OK, I need everybody's two cents here. I brewed a single hopped Citra pale ale that I created the recipe for. Since I've been brewing all grain since June 2012, I've consistently hit 70% efficiency with my mash to within +/- .002 for my OG. My last brew before this one was a Red IPA with a target OG of 1.070, but I hit 1.078. I wrote this off to the increased sparge water temp. I had been sparging with 170ish degree water and upped it to 185 because of some advice from the forum. So yesterday, I decided to brew the Citra pale ale with the recipe derived from 70% efficiency and use the 185 sparge water...Just to see if this becomes a trend before I switch up my recipe calculations. I also decided to not use the pH stabilizer that I have always used per advice from Denny. The brew went very well....until I took my OG reading and found that I over shot my 1.057 target OG and hit 1.077! So, I want to see what everybody has to say about this. Say I increase my gravity by .005 to .007 by using the higher temp sparge water. Could I have increased the efficiency that much more by dropping the pH stabilizer?
I used the same grain mill and settings that I've used since October.
11 lb Two Row
.75 lb 40L Caramel
.5 lb 60L Caramel
60 minute mash @ 150 degrees in a blue cooler
I mashed with 5.5 gallons and batch sparged with 3.5 gallons
Not that overshooting this is a terrible thing if it happens all the time and becomes consistant. This has just never happened before. Needless to say, this is no longer a Citra APA. It is now a Citra IPA. I used 2 oz of Citra in the boil and planned to dry hop with a 1/2 ounce....Well, we're just gonna have to up that dry hop addition to 3 ounces!