Grain Efficiency Help

I apologize for this novel of a post, but I gave as many details as I could think of. I brewed for the first time in a while, but actually felt good about this one. I was efficient with my time (but never rushed anything), and didn't run into a single problem the entire day...except my grain efficiency. The recipe was a Belgian Wit I got from the latest Beer Magazine:

Ingredients:
5 lbs Belgian 2-Row
5 lbs Wheat (didn’t specify what type, I just used White Wheat)
.25 lbs Rice Hull
1 oz East Kent Golding (60 min)
.75 oz crushed coriander seed (5 min)
.75 oz orange peel – bitter (5 min)
White Labs Belgian Wit Ale

I used pH 5.2 Stabilizer in both my strike and sparge water, but did not have any test strips to check it after adding. The write up of the beer said the OG should be 1.042, but Beersmith showed 1.053 (I adjusted for all different types of wheat but it never dropped close to 1.042).

Mash:
- 10 gallon Igloo-style drink cooler (cylindrical)
- 12” False bottom (from AHB)

Heated 3.33 gallons of water to 175F, added pH Stabilizer and dumped into the cooler. Slowly added the grains, ensuring to stir and break up in clumps. After leaving the probe thermometer standing vertically in the center of the grain bed, I put the lid on and let it sit for a sec to get an accurate temperature read. Came out kind of high (I believe in the low 160s), so I stirred the mash a little more and tried again. This time it hit right at 155F. Slowly crept up to 157-158, so I stirred again at the 40min mark. Temp remained the same, and I stirred a final time at 28min.

Sparge:
- 5 gallon Igloo-style drink cooler (cylindrical)
-Phil’s 10” Sparger (Listermann)

Heated 5.13 gallons of water to 173F, added pH Stabilizer and dumped into the cooler. Took the top off the MLT, attached the sparger and ran the hose up to the spigot of the 5 gallon liquor tun (cooler). Opened the MLT spigot and recirculated the first pint or so, let the rest flow into the boil pot while I let the sparge water slowly flow and the sparger spun as it should. 50 minutes later I had ~6.4 gallons to start the boil with. I stirred this slightly and took a little bit for a hydrometer reading. At 122F it was showing 1.020, which equates to about 1.031 adjusted to 60F. Beersmith estimated this should have been 1.046 going into the boil.

Boil:
-7.5 gallon SS pot

Got a good rolling boil right at 211F and added all additions at the appropriate times. After a 60 min boil I dropped the remaining 5-5.25 gallons of wort down to 80F and took another hydrometer reading: 1.040 (adjusted for temp it’s 1.042). This means my efficiency was only 55% (although I hit the OG dead on for what the magazine said it should be).

Does anybody have any thoughts or suggestions on my grain efficiency? Was the mash and/or sparge temp too high? That’s the only thing I could think of that may have compromised my efficiency (assuming I added the pH Stabilizer correctly and it did what it was intended to do). If I’ve left any pertinent details out (and I tried to be as thorough as possible), let me know and I’ll fill in any blanks that may help.

Thanks for the detail, it does help, but we could use more.

OG 1.031 but what was the OG Volume.  Accurate volume is important to accurate efficiency.

The Crush.  Most (not all) efficiency problems are due to a poor crush.

The high mash temps may result in a higher FG but should not result in decreased efficiency.

Fred

Thanks Fred.

The OG Volume (going into the boil) was ~6.4 gallons (1.031 OG), which Beersmith showed it should have been 6.41 gallons going into the boil.  There was very little liquid remaining in the MLT; maybe a pint or two worth.  I'm not sure if that fully answers your question, please advise if not.

I've always ordered my ingredients from Austin Homebrew and had them crush the grains for me.  While the thought of a bad crush crossed my mind a few brews back, I guess I talked myself out of this theory since a) many people use AHB and I have never heard them complain about a poor crush, and b) I probably wouldn't know what a bad crush was just from looking at it.  While this is not the most logical or rational thinking, my initial reaction is to look at something I'm doing as the source of the problem.  I've also been having efficiency problems ever since my second AG (I've brewed about 5 since then).  I've just recently (i.e. today, after being frustrated with my continued efficiency problem) began looking at different mills and forum posts about each as I'm sure I'll be investing in one soon.

Travis

It certainly sounds like you covered everything.

By crushing your grain yourself you will get a consistent crush.  I use the Barley Crusher with the large hopper.

In general homebrew shops don't crush as fine as what you would like them to.  This ensures a runoff that won't become stuck.  A finer crush is not generally a problem.

Fred

From everything I've seen, the Barley Crusher is the way to go.  As a man, there's a driving force in me to splurge the extra $24 for more than double the hopper size, but the frugalness in me has made me rethink the necessity.  More than likely I'll be going for the 15 lb hopper, but I'll research this a little more before pulling the trigger.

Thanks again, Fred.

Travis

What is your normal EE% or what size drop in EE% did you suffer here?  Is it a bigger drop than one would expect with 50% wheat?  5# each of pils and wheat on your equipment could surely yield more OG.  Is there a recommended ratio of rice hulls to wheat?  0.25 lbs of rice to 5 lbs wheat seems low at 20:1 wheat.  Did you taste or check the final runnings for sweetness or SG?  If they were still rich tasting, perhaps you left it behind.  I think more rice hulls or a slower sparge may help there. 

I don't know if "low 160s to 157F" would kill a lot of enzymes and hurt the mash EE%, but that seems potentially too hot to me.  Is it possible it was even hotter (in places) before you took a temp?  I was able to duplicate your comments in BSmith fairly well, and the strike water calculation was precise.  Your strike water of 175F was high.  167F would have delivered the 155F mash as desired.  With or without a different crush, perhaps try to hit the mash strike temp next brew, and collect the final runnings for a taste and a hydro test to see how that goes.  And compare all-malt batches to those with 50% wheat, bumping up the rice hulls. 

This may have just been a typical decrease in EE% due to 50% wheat, made worse by too-little rice hulls and a hot start to the mash denaturing some ezymes, esp. the betas. 

Well it's difficult to say what my normal EE% is since the majority of my batches have all been very low in the efficiency department (let's just say the 55% I hit today was an improvement).  I've brewed two hefeweizens in the past which both called for almost 50% German Wheat Malt, which I never used rice hulls for (not intentionally; the use of rice hulls was a last minute discovery before I placed the order for today's ingredients).  The .25 lbs of rice hull was partially derived from what I read on the Austin Homebrew website: "Rice hull usage should not exceed 10% of the grain bill.".  Granted, comprising only 2.4% of my grain bill was probably less than desirable, too.

In regards to the high temp for the strike water, that was a means of compensating for temperature drops I was experiencing when I first started brewing.  Since I've changed several things I obviously didn't need to use this form of compensation, and I ended up coming in too hot on the mash.  Although 157F being "too hot" appears debatable from some of the things I've been reading, however I do understand 153F is still considered ideal.

How long would you recommend a sparge, using a sparger, take?  Listermann, the company I purchased the sparger from, recommends a 30-45 minute sparge to get 5 gallons.  I was thinking 50 minutes for 6.5 gallons was not too bad, but then again I'm the one looking at 55% efficiency level.

Thanks.

Travis