I am brewing today and I have read quite a bit about grain ratio, shule it be 1.33/lb or 1.75/lb.
I am looking for a better efficiency, last brew was low and I had the ratio at 1/25/lb so I think that will be the first thing I adjust. I use Denny’s cooler system except I have a 32qt cooler vs 48. I have roughly 11 lbs of grain.
Any suggestions would be great, also I was checking efficiency after the boil should I check as it comes out of the cooler first running second and than combined. Just curious I read John Palmers book but had to return to library so I can not refrece it.
You can go to 2qt/lb. A thinner mash generally converts more completely which will help your efficiency.
For 11lb grain you’d use 22qt=5.5gal, you’ll drain off about 4gal of wort, then sparge with 2.5-3gal to get a preboil volume of 6.5-7gal. That’ll boil down to 5.5-6gal, you’ll get a good 5-5.5gal of finished wort.
What was your efficiency on the last brew?
I would look elsewhere for increasing mash efficiency. Try a finer milling of the grain. Get some pH strips to check your mash.
[quote=“TG”]What was your efficiency on the last brew?
I would look elsewhere for increasing mash efficiency. Try a finer milling of the grain. Get some pH strips to check your mash.[/quote]
I agree with all of these. Although a thinner ratio might increase your efficiency a bit, the things listed above are the biggest factors…especially the crush.
Ok I went with a 1.79/lb grist which had me using about 4.9 gal of strike and for simplicity reasons I rounded up to five, it is saying .95 gal for a Mash out whic with absorbstion and mash tun loss I should get 3.5 gal per run, I read that it was important to have equal running not sure why but I accept that as fact.
If any of this sounds way off let me know, I just mashed in, had my wife run to HB store for ph paper and iodine…
[quote=“Jon462”]Ok I went with a 1.79/lb grist which had me using about 4.9 gal of strike and for simplicity reasons I rounded up to five, it is saying .95 gal for a Mash out whic with absorbstion and mash tun loss I should get 3.5 gal per run, I read that it was important to have equal running not sure why but I accept that as fact.
If any of this sounds way off let me know, I just mashed in, had my wife run to HB store for ph paper and iodine…[/quote]
I take the blame for popularizing the equal runnings thing. Since I first wrote about it, I’ve found that it’s not nearly as important as I once thought. For the small amount you added to equalize runnings, I would have just added that amount to the sparge. even a 70/30 split won’t have much effect on efficiency.
on the pH papers…unless they’re the ColorpHast brand, skip them. Most other papers aren’t accurate.
Well all went well the 50/50 run is good info cause it is a waste of time, I figured about a 70 percent effciency, it was a honey and the SG was 1.053 when I put it in carboy, so I am pretty happy, I wrapped the cooler in a sleeping bag and only lost one degree prior I lost 4 so it seems I either getting better or i Figured something out. Wife nevermade it back ended up having a few beers at HMB brewery and well forgot everything she was suppose to get at least she got me a Growler of the IPA.
Heres to all Home BRewers and a full day of brewing was fun and MY three year old help me aireate
I had one major mistake, I was putting the specialty grains for the xtract in a grain bag. I tried to b smart and do it over the sink, I slipped and dumped half the grains down the drain. Major bummer, Had to run to HBS to get somemore lickily it is only 15 min away.
