Brewday 6th June - BSB

[SteveD]

I understand now Mate.

I'd have thought that the way forward would be to extract a good quality strong wort stopping gravity at 1.015-1.020 then top up before boiling. Wouldn't this give a better quality of wort than looking to mash inefficiently?
/Phil.

Yes, you're right...I refer you to my earlier 'bollocks' statement. I don't think there can be a way to do what I want, so....extract strong, stop short and top up.

Someone gave a presentation at our last club meeting, last week, and explained how, by improving mash technique, you could improve your efficiency. Therefore, I would have thought, to mash inefficiently involves using a poor technique. I just wish I could remember the guy's name....
/Phil.

Shaddup! Good technique means you can under-extract and still get the good stuff. Mash well, extract poorly. Bad technique means you get mostly water, flogging the mash but still leaving a lot of the good stuff behind.

It's an idea that's still not clear in my head - maybe because it isn't possible...(ie, bollocks?)

The whole thing about efficiency was once you know how to get god efficiency, you can get what you want from the mash, rather than have to struggle to get everything you can - the good, and the bad, to make up for poor technique.

Andy, you can stop smirking too

[Seveneer]

[monk]

I'm going to have to read through this thread again. I've been playing with the numbers on my batch-sparges and trying to get them nailed down. It's hard on the noggin though! I've decided to start sparging less, also, and boiling down to about 4 gallons, then topping up. The trick is, I then must have some forethought, including enough hops so that with the dilution of gravity, my IBUs are in the right place too. Ah. It's getting confusing again.

monk