Tag Archives: lauter tun

Improving Efficiency

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My last post alluded to some efficiency problems I’ve been experiencing recently — while I had originally been hitting efficiencies around 75%, the last several batches were down closer to 60%, which resulted in disappointing starting gravities. I got some good feedback, and reverted to some of my old ways, including a pseudo fly-sparge method where I keep the mash covered in water during the sparge by adding water intermittently.

The biggest change that I made was to lauter very very slowly. Painfully slowly. It took close to an hour to lauter runnings for a 9.5lb batch of grains, which is more than double the time I had taken before. While it was somewhat boring, it gave me time to putter around and do some other prep and cleanup.

The result? 93% efficiency from the mash. I was very pleased. Knowing that a slow, really slow lauter and sparge is key to good efficiency should help some of my bigger beers coming up. I’m looking forward to a repeat performance.

To strain the mash or use a lauter tun

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I brewed my first all grain batch of beer yesterday, and I know that next time I will significantly change one part of my process.

This past batch, I used a strainer system to separate the grains from the sweet wort after mashing was complete. Not only was this a royal pain, but it smacked of inefficiency, and I was left feeling like I hadn’t gotten as much out of the grains as I could have, even after relentless sparging of each successive strainer full of wort. [Edit: I did hit my target gravity, but it just didn't feel right]

I know from my reading that the grains form a natural filter if left to settle on their own, so why mess with that? Next time I will employ a lauter tun system, likely by sacrificing one of my plastic buckets to drill full of holes to create a false bottom for one of my spigot-fitted buckets. Finally, a real use for the 3 extra buckets sitting on my porch!

Mash it up