Calculating Efficiency???

I just recently did my first AG brew - a simple pale ale, which I will bottle later this week. Its turning out great.

When I brewed it, I didn't worry too much - I relaxed, had a lot of homebrews, etc. I used about 9 lbs of 2-row with some added Crystal, etc. Since my gravity reading fell a little below where I was aiming, I added a bit of DME (3 cups or so) to the boil to make it a little bit stronger. Now, as I am preparing for my second ag brew, I have some questions about ensuring that I get the most sugar out of my grain as possible so that i don't have to supplement with DME.

How can I calculate efficiency of my mash? How do I know how well I am doing in terms of getting the fermentables out of the malted grains?

Thanks . . . btw, I've been lurking on this board for a few weeks . . . this is my first post!

I just look at my starting gravity and compare it to the amount of grain I use. I don't worry about my efficiency just yet. I do starch testing with iodine during the mash to see how the mash is going.

sonvolt said:

I just recently did my first AG brew - a simple pale ale, which I will bottle later this week. Its turning out great.

When I brewed it, I didn't worry too much - I relaxed, had a lot of homebrews, etc. I used about 9 lbs of 2-row with some added Crystal, etc. Since my gravity reading fell a little below where I was aiming, I added a bit of DME (3 cups or so) to the boil to make it a little bit stronger. Now, as I am preparing for my second ag brew, I have some questions about ensuring that I get the most sugar out of my grain as possible so that i don't have to supplement with DME.

How can I calculate efficiency of my mash? How do I know how well I am doing in terms of getting the fermentables out of the malted grains?

Thanks . . . btw, I've been lurking on this board for a few weeks . . . this is my first post!

Click to expand...

What type of mash schedule did you use? And, how long did you sparge?

Single Infusion mash . . . just over 1 hour. I missed the 150 temperature by two degrees, so I added some hot water to get it over 150. It was definitely at or slightly above 150 for one hour.

Tell me more about doing a starch test. Does this amount to mixing some iodine and some wort on a plate and judging conversion by a certain reaction (I am assuming a color change)?

Starch test is totally unnecessary. If you're using American 2-row, it *always* converts, and it aint too picky about temperature range. Anywhere 140-160 will basically get the job done. And in about 15 minutes. If you let it sit the customary hour, you are all set.

The iodine test for starch works by taking some of your mash liquid out and dropping a bit of iodine in it. If it turns dark purple, there are starches. But, trust me, that's not where your efficiency loss is. Conversion happens easily with the quality grains we get these days.

You really improve your efficiency by sparging properly...slowly, warmly, and slowly. Did I mention slowly?

As far as calculating efficiency, use ProMash or other software.

Cheers

Janx said:

Starch test is totally unnecessary. If you're using American 2-row, it *always* converts, and it aint too picky about temperature range. Anywhere 140-160 will basically get the job done. And in about 15 minutes. If you let it sit the customary hour, you are all set.

The iodine test for starch works by taking some of your mash liquid out and dropping a bit of iodine in it. If it turns dark purple, there are starches. But, trust me, that's not where your efficiency loss is. Conversion happens easily with the quality grains we get these days.

You really improve your efficiency by sparging properly...slowly, warmly, and slowly. Did I mention slowly?

As far as calculating efficiency, use ProMash or other software.

Cheers

Click to expand...

What do you get for efficiency Janx? I assume by the way you say slowly, that you fly sparge. What do you use? A Listermann whirlygig?

I batch sparge and I just let er rip after recircilating to clear the wort going into my kettle. I haven't had any trouble getting my target gravity.

As Janx said, mashing is easy (although it takes a few tries to learn how to get the right temperature).

As he also said, the temperature isn't critical, but you can get pretty accurate after a few brews, and accuracy equates to consistency.

He also gave great advice on sparging.

However, I don't agree with relying on Promash for efficiency ratings. I have been using Promash for about 1 month, and it has always given my efficiency as greater than 100%
I knew that this was wrong, and made some adjustments today, and my efficiency for the last few brews has dropped to 83 - 92% ( The 83% was with a stuck sparge caused by my own stupidity).
Although I know I get better efficiency than many people, I don't think that it is as high as Promash reports. I also don't believe that the error is caused by Promash calculating incorrectly. I think I've set something up wrong, but haven;t found it yet.

-a.

Thanks for all the great advice! I think that I sparged too quickly. Since I didn't (at that time) have the proper equipment, I sparged by using a kettle on the stove and literally poured the water over my grain bed using a Pyrex measuring cup

The sparge only took about 35-40 minutes . . . and I think I did it at a much lower temperature than I should have. All of these mistakes, and I still came out fairly close to my target gravity.

I'm ordering supplies today for my second ag brew . . . and I will sparge slowly!!