Unusually high efficiency

[nobby]

Just done an A/G brew and got an unusually high efficiency. Got an brew house efficiency of 85% I usually get 75%. Got all my grain (maris otter) fresh this week from Leyland Home Brew. I double checked the weight. Worked out the efficiency with my own program and Grahams Beer Engine, got the same answer.

The only thing I did different was instead of using DLS as per Brupack web site I used Gypsum and Calcium Sulphate as per Grahams Water treatment calculator. I cant imagine that made that much diffrence

[mysterio]

Gypsum is calcium sulphate

The calcium could well have made a difference. It is beneficial to virtually every step in the brewing process. I'm not a scientist so I won't try and explain why, read this instead: http://www.murphyandson.co.uk/BrewingAr ... tm#calcium

I personally noted higher efficiency (by a significant amount) when I started adjusting mash PH.

Do you usually get your malt from Leyland? Could it be that they crush the malt finer than your previous supplier?

Did you switch to a different sparging method, or sparging slower?

Where you using a different calculator for efficiency in your previous batches of beer?

[nobby]

its was Calcium chloride not Sulphate

Have been adjusting my water for a while. Have been using Brupak DLS and sometime PH5.2 as well. Sparging just as always.

I thing the Malt might be ground finer. There was a lot of white particals in the Gist that looked like quite fine.

I used 4.5 Kgs of Marris Otter and 0.25 Kgs of Crystal with a finished volume of 26 Ltrs with a finished Gravity of 1046

[Anavrin]

Addmittedly I have only just done my first AG brew, I also got my crushed malt from Leyland Homebrew and although im not realy being scientific I was verry supprised just how high the start gravity was even using slightly less grain than the recipie suggested, I think the grain from Leyland is very fresh, they have a high turnover of malt and its crushed to order, maybe this is the reason!

[mysterio]

Sounds like a finer grind that caused it then. Probably best to find a source of malt that you like and stick with it, so you help eliminate that variable

[Anavrin]

I found out why I had such a high SG, It was not a super fresh malt or a super efficiant mash, it was simply me being careless, I assumed I had a 25 lilre frementer that turned out to ba 23 Litres, I was using too much malt.

We live and learn

[trucker5774]

As a point of interest, I popped into Leyland and bought 25 KG of Maris Otter. It was fresh in that morning (about 10 days ago)

[trucker5774]

Further to the supply of MO from Leyland. I have now done 2 brews from the same batch of grain. Both have been exactly 85% efficiency! I have never used barley from anywhere else, so don't know if it would drop. As I said, this was fresh in that morning

[RabMaxwell]

Well last week i got 96.2% efficiency today i got 93.9% i have readjusted my recipes for 90 % so as they are not out of balance. My new hop strainer worked very efficiently again not much wort left in the bottom.

[trucker5774]

Well last week i got 96.2% efficiency today i got 93.9% i have readjusted my recipes for 90 % so as they are not out of balance. My new hop strainer worked very efficiently again not much wort left in the bottom.

Hi Rab, is that a frying pan spatter guard I see there? Do you have any more pics of how it is fitted. I tried one, but it was 2cm bigger than the bottom of my boiler.

[RabMaxwell]

Hello trucker it's a type of hop stopper it's basically 2 stainless sheaths attached to a 15mil copper manifold .I was getting slow runoffs as the hops were compacting so tight around the 15mil sheathed manifold.It's now working great since i added 2 pieces of 22mil copper pipe over the 15mil pipe.

( Old design that would give some problems )

( New design work's a treat )

[trucker5774]

Thanks Rab. The first pic threw me a bit. It looked like an old design of mine, but it was just the corner of the boiler creating an illusion. I now have a very similar design to yours. That's quite a collection of pics you have.......sorry I couldn't find the the one I asked for. Thanks again!