So yesterday was an all time low for me. I hit roughly 52% efficiency. I have been really tweaking my system and averaging 75% with exception to yesterday.
I batch sparge with a screen. I milled my grain by hand utilizing a barley crusher at my LHBS because that seemed to make a difference in previous batches. I hit my strike and volumes right on the money.
I just can’t seem to understand why my eff. is so low on this one. I probably would have been better off no-sparge on this batch…because from what I understand they even get better efficiency than I did yesterday.
Any suggestions? Obviously I know it is difficult to offer suggestions without knowing my process and equipment, but I really am having trouble wrapping my head around this low OG.
Yeah I am thinking it was possibly lack of stirring…which is funny because I felt that I stirred longer than normal and more often than normal, but looking back I am not sure if I did.
Recipe was
12# Pale
1.5# Crystal 10
8oz Munich
I batch sparge utilizing a cooler and screen. Hit my temps and volumes right on. I guess I will chalk this one up to a learning opportunity. I really was just dumbfounded that I came out so low.
I guess I have been wanting to brew more session beers…I guess I just did one on accident. ha.
One thing that I question, and I could be way off on this because I don’t use a screen. By screen, I’m assuming a false bottom in the cooler tun? How much dead space is there? I’m just wondering if your grains are being saturated enough during the mash. I like to use at least 1.5 qts/lb in my mash. If a gallon of my mash water isn’t even in contact with my grains, that ratio will be lowered significantly. It would even more detrimental to bigger beers.
Again, I could be miles off on this observation, but seems as though it should be considered.
The crush looked good…but next time I’m going to bring my gauge.
The screen is a bazooka screen connected to a rectangle cooler (Denny’s system influenced). I am going to adjust my water ratio and stirring and go from there. I am going to really dial in my volumes and time my stirring and see where that gets me.
I am now wondering if it was a combination of stirring and strike volumes. Thanks again for the suggestions. I normally wouldn’t post about a low OG but this one was so low it really had me thinking.
Crush and doughballs are the number one suspects. A possible suspect is pH, but pH can be ruled if you’ve made this same exact recipe before and hit your typical efficiency. Another suspect could be that you are making a high gravity beer, which you don’t normally do.
I thought the crush looked good and very comparable to my previous crushes where I hit my numbers. But, for assurance, and really study the crush and then take a measurement. Thanks all.
Lately I’ve been crushing as tight as possible. I don’t measure the gap, I just aim to pulverize the grain. I’ve found that as long as I take my time setting the grain bed during the start of the batch sparge I don’t have any problems. And in the event that the sparge does get stuck I just stir the mash and re-vorlauf. I’m hitting low 80’s efficiency.
Seems like it was a “normal” brewday except for your efficiency. It’s a total longshot but is it possible you left out some of your grain? Seems like it would take 1-2 lbs to come up that low.
Nope, all the grain was mashed. I think I did not stir enough, as my most recent brew day I hit my numbers spot on with the same process, except this time I stirred like a mad man. Cheers.
