[ndcube]

I heard that if you can hold more than 12 gallons over your head then your efficiency goes up.

[MDixon]

You need to take a look at Kai Troester's groundbreaking work on "cold sparging".  He basically found that a lower sparge temp doesn't bot affect efficiency.

A retired homebrewer I know had the idea that if one mashed out and then sparged they could use water from their hot water heater. Of course that would certainly increase the viscosity somewhat being 135F or so as opposed to 170F. I long dreamed of using an instant hot water heater for the sparge, but the temps out of range. Since I now have one at home I may have to jack up the temp on that puppy to 140F and give it a whirl. If nothing else I might devise a method to fill the sparge kettle with 140F water. Going from 140F to 170F is a snap!

[brewsumore]

I personally prefer to heat cold (filtered) tap water to ensure getting water that I want to drink when it's been turned into beer - I don't like the idea of drinking hot water out of the water heater.

[MDixon]

I personally prefer to heat cold (filtered) tap water to ensure getting water that I want to drink when it's been turned into beer - I don't like the idea of drinking hot water out of the water heater.

Instant hot water heater. Basically a ring heats the water as it flows. It's not like a tank of water waiting to be used.

[dbeechum]

Even though it doesn't really apply to the home units - I know the Bruery uses a set of chained instant heaters to create all of its strike and sparge water. Pretty slick actually.

[MDixon]

In the "made you look" category, I checked and my unit can be outfitted for commercial use to go to 185F. Of course it has some kind of limit for home use which caused it to top out at 140F.

[dbeechum]

In the "made you look" category, I checked and my unit can be outfitted for commercial use to go to 185F. Of course it has some kind of limit for home use which caused it to top out at 140F.

Sounds like its time to attack with a screwdriver!

[bo_gator]

Wednesday I brewed a 12 gallon batch of a Vienna Lager I brewed late last year which scored very well. I sparged for 85-90 minutes and my pre-boil gravity was 11 points higher than BeerSmith predicted, and my post boil OG was right at 10 points high. Long story short my efficiency going into the kettle was 85%, and I didn't run the numbers,but assume it was about the same going into the fermenter. I guess next time I brew I'll have sparge a bit faster to get my efficiency back down to the low to mid 70s.    

[Kaiser]

I guess next time I brew I'll have sparge a bit faster to get my efficiency back down to the low to mid 70s.   

This is another invalid conclusion from the infamous “70% is always good rule”. What is happening when you sparge fact is that your grain bed develops channels. The sparge water will prefer theses areas and can oversparge them. This means you extract excessive tannins in these regions while other regions are still full with sugar. As a result you may actually end up with more tannins in the 70% beer than you have in the 80% beer done with slow lautering.

If you want to bring down your efficiency by reducing the efficiency I suggest using more strike and less sparge water. That limits the amount of sparging you can do. Alternatively you can also stop the slow sparge once you have your 70 % in the kettle and top off with water.

Or, of the beer is excellent at your 80% just accept the fact that you are getting 80%.

Kai

[Thirsty_Monk]

I would agree that 80% is very nice efficiency.
Adjust your grain bill that you will hit your OG with that efficiency.

[beersk]

I would agree that 80% is very nice efficiency.
Adjust your grain bill that you will hit your OG with that efficiency.

Yeah no kidding...must be a nice "problem" to have 

[bo_gator]

Or, of the beer is excellent at your 80% just accept the fact that you are getting 80%.

Kai

This probably what I am going to do once I get a taste of the 80% beers.