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MAJOR ISSUE with my efficiency!!! PLEASE HELP.

buster bunting

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Hello,

I'm having an issue which is really doing my head in. I'm at breaking point.
My post boil SG is always 10points south of where it should be and I can't solve the problem.

Today I brewed 25L(into fermentor) batch. eff set at 68%

8.1kg malt mashed with 23L 67C water for 1hour. Mash pH was 5.2
10L near boiling water to lift to 74C.

I recirculated then ran to boil whilst fly sparging. Running to kettle took 1 hour.
15L of sparge water was used, 39L wort pre-boil at 1.050 (same as BS calculation) was collected, with and 3.5L left in the mash tun with an SG of 1.020 and pH 5.5.

I boiled for an hour and made hop additions throughout.
Whirlpooled and ran to my fermentor collecting a total of 25L with 5L trub and hop left in kettle (as expected. This volume has been entered into equipment set up also).
Boil off volume is set to 8L and shrinkage at 4% which is what must have happened as the fermentor volume is correct.

BUT post boil gravity is 1.055!!
Beersmith said it should be 1.066.
Its suggesting over an 8L boil off it should go from 1.050 to 1.066.....15 points!?!?!?!?
I'm 10 short!!

PLEASE HELP!
would be happy to upload BS recipe but unsure how.

PLEASE HELP

NEWBIE
 
Check your crush, the few times my efficiency was less than what I anticipated was generally when my mill gap had gone out of adjustment.
 
Greetings buster,

Without seeing your full and complete recipe, it sounds to me by your description that your Efficiency percentage is off in your Equipment Profile.  The issue may be related to the crush as BlueWig suggested.  But my guess is that your equipment profile needs to be tweeked a bit.

I had to lower my Efficiancy Persentage down to 67.8 in order for my numbers to match (I know that persentage really sucks, but I'm at the mercy of my brew shop mill). Since then, I'm spot on every time.  The way I did it was I used the actual efficiency number as determined by my latest brew and changed the efficiency in my equipment profile to match that number.  The result was that I'm actually using a bit more grain per batch, but the numbers are always corrected after I determined what my efficiency persentage actually was, I never had to change it again.

Hope this helps!

Good luck!
 
Two good recommendations above.  Generally, if you have worked your equipment file to fit your process, as KellerBrauer suggests, then a sudden change in the efficiency generally comes down to either crush as BlueWingPig suggested or, since you are doing a fly sparge, channeling of your sparge water through the grains.  You may also have some of both working against you, an incorrect assumption in your equipment file compounding poor crush or drainage.

If you want to upload the recipe with your measurements included for us to try to interpret and examine, you can export the recipe by highlighting the recipe and clicking on 'export selected'.  A window will open up and allow you to name and save the file.  Make sure it is in .bsmx format.  You can then attach the file to a reply to this thread.

 
So you're hitting your pre-boil gravity and volume, but then the post boil gravity is off?  Then it's just a matter of reducing your boil evaporation, correct?
 
buster bunting said:
39L wort pre-boil at 1.050 (same as BS calculation) was collected,
<snip>
Whirlpooled and ran to my fermentor collecting a total of 25L with 5L trub and hop left in kettle (as expected. This volume has been entered into equipment set up also).
<snip>
BUT post boil gravity is 1.055!!
Beersmith said it should be 1.066.

Assuming the volume measurements are correct, and that the preboil gravity is from a well mixed kettle, then the 9 liters of boiloff should indeed leave you with 1.066 OG.

If the fermenter gravity was taken a bit warm, it would read low. If the preboil kettle was not well mixed, it could read high. Check and make sure that the wort is chilled to the same temperature the hydometer is calibrated for.

Otherwise, the differences between those two gravities would mean only four liters of boiloff occurred. 
 
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