So what's my efficeincy?

I just want to be sure I am calculating this correctly.....

Brewed an Oktoberfest last night.

Recipe;

5# Munich
5# Vienna
1# Caramunich III
1/2# 40L Crystal Malt
1/2# Carapils
1 ounce Spaltzer (4.5%) 60 mins
.75 ounce Pearl (8%) 30 mins
.75 ounce Pearl (8%) 5 mins

Wyeast 2633 Oktoberfest Ale Blend

Preboil SG 1.048 @ 6.5 gallons

Pre pitch SG 1.060 @ 5 gallons

So what's it look like?

Alan

According to Beersmith, I think I did this right:

Efficiency into boiler is 73.75%
Actual Efficiency is 70.91%

i get a little lower, less than a point on each, but I don't have caramunic III and don't know how to add it to beersmith. Free, did you have to add it, or did yours come with it?

I just entered it at 1# Caramunich, there was no designation for Caramunich III.

Thanks. I got 70% on my calculations (69.62%). I am getting better with my efficeincy. I think my next step is to mill my own grains. I held my mash temp dead on 158F for 60 minutes, and I got my mash up to 168F (within a couple degrees) for sparge. I can't think of where else I could be losing efficeincy.

Alan

I got 72.55 on my first use of all grain besides BiaB. I'll take it. Now that I said that il get 47 percent next time. I might get a BC Also just to have more control

I have a Barley Crusher, you'll love it!

Once you do start milling your own grain, give malt conditioning a try. You can search for threads on here and BYO and Zymurgy both did articles on it. It's where you spray a measured amount of water on your malt before milling and mix it up well to slightly increase the water content of the husks. It makes the husks more pliable and keeps them more intact when milling which will improve the natural filtering of the grain bed. It also keeps the dust down when milling.

Cheers!

Thanks Freeboot. I have already done some reading about conditioning. The grain mill is my next investment. Each time I hit the HBS I try to upgrade or buy one piece of equipment. That could be something small like a new hydrometer, or somthing larger like a grain mill. It just depends on my budget for the day.

70% is a LOT better than my first few batches. Room for improvement, but not too bad .

Alan

You might try playing with the temperature of your sparge water. It should REST at 168 for 10 minutes, which means the water needs to be much higher than that when you add it to the wort. I use 180F water in two equal batch sparges and am getting 79%. But I think my crush is a bit too fine, as it takes FOREVER to sparge.

Thanks Matt.

To clarify, I used sparge water in the 185F range to get my mash up to 168 at sparge, I didn't just add 168F sparge water. I am sure that in my earlier batches I was not getting my temp up high enough for sparging.

Alan