Question to the brewers getting really high efficiency

When are you taking the volume measurement for the amount of wort? Preboil, post boil, in the fermenter?

I've been measuring it in the fermenter so when I have a really hoppy beer with a lot of trub my efficiency will suffer. I might even through out as much as a gallon of trub if it hasn't settled good. It seems to me like this is ok since I'm using the efficiency number to formulate recipes and so I'll know for hoppy beers, or with fresh hops, figure a lower efficiency. I guess the alternative would be to figure it post boil and then subtract what you think your trub volume is. The reason I ask is that if your getting 90% efficiency and only threw out 1/2 gallon of trub then in theory your actually getting 100% efficiency right?

AFAIK, efficiency is supposed to be preboil, just as a way to measure how well your conversion went and how well you rinsed your grain.
Palmer on Mash Efficiency

Just make sure that you also take you hydrometer measurement at the same time.

jcarson83 said:

When are you taking the volume measurement for the amount of wort? Preboil, post boil, in the fermenter?

I've been measuring it in the fermenter so when I have a really hoppy beer with a lot of trub my efficiency will suffer. I might even through out as much as a gallon of trub if it hasn't settled good. It seems to me like this is ok since I'm using the efficiency number to formulate recipes and so I'll know for hoppy beers, or with fresh hops, figure a lower efficiency. I guess the alternative would be to figure it post boil and then subtract what you think your trub volume is. The reason I ask is that if your getting 90% efficiency and only threw out 1/2 gallon of trub then in theory your actually getting 100% efficiency right?

Click to expand...

May I suggest building a hop stopper, its a 5 gallon paint strainer with a pvc coupler, this will eliminate most of the hop trub getting into your fermenter, do a search for it. Good luck.

+1 to the Palmer link and +1 to the hop strainer device.

You want to measure your efficiency into the boiler. That is where you will find how well your mash tun (and you to some extent) are washing your grain.

I have found that it can be difficult getting the EXACT collection volume if your brew kettle isn't marked at every quart. My indoor brewpot is only marked at every 2 quarts. If you have a pot/keggle with a site glass in it, you of course can get as granular as you'd like if you mark it off. This is good for those who really want to get down the last drop of their efficiency. Realize that if your calculation is off with how much your actually collected, you can kind of screw up your number. So it depends on how much you care. I generally try and get as close as I can to accurate measurement. If you really cared about the number, you can cut off your collection when you had a hash mark in your pot and then use the pyrex measuring cup you may be using for your vorlauf anyway. I just thought about that now, so I'll try that next batch, maybe.

As for the hop collector, my Dad built one for his keggle and it works out really well. It saves a big trub mess. I'm not 100% sure how it effects hop utilization, but my guess is, using a device like this will work out better than a tied off hop bag/grain sock, because with an open/longer, almost oval/torpedo shape gives you more surface area than a tied off hop ball. Of course the difference could be negligible and we may never actually notice it, but I like the thought of clearer beer than something that questionably gets an extra IBU or 2 or 3 but is cloudy as hell.

This response was longer than it really needed to be.. don't mind me, I need to feel like I'm contributing.