First All Grain Complete - Need Help Understanding Efficiency

I know this is a common question, but I couldn’t find a thread that helped me understand my situation any better.

I brewed Edwort’s Haus Pale Ale as my first all grain attempt last weekend.

The vitals are as follows:
- 8 lb 2 row
- 2 lb Vienna
- 0.5 lb Crystal 10
- 5.5 Gallon batch size
- OG – 1.051
- FG – 1.011
- Batch sparge

The info I collected while brewing is as follows:

First runnings collected were approx 3.75 gallons. After second runnings, I had a total volume of about 6.5 gallons. The pre boil gravity was about 1.03 (temp was b/w 80 and 90 degrees if I remember right).

My OG at 75 degrees was 1.046 and I collected 5.25 gallons of wort in the primary.

When I plug these values into Beersmith (which I don’t fully understand yet), I get measured efficiency of 60.3% and estimated mash efficiency of 79.5%.
So, what does all of this mean and should I be doing anything different?

I’m hoping to brew again this weekend and wonder if changes need to be made. I’m not sure that I understand mash efficiency vs measured efficiency vs total efficiency.

Thanks for any insight. I know my post is long and confusing.

I wish I could help, but as a newbie looking forward to diving into all grain soon I look forward to any help someone lends you.

It sounds like you are using Beersmith 2, which breaks your efficiency down into two essential parts; mash and "brew-house." Your mash efficiency is like saying 'how good are you at getting sugar out of grain?' Your measured efficiency (previously called brew-house) is like asking 'how good are you at at getting sugar out of grain AND then not losing any of it during the rest of the process?'

Meaning, you did okay collecting sugars. 80% is pretty good if you are batch sparging (but let's not turn this into THAT kind of thread!). But then you tanked your overall efficiency down 20% during the rest of your process. Now you have to look at why that is. Did you come up short in your fermenter? Was the recipe designed to be 5.5 gallons? Did you leave too much wort behind due to hop matter in the kettle? Or is it possible that you are using a hydrometer (rather than refractometer) and your readings might have been off due to temperatures? All these things will effect your measured efficiency, and be sure that you have Beersmith setup with all the correct volumes.

Keep notes and you will improve each time. Cheers!

Try this calculator:
http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewhouse-efficiency/
http://www.brewersfriend.com/hydrometer-temp/

55.35% mash eff
65.03% final eff

These numbers make a little more since.
You will need to improve your mash eff to improve your brewhouse eff.
Until then, build your recipes off of 65% eff instead of 70% eff

Note:
The recipe was designed for 70% brewhouse eff.
Your eff is 5% lower so your OG is 5% lower.

1.051 = 70%
1.051 - 5% (.005255) = 1.0457 or ~1.046.

Thanks for the responses. I felt like everything had gone well because I hit all of my target volumes. Im brewing again tomorrow and will hopefully collect some good data.