What kind of efficiencies are you getting.

[Cain Harland]

Ive had a couple of really low efficiencies lately. And probably all along its just that I haven't measured until now. I have a few Ideas on improving it but wondering what others are getting out of what kind of system.

Also wondering when scaling a malt bill for the efficiency of a system does it all scale evenly. Or do some grains give up their sugars/flavours easier than others.

[Cain Harland]

My system is pretty basic - rectangular chilly bin mash tun with manifold in the bottom. No mash heating, no recirculation. One pot on a 4 ring as HLT and kettle. I collect the wart in an old fermenter until HLT empty then use it for kettle. Fermenter/Wart collector on ground Mash tun on deck and pot on a little table (also on deck) so gravity does the moving of liquids except the tipping into the kettle.

Last couple of brews have been 55% efficiency. I think channeling is probably a big part of my problem so will look to spread my sparge water out better next time.

I would like to recirculate and have a pump but no HERMS or RIMS to keep wart warm, the chilly mash tun holds the heat pretty good but I'm assuming recirculation would lose heat at the pipes and opening the lid a tad which would result in heat loss.

[Kevin Sharp]

Lately I've been getting  80% on a 1.110 OG and 85% on 1.070 OG.

I did get 65% on a low gravity brew once and found that was due to my mill gap being too wide. Are you milling the grain yourself and if so what gap are you using?

Other causes of low efficiency include:

* Poor conversion - temperature or pH problems. Misreading thermometers are commonplace.

* Since your sparging outside the mash could be a bit cold. Do you measure the temperature of your mash during sparging?

* Incomplete mixing during mash in.

* Incorrect volume measurement.

[Cain Harland]

Grains were all reasonable fresh and crushed by Baylands, I'm sure if there was something wrong with their crush someone would have posted on here and they brew with it themselves.

I measured temp at end of mash at 66c then sparged with 75c water

Mixed thoroughly at mash in

I don't have an incredibly accurate measure for final volume but I defiantly wasn't far enough over volume to explain that bigger change in gravity

Maybe I will have to look into water chemistry, PH and stuff. Also maybe another thermometer.

[Richard Jack]

Try batch sparging. Bet that sorts your problem.

You don't need to continuously recirc, just stir a few times during the mash, and run out and return in the top a couple of litres before you mash out (poor man's vorlauf).

[Crusader-Rob]

Whoa 55% is quite low, I normally get somewhere around 68% efficiency once I'm done.

I run BIAB - No Sparge. Works for me, no re-circulation...yet.

[Cain Harland]

Yeah I was a bit shocked. I mashed at 67c and made sure to sparge (at 75c) nice and slow this time too (30 min ish). Its an interesting comparison, I would have expected my sparge too be as efficient as your no sparge (which I'm quite impressed with), I'm defiantly doing something wrong.

I sparged quite differently the 2 times I measured too. The second was the kind of 3 tier continuous sparge described above with the liquid just above the grain bed. The other I mashed at 63 with a lot more water. Then poured pots full of hot water and boiled on top as it drained. After the bad efficiency from the first I decided to do the spagre slower and with more evenly heated water. I will stick with the second way now and try to improve it.

Grains were all reasonable fresh and crushed by Baylands, I'm sure if there was something wrong with their crush someone would have posted on here and they brew with it themselves.

[Crusader-Rob]

Baylands crushing is normally pretty good.
Without being rude, Is it possible you've purchased not enough grain?

[Kevin Sharp]

Re: benefits from higher efficiency/shortcomings of lower efficiency. It depends what the cause of low efficiency is. If it's poor conversion then that's not good. If it's just not washing all the sugars out of the grain then some would say that makes better beer - see http://byo.com/ba/item/1375-skip-the-sparge

[Cain Harland]

Na I purchased a lot of grain, so much in fact that I had to leave 2kg out  >15kg in mash tun. Recipes were calculated on beer tools pro at 75% efficiency.

[oliver]

+1 on the batch sparge - should get you up to 65% easy. http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixD-2.html

I've got a similar setup to yourself, I usually try to do a mash out using either infusion or decoction - helps to make things run a little easier.

[Cain Harland]

Interesting what folks are saying about the batch sparge, I had read that continuous was more efficient. And very interesting about the drainage Mine is probably more like Figure 171. And interesting how a taller mash tun makes a difference.

[oliver]

Ah think I misread the original post, read it as single manifold but I assume you've got a manifold with multiple pipes? In which case fly sparging should be fine and yeh you could get higher efficiency using fly sparging over batch sparging depending.