Roadie
Well-Known Member
Brewed today and had a discussion about efficiency with someone. He said you don't really want efficiency greater than 80% but I thought more was better. Thoughts?
Culbetron said:I heard John Palmer talking about this. He said that he's tasted a lab condition mash with 100% extraction and it tasted terrible. Very high on tannins. Since that's not what we want our beer to taste like, we try to hit the balance between making the most of the grain we have and not extracting tannins from it - hence 75-85% efficiency.
d_striker said:With a non-recirculated, single infusion mash that was fly-sparged, I consistently obtained around 81% efficiency. I got a pump and started recirculating my mash. My efficiency jumped to 91% with no astringency. IMO, as long as pH is controlled you shouldn't be extracting tannins from the husks.
Some people feel that with higher efficiency there are more unwanted flavors extracted, and that the wort from a more moderate efficiency set-up is higher quality.
Commercial brewers usually strive for really high efficiency because it translates to huge differences in cost. At the homebrew scale an extra pound of grain per batch usually isn't a big deal, so consistency is typically more important than high efficiency.
How do you determine efficiency? my total amount of fermentables where around 12.5lb and i got an OG of 1.090 at 6 gallons.... :S
How consistent is this claim? 10% from the investment of a pump or if I were to sit there and just vorlauf the whole time seems like a lot. Is this really the only variable you changed? Malt, water, mash tun, crush all the same? Sorry I don't mean to sound interrogating I am just amazed. I have used different mash tuns and different methods and always seem to get 71-73, with 73 bein my sweet spot for some reason usually.
You're using DME, not grain. You are not extracting sugars from grains so you don't need to worry about efficiency.
No sir. Grains all the "way" added 1kg of belgian candy since recipe called for that.
But before diluting my brew i had 1.100 as OG.....
yeah.. sorry was abit unclear about that... but hey 87% Efficiency. not bad for first time biab.
What was your grain bill and how much wort did you collect?
As a former BIAB brewer, I'm a little skeptical about 87% efficiency.
I've tried a beer from a fellow homebrewer which achieved 90% efficiency. It was a great beer!
I can't achieve that kind of efficiency with my set-up yet but he is who I field all my technical questions to.
um.
1 x candy syrup: 1.35kg
6kg plisner heidelberg extra light BM
1kg Munich malt light 15 EBC
OG after boil was 1.100... i think there is allot of vaporization from my kettle.. so i added water to get it around the 20 liter mark. or 25... not sure its not written on my glasscardboy. only the 30 liter mark. and now after 5 days fermenting its at 1.020.
5.2 gallons ish and preboil before adding candy 1.052
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