Efficiency of Extract?

I am trying to figure out the OG of a recipe I have on Brewmasters Warehouse brewbuilder. Is efficiency of extract taken into account like it is with all grain? This particular recipe calls for 7lbs of LME and the default efficiency is 75% on the software with an OG of 1.063. If you adjust the efficiency to say 90% it goes up to 1.076. Just curious here as to what gives.

parratt1 said:

I am trying to figure out the OG of a recipe I have on Brewmasters Warehouse brewbuilder. Is efficiency of extract taken into account like it is with all grain? This particular recipe calls for 7lbs of LME and the default efficiency is 75% on the software with an OG of 1.063. If you adjust the efficiency to say 90% it goes up to 1.076. Just curious here as to what gives.

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Extract should not be affected by efficiency. That seems like a bug in the brew builder software to me.

OK........I wasn't sure. I think I will download beersmith. Have been wanting to for awhile now so this gives me a good excuse.

Walker said:

Extract should not be affected by efficiency.

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This is correct but the Brew Builder does not have the ability to ignore that rule when extracts are concerned. To compensate for this the potential gravities of all extracts have been adjusted so that when 75% efficiency is chosen the values of the OG will be correct.

Example: 1 pound of Pilsen Liquid extract at 75% efficiency yields 1.038 per gallon which is correct value for that extract. If you change the efficiency from 75% your OG will be off.

So the bottom line is if your an extract/PM brewer do not change the 75% and everything will be correct. If your a PM brewer that gets higher or lower than 75% the corrected value is 2-3 points for every 5% you are higher or lower than 75%.

Ed