Mash efficiency

[AKbrewer]

Read some earlier post and they talked about efficiency of the mash. How do they figure what the efficiency was?

 

[pittsy]

Set your mash efficiency at 70 in your brewing software , for your first few goes it may be a little lower but as you get more used to mashing etc your efficiency will probably rise to around 75% . Mine is at 78% while others are in the 80's however some who brew in a bag may get 65% etc . It all depends on your equipment and your process so setting at 70% will not be too far from what it really is . So if you brew 23L for example and set it at 70% and wanted say 1050 OG but get say 1045 OG then you look at your software and re set it till the OG matches what you have , so next brew it should be more accurate and you should get your expected OG .

 

[PD]

basically it lets you work out the weight of grain etc you need for the brew, so that you are not wasting any excess grain

 

[DethApostle]

Also remember it can be quite variable...
I average around 77% efficiency normally but my last batch hit 88%!!! My Chocolate Vanilla Stout was supposed to be 4.3% but is going to end up somewhere nearer to 5.1% ABV! (oh well...)

DA

 

[pittsy]

Also remember it can be quite variable...
I average around 77% efficiency normally but my last batch hit 88%!!! My Chocolate Vanilla Stout was supposed to be 4.3% but is going to end up somewhere nearer to 5.1% ABV! (oh well...)

DA

Do you do water chemistry ? That sounds to me like your water is better for darker beers if you don't treat your water or have a standard addition of ions

 

[DethApostle]

I don't currently treat the water at all to be honest.
Suppose it's another thing to tinker with so i'll have a look! I'm suprised the effect would be that much though?!

DA

 

[pittsy]

with such (sounds like) excellent results in efficiency, your water most likely is good for brewing but excellent for darker beer , this is probably cuz the darker malt will lower the mash ph (but you're probably close to ideal ph anyway) .Do you get a slight astringent taste to the lighter beers you brew ? if not maybe you don't need to mess with it anyway :thumb: (unlike mine)

 

[DethApostle]

Well now you've just got and got me all curious in my water quality!
Is there a generally recommended testing kit available?
DA

 

[pittsy]

You would need several kits and you still need your water company to send you a water report which is often useless , so this is the best and would be cheaper too than lots of kits http://www.murphyhomebrew.com/laborator ... d_104.html if you mention your prefered beer they will give you advice on what to add to get best results

 

[Duxuk]

To work out the efficiency of your brew.

You need the total weight of grain you used. The OG of the finished brew (temperature corrected if your wort is still warm) and the volume you end up with. You then need the "magic number" which is 295 for Maris Otter. It varies slighlty for other grains but my own brews are 90% or more MO so I just use 295 in the following calculation.

295*grain weight/litres brewed

Calculate this number, we'll call it X to sound like we know something about maths!

Take the last 2 numbers from your OG and multiply them by 100, to get a percentage. So if it's 1044 OG you get 4400

Divide this number by X and that's it!

My last brew was 18litres using 4.4kg of grain and it ended at 1055.

So 295*4.4/18=72.11

5500/72.11=76.27% efficiency.

I was quite chuffed. I tend to get a higher figure if I brew a less strong ale.

You can work the equation backwards to find how much grain to use once you've done an AG brew and have an idea of your likely efficiency that you achieved with your equipment.

 

[oldjiver]

To work out the efficiency of your brew.

You need the total weight of grain you used. The OG of the finished brew (temperature corrected if your wort is still warm) and the volume you end up with. You then need the "magic number" which is 295 for Maris Otter. It varies slighlty for other grains but my own brews are 90% or more MO so I just use 295 in the following calculation.

295*grain weight/litres brewed

Calculate this number, we'll call it X to sound like we know something about maths!

Take the last 2 numbers from your OG and multiply them by 100, to get a percentage. So if it's 1044 OG you get 4400

Divide this number by X and that's it!

My last brew was 18litres using 4.4kg of grain and it ended at 1055.

So 295*4.4/18=72.11

5500/72.11=76.27% efficiency.

I was quite chuffed. I tend to get a higher figure if I brew a less strong ale.

You can work the equation backwards to find how much grain to use once you've done an AG brew and have an idea of your likely efficiency that you achieved with your equipment.

Thats a brilliant way to do it Dudux. I used to take the number on the bag (the malt miller is currently selling MO with 310)
thats 310 litres through 1kg to get 1deg extract. So if 310 litres is 1 deg then 31 litres is 10 deg (1010) So my 15.5 litre brews would be 1020 per kg at 100%. So the 3kg I usually use should be 1060 if it was perfect. As I get 1048 - 1050 I am mashing at around 80%.
You can probably see why I will use your method from now on!!

 

[rpt]

What does efficiency actually mean? There are a lot of different ways of calculating it so when Fred says his efficiency is X and George says his efficiency is Y how do you know if they are comparable calculations? For example, what does litres brewed mean? Is it the total water that went in the mash tun, the volume that came out the mash tun, the volume that came out the boiler, the volume that eventually gets into bottles or barrels?

 

[pittsy]

efficiency is total amount of sugars extracted from the grain so total efficiency , standard (often in recipes ) are 75% but many get above and below that (usually down to quality of water ) water brewed i would think means total wort collected for fv ( or target amount like 23 L ) but brewing is really the boiling part so maybe that quote means volume going into boil (for me it would be 30 liters into boiler to get 23 out )

 

[evanvine]

If you Batch sparge or BIAB you will get lower BHEs than if you Fly sparge.
A rule of thumb is:-
Malts and adjuncts will yield 300 gravity points per Kg per Ltr
Crystal Malt will yield 240 gravity points per Kg per Ltr
Sugar will yield 360 gravity points per Kg per Ltr
EG 4Kg Malt in 23 Litres will give 4 x 300 / 23 = 52 gravity points or an OG of 1.052
If you only get 1.042 then your BHE (Brew House Efficiency) is 42/52x100 = 81%
Who needs brewing software?

 

[alymere]

This post on biabinfo is one of the best I have read explaining the many different ways that "efficiency"is used. http://www.biabrewer.info/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=119&p=31145&hilit=efficiency#p31156 . I found it very helpful.