brewyourown4life
Well-Known Member
will be doing my first all grain soon. and was wondering how to calculate the efficiency of my mash tun, i'm sure it's posted some where on HBT, just don't have alot of time to look for it. 
mash tun efficiency
- Thread starter brewyourown4life
- Start date
Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:
HopHound914
Active Member
There are plenty of brew house efficiency calculators out there. They involve taking a pre boil gravity reading and your post boil reading the calculator will take care of the rest. If you want to know the math behind it you can read The Joy of Home Brewing. He gives a great explanation and shows the math.
You can find a good calculator at www.brewersfriend.com
You can find a good calculator at www.brewersfriend.com
pulptastic
Active Member
you are basically comparing the gravity of wort you got with the maximum possible gravity for your grain bill and water volume. You can find the formulas and tables online and in brewing books. Personally I use software (hopville.com and brewtarget) and adjust my efficiency until the calculated OG agrees with my actual OG.
arturo7
Well-Known Member
Efficiency is not a property of your mash tun. It is a result of your mashing.
Here's an example for a simple no sparge brew in a bag recipe.
10 lbs. Pale Malt 2 row with 36 potential gravity points per pound
10 lbs. x 36 potential points per pound = 360 total potential gravity points
6 gallons water for mash
-1 gallon water for grain absorbtion ( 0.10 gallons per pound of grain)(10 lbs x 0.10 gal= 1 gal)
5 total gallons preboil wort after the grain bag is removed (measured as accurately as possible)
1.047 measured specific gravity of the pre boil wort ( wort sample cooled to 60 deg then measured)
5 gallons preboil wort x 47 measured gravity points per gallon = 235 total gravity points extracted
235 points exctracted/ 360 points potential = 0.65 x 100 = 65 % efficiency into the boiler
Efficiency into the boiler is a combination of mash efficiency and lauter efficiency.
Don't worry about trying to get the highest efficiency possible,
consistency is much more important. You can always adjust your your grains to bump up your gravity.
Most of the brewers here talk about efficiency into the boiler when they just say efficiency,
some talk about brewhouse efficiency, which includes efficiency losses in the the boil kettle.
I'd recommend BeerSmith, you get a free 21 day trial,
but as you can see with this example it's not that hard to calc it out yourself.
I use both.
Good Luck on your first all grain.
Bob
10 lbs. Pale Malt 2 row with 36 potential gravity points per pound
10 lbs. x 36 potential points per pound = 360 total potential gravity points
6 gallons water for mash
-1 gallon water for grain absorbtion ( 0.10 gallons per pound of grain)(10 lbs x 0.10 gal= 1 gal)
5 total gallons preboil wort after the grain bag is removed (measured as accurately as possible)
1.047 measured specific gravity of the pre boil wort ( wort sample cooled to 60 deg then measured)
5 gallons preboil wort x 47 measured gravity points per gallon = 235 total gravity points extracted
235 points exctracted/ 360 points potential = 0.65 x 100 = 65 % efficiency into the boiler
Efficiency into the boiler is a combination of mash efficiency and lauter efficiency.
Don't worry about trying to get the highest efficiency possible,
consistency is much more important. You can always adjust your your grains to bump up your gravity.
Most of the brewers here talk about efficiency into the boiler when they just say efficiency,
some talk about brewhouse efficiency, which includes efficiency losses in the the boil kettle.
I'd recommend BeerSmith, you get a free 21 day trial,
but as you can see with this example it's not that hard to calc it out yourself.
I use both.
Good Luck on your first all grain.
Bob
OP
OP
brewyourown4life
Well-Known Member
thanks bob, that was just what i wanted to know
StMarcos
Well-Known Member
It's simply the amount of sugar you get from a certain amount of grains, compared to the amount of sugar possibly available from those grains. You don't factor the amount of water you used in the calculation. It doesn't matter whether you take gravity readings pre or post boil. Bear in mind that the ppg ratings for your grain might be different than the grains you have actually sitting in front of you.
I believe you have to take the amount of water into consideration. If I only tell you my gravity is 1.074 how can you tell me how much sugar I got?
StMarcos
Well-Known Member
What I'm saying is that if you told me the total amount of sugar you got (which obviously isn't given by the sg on its own), and the amount of grain you started with, I could tell you the efficiency. You would have to know the amount of water mixed with that sugar, by either measuring the pre or post boil volume, along with the pre or post boil gravity. Efficiency calculations don't involve mash water used or water to grain ratios, etc.
Similar threads
