So I was trying to make an imperial stout the other day and only got somewhere inbetween 50-55% effeciency. I have been pretty consistent with 70-80% effeciency for sometime now, so I am a little confused what I did wrong.
Here is some stats on the day.
Grain Bill:
15 pounds two row
.5 roasted barley
.5 chocolate
.5 pounds english black malt
.5 pounds english medium crystal
Mashed in with 8 Gallons of water at 152 F
90 minute mash time. It was very cold outside so my mash temperature did drop about 10 degrees over the 90 minutes. I did not open up the mash to stir because I didn't want to let any heat out (I usually don't stir anyway though).
Looking for an OG of about 1.080 for 5 gallons. I ended up with a post boil OG of about 1.052 with about 6 gallons of wort. I often look to overshoot my water if anything because I normally would rather have a lower OG and more wort if my calculations end up being wrong (which they are a lot these days, I think just because I don't have as much time to practice as I used to).
Anyway even with the extra gallon of wort the OG indicated a much lower than usual effeciency, any thoughts? Does this just happen to all-grainers sometimes?
I thought that maybe the guy at the brew store forgot to put some of the malt in the bag I ordered, but it sure felt like 15 pounds.
One more thought my burner was having a hard time fighting the cold and the boil never got very vigorous.
Post #2 made 12 years ago
I confirmed your numbers using the BIABacus, it's showing a 51.6% efficiency into fermentor. 
Something is off.
Something is off.
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Post #3 made 12 years ago
JRodie, was the Kettle Insulated?? What was the out side Tempature?
The sides of the Kettle could have been MUCH cooler than the Interior, and as soon as the Mash reaches 140F, It Will Stop.
It can be restarted by heating the mash.
BTDT....Opps. I Did it Again.....I left it out OverNight. (The Overnight Mash Experiment)
The sides of the Kettle could have been MUCH cooler than the Interior, and as soon as the Mash reaches 140F, It Will Stop.
It can be restarted by heating the mash.
BTDT....Opps. I Did it Again.....I left it out OverNight. (The Overnight Mash Experiment)
Honest Officer, I swear to Drunk, I am Not God.
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Post #4 made 12 years ago
I think I measured the interior to be right at 140 degrees at the end of the mash. The pot was covered with a below zero mummy bag, that usually does just fine. Maybe it just dropped to 140 degrees pretty quickly and then just stayed there?
Post #5 made 12 years ago
JR, that happened to me, I thought a 12hour mash would be a good Experiment, But, My mash cooled to 130F.
The OG, was near 1.020 by my records, and when I Re-Mashed, it inceased to 1.052, as planned.
Now, with my PID controller, my 8 hour Mash works Fine, Of Course, 300 to 350 minutes is all I need to mash, to get what we call %100 Efficiency.
The OG, was near 1.020 by my records, and when I Re-Mashed, it inceased to 1.052, as planned.
Now, with my PID controller, my 8 hour Mash works Fine, Of Course, 300 to 350 minutes is all I need to mash, to get what we call %100 Efficiency.
Honest Officer, I swear to Drunk, I am Not God.
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Post #6 made 12 years ago
Hey mate 
I have taken another look into your high gravity / low efficiency brew day.
I was curious what my efficiency was for a high gravity brew I made 2 years ago, so I plugged my numbers into the BIABacus. I used 18 pounds of grain and came up with a 1.077 OG. Let me explain ...
Playing 20 questions, I first entered a 1.077 as the OG in Section C and 18 pounds of grain, I found that a 66.8% manual efficiency gave me 18 pounds of grain in the 'what you will use' portion of the grain bill in Section C. I used Section V and the 'Unit Conversion' tab to help me re-construct my volumes and plugged them into Section L. The BIABacus showed my actual efficiency of ambient wort (EAW) was 70.8%. Think that's right.
See screen shot below.
Removed manual efficiency
After I removed the 66.8% figure in Section X, the grain bill jumped down to 16.43 pounds, but since I used 18 pounds, I found that a (minus 7%) 'adjust auto kettle efficiency' put the grain bill back to 18 pounds.
