Jewsh

Recipes 

I brewed My fiirt AG Btch yesterday and it is very happily krausening away! It was the Bells Two hearted ale clone recipe I found On here. It was a awesomly amazing brew day. I calculated out I got % 86.2 efficiency. I am amazed. From dough in to pitching, it was a little over four hours. Great time.

I recommend that brewers that want to make the leap...Just go for it. I have been into this hobby for 8 months now. I was really nervous about making the leap. Just do it! No worries, relax, and have a homebrew!!!

Rock

Jewsh

Recipes 

Scratch that. I just looked it up, You measure the pre boil gravity for you efficiency. In that case, I was at %68.7. Still ok?

GWhomebrew1

Recipes 

Yes I recently started AG brewing and the heat loss in the mash tun was a problem. Good advice to preheat the mash tun to prevent heat loss. Wish I had read this a few weeks ago!

crlova2

Recipes 

I am new to AG brewing and doing my first one on Friday. How do you calculate efficiency?

spriolo

Recipes 

Find a good resource for the "theoretical max" for the grain you are using. Multiply it up for the volume you expect (mash + sparge - absorption) Right before you boil, measure your SG for the volume and divide it out... first time I did all grain I got 45% eff.

Embarrassing, so I boiled the snot out of it to reduce my volume and raise the OG. The beer was like a 3 gallon batch because of it. It's o.k. though, my next batch was better.

Starderup

Recipes 

I say you just figure out if you like the beer!

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<priceless quote>My dog dropped his bone in my fermentor while I wasn't looking.</end quote>

Jewsh

Recipes 

I just used 38 gravity points per pound of grain. So points times lbs of grain divided by volume of boil.
Sound ok?

Jewsh

Recipes 

I just used 38 gravity points per pound of grain. So points times lbs of grain divided by volume of boil.
Sound ok?

masonsjax

Recipes 

Each type of grain has a different potential gravity. It will not be accurate if you pick a number from thin air and apply it to the entire recipe. That said, knowing your efficiency isn't really that important. After a few batches, you'll learn your system and what you need to do to get consistent results. At that point you'll know roughly what your efficiency is based on how close you are to your target OG.

If you're OCD about numbers and absolutely must know, there are programs on the web that you can punch your recipe into and calculate your actual efficiency.

__________________
I aim to misbehave.

spriolo

Recipes 

Hey Jewsh, don't let masonsjax discourage you from calculating your brew. I'm a numbers guy and enjoy looking at the science and technology of the craft. Use Google to search for "malt grain theoretical max points" and find what your grain will theoretically produce.

Get out your spreadsheet and enjoy tinkering with the numbers.