All grain brewers can be obsessive about the efficiency of their brewing system. This week we will look at 5 methods you can use to improve your overall brewhouse efficiency.

All grains in a beer recipe have a potential ideal yield, usually expressed as the find grain dry yield or potential. The fine grain dry yield is typically measured in laboratory conditions by powdering the grain and measuring the maximum possible extract. In the real world, only a fraction of the ideal yield is achieved due to mash inefficiencies, sparging limitations, deadspace and trub losses.

The overall percentage of the potential grain sugars absorbed into the finished wort is called the brewhouse efficiency. Achieving higher efficiency on a consistent basis lets you use less grains to achieve a target original gravity.

All grain brewers, particularly those who are inexperienced, often have low efficiency numbers. Lets look at five ways to increase your efficiency number:

1. Improve the Milling of your Grains

The crush of your grains makes a significant difference in the efficiency of your mash and sparge. Grains should be finely crushed, but the milling should leave the hulls largely intact to act as a filter bed. A dual roller mill such as the Barley Crusher is ideal for achieving this. Note that if you crush your grains too finely you will plug up your filter bed resulting in a stuck mash. If you get a stuck mash, your filter bed will clog up and the wort will stop flowing.

2. Mash Out or Sparge with Hot Water

Hot water during the mash out and sparge helps the sticky wort flow more freely. Ideally you would like to raise the mash temperature to about 168F and then use 168F water to sparge. A mash out infusion addition can be used to help raise the temperature of your mash as you sparge.

3. Sparge Slowly

Most beginners attempt to sparge their mash much too fast. Sparging too quickly leaves insufficient time for the hot water to extract the sugars in the grain bed. Limit the flow out of your mash tun to just above a trickle. It should take 30-50 minutes to fully sparge a 5 gallon all grain batch (about 6 gallons of wort).

4. Minimize Losses in your System

Losses anywhere in your brewing system, including deadspace in the mash tun, transfer lines, pumps, and trub at the end of the mash result in lost wort. The lost wort takes sugars with it, reducing your overall brewhouse efficiency. Use a properly sized mash tun, and work to eliminate deadspace in the system.

5. Pick a Properly Designed Mash Tun

The design of your mash tun and false bottom or screen can have a huge effect on the efficiency of the mash process. A round, cylindrical mash tun is generally considered best, as it leaves the depth of the grain bed about equal to its width. This is one reason cylindrical water coolers are popular.

The false bottom ideally will cover the entire bottom of the mash tun but have minimal deadspace underneath it. This will provide an even flow across the entire grain bed giving better efficiency.

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This week we take a look at instructions for all grain beer brewing using a single step infusion mash setup. Infusion mashing with a Gott type cooler, will unleash the full power of all grain brewing while keeping it simple.

Are you an intermediate brewer looking to make the leap to 5 gallon or 10 gallon all grain brewing? Do you want to learn how to brew all grain beer? Dont be afraid of the mashing process. The vast majority of all grain brewers use a one step infusion mash to create outstanding homebrewed beer.

To use a one step infusion mash, you need some basic all grain brewing equipment. This includes a 7-9 gallon brew pot and a 5 gallon or 10 gallon Gott type water cooler with a false bottom. I personally use a Phils false bottom (9 diameter) in my cooler and drain using a hose that runs through the removed tap for the cooler. A properly sized stopper replaces the water tap as shown in the photo.

The infusion mash process is remarkably simple. Crush all of your grains in a mill first. The grain should be finely ground, but the husks of the grain should be relatively intact as the husks act as a filter in the grain bed. Next, heat a pre-measured amount of water, called an infusion, to a target temperature and mix it with the grains. This infusion step (mashing process) breaks down complex sugars in the crushed grain and converts it to simple sugars that can be fermented by yeast.

You can use one of many spreadsheets, online calculators (ex: here) or a brewing program such as BeerSmith to calculate the temperature and amount of infusion water needed for the mash. Make sure you use the correct equipment settings and total grain amount in the calculation. If using BeerSmith, make sure you have your equipment set up to include the water cooler as your mash tun and choose a Single Infusion, Medium Body, No Mash Out as your mash profile. Use a target step temperature of 154F, which is an excellent mid-range temperature for your first infusion mash. For BeerSmith, the Preview Brewsheet button on the toolbar will display step-by-step brewing instructions including the amount of infusion water to add.

Heat the recommended amount of infusion water to the temperature provided by your calculator or brewsheet. Slowly alternate adding water and grain to your mash tun until you have all of the water and grains mixed together. Insert a thermometer so you can track the temperature against your target step temperature. Close the top and let your mash temperature settle for 5-10 minutes.

Slowly mix your mash every 10-15 minutes to keep the temperature even and avoid hotspots. The mash mixture should reach a steady temperature close to 154F. If it is off by a significant amount, you can add a small amount of boiling or cold water to achieve the target temperature. Leave your mash mixture in the cooler for at least 45 minutes to assure that the sugar conversion is complete.

After 45 minutes, sparge the mash with hot water to extract the sweet wort that will be your beer. Sparging is nothing more than rinsing the mash with hot water to extract the sugars and create wort that you will later ferment to make beer.

Heat several gallons of water to 178F and slowly add it to to the top of your mash tun while drawing wort from the bottom of the grain tun using your false bottom and collect it in your boiler. The wort coming from the mash tun will start out cloudy with bits of grain and husks, but will soon run clear. Take the first few quarts of wort from the tun (the first runnings) and add them back to the top of your mash tun.

As you continue to sparge, it is important to keep the flow rate slow to maximize the sugars extracted. Lautering a 5 gallon mash tun should take at least 40-50 minutes to collect 6 gallons of wort. From this point forward, the process used to brew your beer is the same as it was with extract brewing. Add hops, boil the wort for 60-90 minutes, cool it quickly to room temperature and add your yeast to ferment your beer.

Switching to single infusion all grain brewing is a great way to gain more control over your beer, and requires only a little bit of additional equipment (a large cooler, false bottom, and full size brew pot) and time. The single infusion mash provides a great starting point for those transitioning to all grain. Take the leap, and enjoy brewing your first all grain today!

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How soon is too soon to make the jump from extract to all-grain brewing?
This is my checklist for this you should be comfortable with before making the big move.

• Full wort boils
• Capability to chill that wort using a chiller of some sort
• Handle some basic math for calculating mash-in volumes, wort dilution, and concentration to hit final gravities and mash efficiency
• Confidence in your sanitation practices
• You can afford the addictive nature of adding more toys to your brewhouse as you get more and more involved in the all-grain process (like larger kettle and propane burners)
• Youve readsome of the popular textsand websites about sparging and mashing and have a good mental picture of how the process is going to go.

Moving up to a few mini/partial mash batches is a helpful way to get a good idea of what the issues are with trying to mash-in, hit strike temps, and sparge. If youve mastered those things and feel pretty confident in your skills, then moving to all-grain should be an easy transition. Always remember that brewing all-grain is just making really fresh diluted wort extract, but you have much more control over the final product.

BREW ON!

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