What's your setup and your efficiency?

[Ozwald]

That's the idea. Your current process would explain lower numbers; that 170 water you're adding *might* be getting you up to 160. You've got plenty of wiggle room on that temp. One of the reasons is that you need to keep the sugars in the water & that means keeping them soluble. Running it off cold will lock some of those sugars in the grain & you're just throwing them away. A mashout isn't critical, but I highly recommend it, even if that means you run your first rest a little on the thick side to leave enough room in the MLT for the water infusion to bring it up. Calculate your mash out at 165. The other thing that will help you do is have less variance when you add the hotter sparge water. You'll already be closer to your 168-170 so you won't need as hot of water to run it out, therefore it'll be much more stable. You don't have to be sitting right on 170, 168-170 is a good range to stay in.

[siwelwerd]

I didn't realize the temperatures of the water were that important for efficiency. I always thought you just raised the water temperature to stop the conversion.

It's also a solubility thing--the sugars dissolve more readily in hotter water (go squirt some syrup on both hands, try and clean the left hand with cold water, and the right one with hot water), so you can rinse them out of the grain more effectively with hotter water.

[Beerd Man]

Just wanted to give an update. I brewed a kolsch last night and achieved 74% efficiency! I didn't realize adding boiling water to a 149*F mash would take quite a few gallons to increase the temperature to 170, so I didn't quite have the hot water reserve I needed to get it up to that temperature, but it was in the high 160s. I can't wait to brew again and see how much higher I can increase my sugar yield. Thank you all for your help!

Also as a funny side note, I started listening to the session from the beginning earlier this month instead of going backwards, and in the third episode they have a short conversation about how lower temps decrease efficiency. I should've started listening from the beginning in the first place and I probably would've figured it out!

[BDawg]

The early shows are chock full of great info. Once JZ starts coming regularly, look out.

And, you'll get to find out about Augustina Barruna!

[Ozwald]

The early shows are chock full of great info. Once JZ starts coming regularly, look out.

And, you'll get to find out about Augustina Barruna!

[spiderwrangler]

Once JZ starts coming regularly, look out.

DUCK!!!

[BDawg]

Who's crushing your grain?

[santamarina]

I use a two vessel/tier system - MLT and BK. I do a traditional mash in my 10g Igloo cooler with false bottom, then continuously recirculate (using a pump) with the full volume of liquor, Brutus 2.0-style, until I hit my numbers. 70+% efficiency is standard for me. I don't mash out, and after reading this thread I'm going to try it on my next brew and see if I can't bump it up to 75%!

Thanks for the tips!