I'm stumpified...

[teutonic terror]

Afternoon BORG ,
back for my quarterly visit and to ask more than enough questions...

I brew in spells...when time and/or money allows.
I've brewed three times since the first week of May, last time before that Jan 5.

I asked y'all about low efficiency in Oct and got lotsa great input...

now I'm on the other end of the scale... my last three brews mash efficiency has come in at
86.6, 87, 94.5...
My OG's are coming in higher than predicted and my attenuation, which has always been high,
is pushing my ABV's out of range style wise of just about anything I'm brewing.

I did close the gap on my grain mill a bit after I noticed quite a few of the smaller pieces of grain
slipping thru. It's a Corona mill and i'm not sure of the gap..

Result of a tighter gap on the mill, or an equipment/thermometer problem?

Thanks BORG

[Beer-lord]

A tighter crush could make a huge difference and a better ph could help that as well. Did you change anything else?

[mashani]

How high is your extra high attenuation? It could be lower then you think mash temps. Or if it's super high (like your getting 1.004 or 1.003 or < beer even with 1.06 grain bills), then you could have a Sac. var Diastaticus contamination somewhere. If you have ever brewed with 3711 or Bella Saison, those would be "domesticated" Diastaticus strains, or it could be a wild yeast that lives in your house. I know a thing about that LOL. Those types of yeasts can bust up large 'unfermentable' sugars and turn them into fermentable ones. A small infection might just do that and not even leave a flavor trace, as your primary yeast strain may end up eating most of those extra sugars anyways. If bottling and not paying attention to FG being stable over many days, this is the kind of infection that can lead to gushers that taste perfectly fine if you can save some of the beer.

[teutonic terror]

Morning guys,
Looking back at the recipes I noticed I did change my mash thickness/ratio to
1.5 qts per pound, with that and the mill gap i'm not sure if it
would change my efficiency that drastically, because I had no idea how much of the whole
grain was making it thru the mill into the mash...
My attenuation two of the last three batches has been 88.1% and 92.4%,
both were expected to come in around 77.5%.
Looking back over some of my old recipes, alot of the time it's coming in at 8-10%
higher than Beersmith predicts...
my local brew master says "Happy yeast"...
Haven't changed buckets in a while, might be time, also I keg so I wouldn't notice gushers...

[Dawg LB Steve]

Mill gap absolutely will change it drastically, had a bout of 5 or 6 batches that were missing by .010-.012 on OG, found the gap on my mill had backed off by only .008, tightened the .008 and another .003 and have been a bit over OG and volume.

[teutonic terror]

Thanks Dawg...I had now idea it would change things that drastically...
guess I'll have to get a set of feeler gauges and try to find my optimal
setting!

[mashani]

Thanks Dawg...I had now idea it would change things that drastically...
guess I'll have to get a set of feeler gauges and try to find my optimal
setting!

Want to make sure this is clear - this will affect your OG (make it higher/lower). But it doesn't explain 90% attenuation from whatever that is.

[teutonic terror]

Want to make sure this is clear - this will affect your OG (make it higher/lower). But it doesn't explain 90% attenuation from whatever that is.

Understand, my next move is to visit my local brew store and pick up a couple of new buckets...