Suspected issues for you mate
1) Higher gravity brews get lower efficiency
2) BIABacus auto-efficiency may be off on big gravity brews
3) Guessing at an efficiency percentage (guess too high you will use less grain than needed)
4) Cold mash at 140 F
Whatever the case jrodie, let's learn from our big gravity brews, take lots of notes and brew the same brew several more times to come up with good actual numbers. We can't learn anything from a single brew.
About your boil vigour, this won't have anything to do with it as once the sugar is in the boil at the beginning it can't be increased or decreased.
Hope this helps.
MS
I have taken another look into your high gravity / low efficiency brew day.
I was curious what my efficiency was for a high gravity brew I made 2 years ago, so I plugged my numbers into the BIABacus. I used 18 pounds of grain and came up with a 1.077 OG. Let me explain ...
Playing 20 questions, I first entered a 1.077 as the OG in Section C and 18 pounds of grain, I found that a 66.8% manual efficiency gave me 18 pounds of grain in the 'what you will use' portion of the grain bill in Section C. I used Section V and the 'Unit Conversion' tab to help me re-construct my volumes and plugged them into Section L. The BIABacus showed my actual efficiency of ambient wort (EAW) was 70.8%. Think that's right.
See screen shot below.Removed manual efficiency
After I removed the 66.8% figure in Section X, the grain bill jumped down to 16.43 pounds, but since I used 18 pounds, I found that a (minus 7%) 'adjust auto kettle efficiency' put the grain bill back to 18 pounds.
Suspected issues for you mate
1) Higher gravity brews get lower efficiency
2) BIABacus auto-efficiency may be off on big gravity brews
3) Guessing at an efficiency percentage (guess too high you will use less grain than needed)
4) Cold mash at 140 F
Whatever the case jrodie, let's learn from our big gravity brews, take lots of notes and brew the same brew several more times to come up with good actual numbers. We can't learn anything from a single brew.
About your boil vigour, this won't have anything to do with it as once the sugar is in the boil at the beginning it can't be increased or decreased.
Hope this helps.
MS
Last edited by Mad_Scientist on 05 Dec 2013, 06:57, edited 2 times in total.
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Post #7 made 12 years ago
jrodie, I know you haven't seen MS's post above as yet but I think it is spot on.
I think that MS assumed that you were using the BIABacus but...
. This would have definitely have let you down. Why?
Because...
The only place you will learn about this side of brewing is on this site. Even before learning that higher gravity beers get lower efficiency than low gravity beers, you have to learn about the different types of efficiencies, the main ones being kettle and fermentor efficiencies which are completely different.
MS and/or a few others will be able to answer any questions you have but be prepared to do some reading as these areas are not covered anywhere else.
PP
P.S. Impressed that you remembered that, "BIABacus auto-efficiency may be off on big gravity brews." I'm about to write something on that in the advanced questions thread after this post so keep your eye out there. (jrodie - don't you keep your eye on it - you concentrate on this thread ).
I think that MS assumed that you were using the BIABacus but...
and a look through your past posts makes me think that you, like a lot of brewers, are using some commercial software or other software you stumbled upon on the net and reading too much on other forumsjrodie wrote:So I was trying to make an imperial stout the other day and only got somewhere inbetween 50-55% effeciency. I have been pretty consistent with 70-80% effeciency for sometime now...
. This would have definitely have let you down. Why?Because...
If you intend to brew beers that vary widely in their original gravities, then you are going to have to start using the BIABacus because all other software assumes that you will brew the same gravity beer time and again.Mad_Scientist wrote:Higher gravity brews get lower efficiency.
The only place you will learn about this side of brewing is on this site. Even before learning that higher gravity beers get lower efficiency than low gravity beers, you have to learn about the different types of efficiencies, the main ones being kettle and fermentor efficiencies which are completely different.
MS and/or a few others will be able to answer any questions you have but be prepared to do some reading as these areas are not covered anywhere else.
PP
P.S. Impressed that you remembered that, "BIABacus auto-efficiency may be off on big gravity brews." I'm about to write something on that in the advanced questions thread after this post so keep your eye out there
. (jrodie - don't you keep your eye on it - you concentrate on this thread ).
Last edited by PistolPatch on 05 Dec 2013, 19:14, edited 2 times in total.
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