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  • Help With Ongoing Efficiency Problems

    I have had ongoing efficiency problems (70-75%) for a while now, and have been slowly making adjustments based on other threads I've read, but have not made much headway. I've adjusted the mill using sieves, and did not see much of a difference. I've adjusted my mill from very fine (compressed bed issues and stuck mashes) to very coarse, and everything in between, and am still always around 70-75%. I've played around with mash thickness, slowed down my sparge, nothign has helped. If anyone has any advice, I would really appreciate it. I recorded all of the runnings of my brew today. Granted this is a slightly higher gravity brew, but still shouldn't be at 70% efficiency.

    30 bbl batch
    2,000# 2-row
    110# Vienna

    Mashed with 751 gallons, by weight this is 2.85:1, by qt/lb it is 1.42:1. Mash pH 5.5

    Rest for 45 mins, vorlauf for 15 mins.

    Gravity of runnings:
    Sparge start, 22P
    20 mins of sparge: 20.5P
    40 mins later: 18P
    60 mins later: 14.5P
    80 mins later: 13P
    100 mins later: 11.5P
    120 mins later: 7P *Last Runnings

    Total collected 951 gallons at 16.75P = 72%

  • #2
    Hello Derek,
    Im no expert at all, just a new brewer but maybe a couple of pointers
    - Mash pH could/should be lower, try to bring it down to 5.2-5.3, we use lactic acid here. What about yor salts?
    - Are you stirring your mash? How long do you leave it rest between vorlauf and sparging?
    - Mash tun geometry?

    It seems kind of low efficiency for a 16-17P brew, we are getting round 80% total and 90% mash efficiency. Dont know much about your recipe but the sparging seems short in volume. It would also depend on your evaporation rate at boiling. But your numbers seem ok to me in terms of density. For a 5% pale ale you should be in the 80% to 85% total efficiency. Then again there is a lot of missing info. The quality of your malts for example makes a huge difference.
    Anyways according to my calculations you are getting 84.3% efficiency from your numbers.
    Hope it helps!
    Jose Argudo
    Head Brewer
    3Monos Craft Beer
    Malaga, Spain
    www.3monoscaftbeer.com

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