Getting back to brewing fundamentals

I was about 8-10 batches into my brewing career, and even had a couple solid AG batches. Then I hit a wall. I made a watery, low efficiency, no body, horrible SG:IBU balanced APA which was undrinkable, then a canned corn friggin Oktoberfest nightmare I KILLED myself pulling an enhanced double decoction mash.

I saw my hobby and love spinning out of control. Two horrible batches, with another 2 of the previous 5 suffering from some nasty brown sugar.

I sat back and took my brewing back to the drawing board. I figured my guests don't care about things like brewhouse efficiency, AG vs Extract, proper lagering vs an easy ale fermentation.

I just decided to make solid, quality beer.

Two batches later, and a keg killing house party I feel like I am back in the saddle.

This isn't to brag or boast about my simpleton extract pre-hopped recipes, I'm just saying sometimes you just need to make the hobby "easy on yourself".

I think so many of us get so enamored with ourselves and our brews, we refuse to be critical (or forget to). I'm all for simple basic techniques and making sure you've perfected them.

Way jump back on the horse. I have kind of given up on my relatively low efficiency ~67% and have accepted it for now. I think it's my mash tun but who the hell knows. Cheers to brewing beer and enjoying the hobby!

67% is not that bad. most people here lie out there ass about efficiency!
acording to John palmer in "how to brew" acording to the congress mash acording to the congress of european brewing convention. in a lab setting with a course grind the max mash efficiency of 2 row lager malt is 79.5% that is the Max the fools talking about 85 ect are lieing ot failed math class.
six row 76.5%
pale malt 78.5%
munich 76%
that is the max they got in a lab with a 120 min mash and 60 min sparge

but there i guess there would be sparge efficiency too and made thats where i am confused.

This is why I have avoided making anything overly complicated. I don't want to lose sight of the basics, especially this early in my brewing career. I think it's easy to get lost in search of that extra layer of complexity, that extra hint or aroma, that we often forget that the foundation of the of beer underneath the complexity matters most. Glad you've found your way back to the path!

Around 70% is excellent for a homebrew setup. You are not worried about bottom line off the beer are you? Worried about great taste, correct? Overly efficient system will start to extract some nasties, so you are fine.

Take Papa Charlie's advice...Relax, Don't Worry...

Nothing wrong with taking a step back and reevaluating your processes.

Solid processes, fresh ingredients and a well-crafted recipe are the fundamentals to a quality product.

Clayton said:

67% is not that bad. most people here lie out there ass about efficiency!

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I think that's a bit of a stretch. The math ain't that tough. Hell, just take accurate measurements and enter everything into TastyBrew. I do think many beginners confuse mash efficiency with brewhouse efficiency. Different animals entirely.

Lefty said:

Around 70% is excellent for a homebrew setup. You are not worried about bottom line off the beer are you? Worried about great taste, correct? Overly efficient system will start to extract some nasties, so you are fine.

Take Papa Charlie's advice...Relax, Don't Worry...

Click to expand...

Yeah I'm relaxed about it. Honestly I have tried everything to correct it and have come to the conclusion that it's my mash tun. My mash tun will be upgraded soon enough for other reasons so I'm not worried about it.

jkarp said:

I think that's a bit of a stretch. The math ain't that tough. Hell, just take accurate measurements and enter everything into TastyBrew. I do think many beginners confuse mash efficiency with brewhouse efficiency. Different animals entirely.

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I do think that there are quite a few new brewers that are taking innaccurate hydrometer, grain weight or volume readings that could lead to false efficiency readings. I was one of them. However, I don't think they would completely change their efficiency drastically.

I'm brewing my Pliny kit from Austinhomebrew today so we shall see what the efficiency is.

Clayton said:

67% is not that bad. most people here lie out there ass about efficiency!
acording to John palmer in "how to brew" acording to the congress mash acording to the congress of european brewing convention. in a lab setting with a course grind the max mash efficiency of 2 row lager malt is 79.5% that is the Max the fools talking about 85 ect are lieing ot failed math class.
six row 76.5%
pale malt 78.5%
munich 76%
that is the max they got in a lab with a 120 min mash and 60 min sparge

but there i guess there would be sparge efficiency too and made thats where i am confused.

Click to expand...

Yes, which means that the efficiency we get is 85% of that, ie 85% of the maximum yield from grains.