keeping the Hops high

[Sadfield]

Yeah that efficiency is worryingly low. At an OG of 1.050 and 3L/Kg I wouldn't any issues from 6kg of grain in a 60 minute mash.

What temperature? how do you sparge? What's your water source and is it filtered?

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[Hopinator]

So I do a 3l per kg of grain
I mash for 60 mins at 62 degrees
I fly sparge over 30 mins
my water source is tap water I add gypsum.

 

[foxbat]

So I do a 3l per kg of grain
I mash for 60 mins at 62 degrees
I fly sparge over 30 mins
my water source is tap water I add gypsum.

Who crushes your grain for you? Did it look well crushed when it came?

 

[Hopinator]

I crush it with a corona mill, It looked as well crushed if not better than the caramalt I had crushed.

I think my system can take a much finer crush than I used though.

 

[GerritT]

I crush it with a corona mill, It looked as well crushed if not better than the caramalt I had crushed.

I think my system can take a much finer crush than I used though.

All grain kernels should be broken up into 3 or 4 pieces, ideally. I use a corona mill (a Victoria) and my efficiency is 75 to 80%. Hardly a kernel should be left whole.
(was that proper english? sounds like proper english)

 

[Simonh82]

If your grain crush is ok then the next place I would look would be loses to dead space along the way. Anything that doesn't end up in your fermentor will hit your efficiency.

I've never fly sparged but I know it can give great efficiency if done right but can also muck up if you get channelling through the grain bed. Maybe try a batch sparge to see if that helps.

 

[Sadfield]

For me the fly sparge time is on the low side, I aim for an hour and get 78% efficiency, often I'm only doing a 11L batch. I'd aim for an hour and see what difference it makes.

 

[Simonh82]

For me the fly sparge time is on the low side, I aim for an hour and get 78% efficiency, often I'm only doing a 11L batch. I'd aim for an hour and see what difference it makes.

Now I know why I've never fly sparged. A 10 minute dunk in a bucket can get me 80% efficiency on smaller grain bills, so I don't know that I would want to spend an hour staring at soggy grain.

 

[Sadfield]

Now I know why I've never fly sparged. A 10 minute dunk in a bucket can get me 80% efficiency on smaller grain bills, so I don't know that I would want to spend an hour staring at soggy grain.

All depends on your system. I find fly sparging produces significantly clearer wort, which is more important to me than a couple of points efficiency or 50 minutes extra doing something else whilst I sparge.

Not sure how I get 78% when most brewers always appear to achieve figures in nice round multiples of 10. Must be doing something wrong. ;-)

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[Hopinator]

all really good advice, as my fly sparge is done via a pump ill close the taps more and slow it right down.

I have very little dead space although the hops in a nylon bag soak alot of wort up.

 

[Hopinator]

I will say my wort is crystal clear since moving to recirculating the mash and fly sparging