Mash Tun efficiency and Grain %'s

Hey folks,

So I’ve been doing most of my brews with recipes that I have either found on here, or at my LBS. All the work has really been done for me, nice and easy. Its about as easy a kit beer. Anyways, A local Microbrewery and Brewpub recently did a collaboration (Avery Brewing, and Mountian Sun) called Van Diemen. It is a quite taste Belgian Saison. I love it, and it was also the first beer my fiancé has ever loved!!! So, I must brew some. Because it was a one time only deal and both breweries rock, and love home brewers they gave me the recipe.

Here is the Email I got from Matt at Avery Brewery.

"Ok, here is the recipe. I only broke down the malts into percentages because I have no clue what your mash tun efficiency is... Also, this is for 5gal finished volume, scale up if you knockout 6.5gal to the primary.

Stats:
OG 1.081
AE 1.013

Grist (Mash Temp 148F):
Pilsner Malt - 86%
Acidulated Malt - 4%
Carafa III - 4%
Special B - 2%
Aromatic Malt - 4%
Red Wheat - 4%

Hop Schedule:
60min - Magnum (13.4% AA) - 0.17oz
30min - Amarillo (8.2% AA) - 0.34oz
0min - Amarillo (8.2% AA) - 1.29oz
Tasmanian Pepper Berries - added at end of boil - 0.06oz

Yeast:
WL565 - Saison - for first 75% of fermentation
WL099 - High Gravity - for final 25% of fermentation
no temp control during fermentation (we climbed up into the low 80's F)

Alright, that about sums it up. If you have any questions please feel free to drop me an email...or hunt me down in the tasting room. If you do pull off the brew, I would love to try a bottle of it. I am curious as to how everything scales down. Good luck and let me know how it goes."


Because so far I worked with tried and tested brews, I'm a little lost. How do I calculate my mash tun efficiency and from that get my actual grain amounts.

I brew stovetop method, with primary in a 6.5 gallon carboy, however my batch sizes are always 5 gallons in order to avoid blowout.

Thanks guys.

In order to calculate your efficiency, you would have to brew up a couple batches, and take some readings and figure out exactly where you end up. Or you could just guess and build the grain bill around that. An average efficiency is probably around 70-75%. I built my first recipe to be at 70% efficiency without knowing what my actuals will be. I ended up with 75% efficiency so I was not too far off my target OG.

Once you have an efficiency number, you can plug the info into some homebrewing software and mess around with the grain amounts until you hit the OG and percentages above.

Hope my rambling helps....