Brewhouse Efficiency

When calculating brewhouse efficiency, using the method found here, should add in the weight of my specialty grains? I would think not . . . as I did not plan for them to add fermentable sugars to my wort (or. . . vert :cross: ).

You should include all of your grains...efficiency is a measure of how much sugar you converted/extracted, not fermentability.

This is an interesting subject indeed as there are 2 ways to calculate efficiency (as mentioned in the BYO article). Most home brewers here in the US work with what is called brewhouse efficiency in this article. This means how much of the theoretical maximum amount of extract did they get from the grains. These numbers are usually between 70% and 85% for the average home brewer. This is also the efficiency that BeerSmith and ProMash calculate for you.

The other efficiency (how much extract from the amount of grain) is not commonly used in the US. German home brewers and literature seem to favor this metric, though.

Now to your question. If you want to calculate the brewhouse efficiency for your batch you will need to know the extract potential of your malt. Most base malts have a laboratory extract of 80%. Specialty malts will be lower. Depending on the amount of them in your grist you may want to account for that or just apply the 80% potential to your whole grist.

I usually use a program to do my recipe design and efficiency calculation. These programs (BeerSmith, ProMash, Recipator etc.) will know the extract potential of the grains you are using.

Kai

Baron von BeeGee said:

You should include all of your grains...efficiency is a measure of how much sugar you converted/extracted, not fermentability.

Click to expand...

Thanks,
I forgot about that point.

Actually, the extract you will get from the grains contains: dextrines, sugars and proteins. And all of it will contribute to your OG, thus efficiency.

Kai

I must not completely understand the Recipator. As I use it, it seems that I have to manually enter my "typical mash efficiency." So, I want to be able to enter my grain bill and my OG and determine how efficient my system is.

I feel like my gravity is too high . . . which isn't necessarily a problem, but I may be hopping to lightly for such high ABV beers. If I could get a reliable sense of what my Brewhouse efficiency is, I think I could craft better brews.

In my last two brews, I used 12 lbs of Pale Malt (2-Row, American) and 1-2lbs of of specialty grains. The first brew came in at OG 1.070 and the next at 1.071. I feel like things are consistent . . . but those are both higher gravity readings than I was aiming for.

I guess I should just break down and buy ProMash, huh . . .

Using Promash to calculate, 12# 2-row and 2# crystal would result in 1070 OG @ 70% efficiency.

If your OG is too high you can always dilute your wort in the fermenter to pull it in line.

sonvolt said:

I must not completely understand the Recipator. As I use it, it seems that I have to manually enter my "typical mash efficiency." So, I want to be able to enter my grain bill and my OG and determine how efficient my system is.

Click to expand...

There is a "Find Efficiency" button above the grain bill table

I guess I should just break down and buy ProMash, huh . . .

Click to expand...

Try BeerSmith as well, It has a much more generous trial (21 days fully functional)

Kai

I use Promash and let it get me my efficiency rating. I know generally what my system does and so have that set as my default. After I actually brew a batch I check the numbers to see how I did compared to the Default value. If there is a variants I play with the efficiency control in Promash (without the efficiency lock on) until I get the same OG in Promash as I did in my batch and know how I did. No real rocket science, just using the tools.

I can't find any converters on beersmith nor promash. How are you all finding these?

I recently converted to AG and have brewed 2 batches. I was wondering how to determine what is your systems efficiency? Is it something you learn over time? I converted a 10 gallon igloo water cooler using a stainless false bottom. In my last batch I think I was in the low 80's for efficiency.

Zombie thread... Perry not sure what you mean by "converters". Could you clarify?

JLW it comes with experience, and either calculating the efficiency by hand or using software like beersmith or promash or the online free ones to do it for you, or at least help you figure it out.