David Woods
Well-Known Member
I am making mostly 4.5 - 5% IPA's Blonde Ale's and Pilsners which I make from either all grain kits or AG recipes and are generally around 5 - 6kg of grains. I mash in a 30L Brew Monk with 18L water - there is about a 4.5l dead space and I sparge up to 28L. I usually end up with 24L after boil
I am very careful with temp control and mash for 1 hour+ and same for boil. I check conversion with iodene and all seems good.
However I never seem to hit the expected SG - the last brew for example should have been 1.052 but was 1.044. I also used an efficiency calculator (Brewers Friend) which was telling me my efficiency was around 65%.
I get my grains crushed from Malt Miller so assume there would be no issue there so how can I improve this and should I bother - I don't care if the ABV is a bit lower than expected but if there are some things I can do it would be good - would improved efficiency improve flavour? I was wondering if a full volume mash would improve things or not.
Any advice welcome
Thanks
I am very careful with temp control and mash for 1 hour+ and same for boil. I check conversion with iodene and all seems good.
However I never seem to hit the expected SG - the last brew for example should have been 1.052 but was 1.044. I also used an efficiency calculator (Brewers Friend) which was telling me my efficiency was around 65%.
I get my grains crushed from Malt Miller so assume there would be no issue there so how can I improve this and should I bother - I don't care if the ABV is a bit lower than expected but if there are some things I can do it would be good - would improved efficiency improve flavour? I was wondering if a full volume mash would improve things or not.
Any advice welcome
Thanks