81 replies to this topic

[bigdaddyale]

Sounds about right. I have a logbook and keep track of everything. Struggling with efficiency right now. I've adjusted my mill gap multiple times and still hit around 65%. My mash temps are good and I'm not finding dough balls.

check your mash ph and post a picture of your crush.crush till you're scared

Edited by bigdaddyale, 17 June 2014 - 04:41 PM.

[StankDelicious]

check your mash ph and post a picture of your crush.crush till you're scared

Ph is good and I've crushed everywhere from nearly flour to coarse.

[bigdaddyale]

Ph is good and I've crushed everywhere from nearly flour to coarse.

Grain to water %?

[StankDelicious]

Grain to water %?

1.5/lb

[MyaCullen]

65%? damn that's atrocious 

[StankDelicious]

65%? damn that's atrocious 

 

Tell me about it. It only happens in my larger tun for the BVIP.

[MyaCullen]

Tell me about it. It only happens in my larger tun for the BVIP.

batch? how large? what kind of cooler?

 

also what is the grain bill and target gravity?

[StankDelicious]

batch? how large? what kind of cooler?

 

also what is the grain bill and target gravity?

 

Denny's BVIP in a Coleman Xtreme 70qt. I scale it up to a 6 gallon batch so it is 21lbs of grain. I don't have my notes in front of me. I'm at work.

[MyaCullen]

Denny's BVIP in a Coleman Xtreme 70qt. I scale it up to a 6 gallon batch so it is 21lbs of grain. I don't have my notes in front of me. I'm at work.

for a grain bill that big 65% isn't as bad

[ChicagoWaterGuy]

Denny's BVIP in a Coleman Xtreme 70qt. I scale it up to a 6 gallon batch so it is 21lbs of grain. I don't have my notes in front of me. I'm at work.

It's only 1.25 more pounds than the original recipe. I'd keep all the specialty stuff the same and add the extra 1.25 as base malt.

[MyaCullen]

It's only 1.25 more pounds than the original recipe. I'd keep all the specialty stuff the same and add the extra 1.25 as base malt.

agreed

[SchwanzBrewer]

BBM, efficiency drops with batch size while batch sparging. Kai did some good research on it. 

[StankDelicious]

BBM, efficiency drops with batch size while batch sparging. Kai did some good research on it. 

 

Never knew that. I rarely make 10gallon/imperial beers. What causes it?

[SchwanzBrewer]

Never knew that. I rarely make 10gallon/imperial beers. What causes it?

 

I'm not really sure.

 

The best I can think of is that its like rinsing a pot with soap in it. If you fill the pot with water and dump it, you get a certain amount of soap out. You fill it up again and you get more, but not all of the soap. There is still some left over. With unlimited water rinses, eventually you get the soap out. We don't have unlimited sparges.

 

My guess is that the bigger the batch, the more sugars there are per volume, and the more gets left over since you only have so much diluting power with your sparge since your boil volume is the same for a lower gravity batch and a higher gravity batch.

Edited by SchwanzBrewer, 18 June 2014 - 01:29 PM.

[MyaCullen]

I'm not really sure.

 

The best I can think of is that its like rinsing a pot with soap in it. If you fill the pot with water and dump it, you get a certain amount of soap out. You fill it up again and you get more, but not all of the soap. There is still some left over. With unlimited water rinses, eventually you get the soap out. We don't have unlimited sparges.

 

My guess is that the bigger the batch, the more sugars there are per volume, and the more gets left over since you only have so much diluting power with your sparge since your boil volume is the same for a lower gravity batch and a higher gravity batch.

my experience corroborates this, to help counter it, I sparge more and boil bigger

[SchwanzBrewer]

my experience corroborates this, to help counter it, I sparge more and boil bigger

 

Yeah, Kai's graph only holds if you are aiming for the same boil volume each time. So each sparge would be less volume as well as less sugar. If you ran three equal volume and increased your boil volume and boil time then you would get higher extract, but not necessarily higher brewhouse efficiency.

[Brauer]

BBM, efficiency drops with batch size while batch sparging. Kai did some good research on it. 

 

Never knew that. I rarely make 10gallon/imperial beers. What causes it?

More volume lost to more grain absorption. Which also leads to the rinsing problem that Schwanzbrewer describes.  It is aggravated by the fact that you need to add more malt, to make up for the lower efficiency, leading to more volume lost to absorption and still lower efficiency.

[MyaCullen]

More volume lost to more grain absorption. Which also leads to the rinsing problem that Schwanzbrewer describes.  It is aggravated by the fact that you need to add more malt, to make up for the lower efficiency, leading to more volume lost to absorption and still lower efficiency.

tail chasing 

[codemonkey]

for a grain bill that big 65% isn't as bad

Hell, I'd be ecstatic if I could get 65% on my 20lb, 5 gallon batches.

[Brauer]

for a grain bill that big 65% isn't as bad

 

20# is a lot of grain to leave wort in. Maximum batch sparge efficiency for 20# of grain, assuming complete conversion, 1 pint dead volume, equal runnings and 6.5 gallons preboil, is 72%. So, I agree, 65% doesn't seem too bad. It probably means about 90% conversion.

 

That amount of grain is really undiscovered country for me, where 9# of grain would be an unusually large batch.