Do I need to alter anything to get better efficiency

[DRB]

My method.
If I type in say 2600g of grain into beer tools pro it says I should have a og of 1043 for a final volume of 12 lt @ 65% efficiency which I get bang on,is there anything I change in my technique so I can up my efficiency.

Add 2.5lt of water per kg to mash.
Mash for 90 min.
Sparge till I have 16lt,keeping water levell just above the grain when sparging.
boil 90 min.
Cool &transfer to fermenter add water to to reach final volume.

My system losses
Boil 16lt 90 min left with 10.5lt ,run off to fermenter left with 8.5 litres,add the required water to top up to 12lts,are these losses bigger than normal.

[Andy]

Any losses due to deadspace etc in your kit will hit your efficiency more with your smaller batch size as the losses make up a higher %age of the final volume (than they would with say a 25L batch).

However...

You say "sparge until I have 16L" and then you top up the fermenter with water to get the target volume. If you can collect more than 16L, ensuring that the SG of the final runnings don't go below 1006 then you can use the extra wort to top up the boiler and thus reduce the amount of water you have to add later. This will increase your efficiency.

[Scooby]

I agree with all the the points made, but feel your boil is to fast DRB, you are losing 23% to evaporation, and as DaaB said possibly losing sugar. IMO 10-15% is normal with a rolling boil, this would leave you with 12.5-13.5l

Can you slow the boil down some how? perhaps add small quantities of cold water during the boil?

Do you sparge the hops? Try carefully adding a kettle full of boiling water when you have about 1/3 of the wort left to run off, this will dilute the sugar and therfore leave less in the hops.

[DRB]

On calculating just my mash efficiency I get about 90% efficiency on 16lt would that be reasonable?.As for adding a kettle of boiling water,I tried that yesterday but to not much effect,so the only reason that it could be then is as you say,as i'm only boiling 16lt rather than the average of about 30lt my boil is more fierce resulting in more loss to evaporation,and i'll have to check my ph.

[Scooby]

Math correct DaaB, my %age figures are per hour of boil.

The power controller would do the trick DRB

[SteveD]

setting up your sparge arm after you have run off the bitter wort to gently sparge the hops (tip courtesey of Rab Maxwell).

Ohhhh....Bum! How bleedin' obvious is that!!! For years I'm sparging hops by pouring a kettle of water over them, via my slotted mash stirring spoon in an attempt to not flush through trub, when, sitting there redundant after sparging my mash beautifully is a Phil's rotating sparge arm! What a TWAT I am!!!



Steve