solved.
Sorry I live in that small province called the UK, so don’t have access to a Home Depot, but I guess I know what you mean.
Originally posted by Unclerudy
Just get a 10 gallon igloo cooler to mash in. SOmething like 35 bucks at Home Depot. And buy a bazooka tube for another 35. Mash problem solved.
Sorry I live in that small province called the UK, so don’t have access to a Home Depot, but I guess I know what you mean.
However, what is a bazooka tube?
An alternative to a false bottom. These guys are building their own:
Originally posted by sharpe1987
If I have figured out that my efficiency is 13% below what I previously thought (, do I make up for this by adding 13% more base malt or distribute the 13% out equally amongst all the malts in the grain bill?
Originally posted by Bilk
I googled it, apparently it’s a car stereo subwoofer.
Heh. Had one of those back in the 80’s. Now, I’ve got the brewing kind.
Ian, I can’t recommend a 10-gal (US) Rubbermaid cylindrical cooler highly enough. Yes, it’s bloody expensive, but it’s a *great* mash tun. And large enough to enable you to do sparge-free mashing like I do (ca. 80% efficiency with Weyermann PA Malz...without sparging). And my beer turns out fucking great.
Speaking of which, batch 124 today shall be a black half-IPA of ~1.036 OG and 100+ IBU. (0 ITwigU.)
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