bell0347
Well-Known Member
I see listed in many partial mash and all mash recipes "brew house efficiency".
What does this refer too?
What does this refer too?
Efficiency???
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An excerpt from my all grain primer:
The first thing I want to do is get the general concept understood. Efficiency is the ratio of how much sugar the grain has available to how much sugar you ultimately extract. Efficiency is literally "bang for your buck". Why should you care what your efficiency is anyway?
An analogy I like to use is making tomato sauce using canned tomato paste. Let's say a given recipe calls for 50 ounces of tomato paste and they come in 10oz cans. A high efficiency would be like emptying five cans completely. A poor efficiency is like leaving a lot of paste sticking to the sides of the can to the point where you have to open a sixth can in order to get 50 ounces total. Basically, poor efficiency means you get a lower gravity for a given amount of grain used. Again, bang for your buck.
It's important to note that efficiency is really an effect, not a cause (or choice). However, You can measure what your efficiency WAS on a given batch and it can ultimately become predictable if you keep your process consistent. You can also do things to your process to increase it.
The answer to the question begins with first knowing just how much potential sugar the grain has to offer. It does vary from one variety to another and even from one crop to the next. This isn't that tough for a brewer to figure out though because these figures are well published.
Once you know how much it has to offer, your brewing process will affect just how much of it you can extract. There are different points in the brewing process for which efficiency can be measured; Mash, Lauter/Sparge, and Brewhouse.
Mash Efficiency - How much of the available sugar was actually converted from the starch during the mash. This says nothing of your ability to separate that sugar during lautering/sparging. It is difficult to measure this and can be basically ignored if you're sure you've gotten good conversion (starch test).
Lauter/Sparge Efficiency - Assuming you converted all the starch to sugar, this is how much of the available sugars you were able to collect during the lauter/sparge function. Using a separation and sparge method that rinses "best" will yield higher efficiency. This value is easily measured by noting how much wort you've collected pre-boil (volume) and measuring its specific gravity (using a hydrometer or refractometer). These numbers will be compared against the theoretical maximum gravity.. More later.
Brew House Efficiency - This measurement/figure takes into account your entire process and is the most indicative of how much your wort "costs". The volume/gravity measurements are taken post boil, or most accurately in the fermenter itself. This number will be lower the previous efficiency measurement because it takes into account any wort you may have lost in your tubing, absorbed into hop sludge, or spilled between the MLT and Kettle or the Kettle and fermenter.
The first thing I want to do is get the general concept understood. Efficiency is the ratio of how much sugar the grain has available to how much sugar you ultimately extract. Efficiency is literally "bang for your buck". Why should you care what your efficiency is anyway?
An analogy I like to use is making tomato sauce using canned tomato paste. Let's say a given recipe calls for 50 ounces of tomato paste and they come in 10oz cans. A high efficiency would be like emptying five cans completely. A poor efficiency is like leaving a lot of paste sticking to the sides of the can to the point where you have to open a sixth can in order to get 50 ounces total. Basically, poor efficiency means you get a lower gravity for a given amount of grain used. Again, bang for your buck.
It's important to note that efficiency is really an effect, not a cause (or choice). However, You can measure what your efficiency WAS on a given batch and it can ultimately become predictable if you keep your process consistent. You can also do things to your process to increase it.
The answer to the question begins with first knowing just how much potential sugar the grain has to offer. It does vary from one variety to another and even from one crop to the next. This isn't that tough for a brewer to figure out though because these figures are well published.
Once you know how much it has to offer, your brewing process will affect just how much of it you can extract. There are different points in the brewing process for which efficiency can be measured; Mash, Lauter/Sparge, and Brewhouse.
Mash Efficiency - How much of the available sugar was actually converted from the starch during the mash. This says nothing of your ability to separate that sugar during lautering/sparging. It is difficult to measure this and can be basically ignored if you're sure you've gotten good conversion (starch test).
Lauter/Sparge Efficiency - Assuming you converted all the starch to sugar, this is how much of the available sugars you were able to collect during the lauter/sparge function. Using a separation and sparge method that rinses "best" will yield higher efficiency. This value is easily measured by noting how much wort you've collected pre-boil (volume) and measuring its specific gravity (using a hydrometer or refractometer). These numbers will be compared against the theoretical maximum gravity.. More later.
Brew House Efficiency - This measurement/figure takes into account your entire process and is the most indicative of how much your wort "costs". The volume/gravity measurements are taken post boil, or most accurately in the fermenter itself. This number will be lower the previous efficiency measurement because it takes into account any wort you may have lost in your tubing, absorbed into hop sludge, or spilled between the MLT and Kettle or the Kettle and fermenter.
OP
OP
bell0347
Well-Known Member
I see........
So each type of grain has a predetermined amount of sugar that it should be able to produce and your efficiency is how much of that total number you are actually able to capture. So, an "efficient" brewer is esentially able to brew the same gravity wort as a less efficient brewer but with less grains, thus more cost efficient. Interesting, to me anyway. So, after a few batches a brewer would get a rough idea of what his brewhouse efficiency is and know how much tweaking he can do on the amount of particular ingredients to reach a specific gravity without wasting time or money. So your brew house efficiency is not decided by the recipe, it is a variable you can control to an extent. If you know your BHE and enter it into a recipe creator with a brewing program it will help dictate exatly how much of each particular grain you need.
Am I on the right track here??
So each type of grain has a predetermined amount of sugar that it should be able to produce and your efficiency is how much of that total number you are actually able to capture. So, an "efficient" brewer is esentially able to brew the same gravity wort as a less efficient brewer but with less grains, thus more cost efficient. Interesting, to me anyway. So, after a few batches a brewer would get a rough idea of what his brewhouse efficiency is and know how much tweaking he can do on the amount of particular ingredients to reach a specific gravity without wasting time or money. So your brew house efficiency is not decided by the recipe, it is a variable you can control to an extent. If you know your BHE and enter it into a recipe creator with a brewing program it will help dictate exatly how much of each particular grain you need.
Am I on the right track here??
Kauai_Kahuna
Well-Known Member
Yes, it allows the brewer to hit his expected volume and OG: right on to match the recipes intention.
Other things such as evaporation during the boil, dead space within the mash tun, etc, all play a part so for each equipment setup there are differences.
Other things such as evaporation during the boil, dead space within the mash tun, etc, all play a part so for each equipment setup there are differences.
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