Efficiency or highest efficiency low efficiency

best efficiency vs highest efficiency vs low efficiency why is this so important?
if I am making good beer at the end that I like and enjoy

Ditto.
It is more important to have constant process than trying to hit high efficiency. If you know that you get 60%, 65%, 70% or what ever efficiency and adjust grain bill accordingly to that you"ll be able to brew the beer you want (and hit desired OG, volumes etc).

IMO, the only thing that differs "low" and "high" efficiency is grain bill quantity, if you don't mind spending some extra bucks on grain then you shouldn't worry about it at all.
Besides that, as you said, brewing is fun and its always nice to try to get maximum of our equipment and process but as long we get constant results there is no need to have headache about efficiency.

Well my goal is to brew good beer and have fun doing it and drinking it. and constanly
inprove as I brew batch after batch and plus thru this site.

Yep, breweing good beer that YOU like is priority #1.

When I went AG I was worried about maximum efficiency. After 50 or 60 AG batches I am only concerned with consistency of efficiency so I can hit my target OG numbers. FWIW I run about 72 to 75 percent, and I am perfectly happy with that. So I may need to use an extra pound or two of grain? In the big picture that's a dollar or two. Not a big deal.

And if you don't care about hitting numbers, then more power to you!

My $ .02.

Alan

Best $.02 tip I have ever read

Gilbey said:

Yep, breweing good beer that YOU like is priority #1.

When I went AG I was worried about maximum efficiency. After 50 or 60 AG batches I am only concerned with consistency of efficiency so I can hit my target OG numbers. FWIW I run about 72 to 75 percent, and I am perfectly happy with that. So I may need to use an extra pound or two of grain? In the big picture that's a dollar or two. Not a big deal.

And if you don't care about hitting numbers, then more power to you!

My $ .02.

Alan

Click to expand...

Consistency is key. I too, when I started AG, was worried that my efficiency schlong was way too small. I saw all those big numbers and strived to get them... Now, I KNOW that it is small (around 60-65%) and don't care about it because I know how to compensate for it

LOL - I had efficiency envy in the begining too!!

Now I am perfectly content .

Alan

Love it!!!

I too think efficiency consistency is more important than getting high efficiency sometimes but being all over the ballpark with your values other times. Say you plan on getting 65% for an IPA, but end up hitting 88%. Congrats, your IPA just got maltier, not great news if you were looking for a straight hop bomb. It could turn out great, but what if you wanted to repeat that recipe that you brewed a month ago?

While I still have the "hey, it's just beer" mentality, I do like having some extent of control over my process.

I agree with everyone that consistency is important, however I would be lieing if I said I was content with a low percentage. When I started is was hitting about 70, but with a few changes to my process and a tweak to my mash tun I'm proud to say I hit 78-80% efficiency everytime. If your content with a lower number then great, but constantly hitting a 60 something percentage means there's room for improvement somewhere.

I calculated my efficiency once after the last time i adjusted my mash prosedure
Now i only know that 10kg malt will give an og in the low to 50s(i assume it still does sinse the hydrometer rarely get used anymore)

Guess i will loose some now that my new mashtun is big enough to do single sparge instead of my usual triple

Switching to Beersmith 2.0 has really jacked me up.

I was consistent at 70%, the last couple of brews have been much lower.

It is like breaking in a new brewery.

pm5k00 said:

I agree with everyone that consistency is important, however I would be lieing if I said I was content with a low percentage. When I started is was hitting about 70, but with a few changes to my process and a tweak to my mash tun I'm proud to say I hit 78-80% efficiency everytime. If your content with a lower number then great, but constantly hitting a 60 something percentage means there's room for improvement somewhere.

Click to expand...

I have no doubt that it's my LHBS crush that is causing such a low number because I BIAB and squeeze the bag, so there's not a lot of dead space/loss of volume, etc.. Plus I dunk sparge for 20 minutes. But I calculated that I need about 1 to 1 and a half pound of base malt more per batch to make up for my low numbers. A barley crusher is about 189$ around here shipped. I can brew A LOT of beer before I can justify spending the big bucks for a mill. I brew small beers though. If I were brewing big DIPA and RIS every week, it would add up fast.








Not that I won't buy one in the future

How do you measure efficiency?

I also agree that consistency is king. Without it, it is hard to make up your own recipe because you won't be sure what your gravity will be and how you should hop for the beer you are brewing. Or tweak someone else's recipe for your system for that matter.

I consistently get right around 85% (+/- a couple of points), so when I use a recipe from the forum, I usually need to use a pound or two less base malt, even though I bump the volume up to 6 gallons at the end of the boil. Over time, all of those 1-2 pound "savings" adds up to "free" beer .

@jfr1111. Ask you LHBS to run your grain through the mill twice (a double crush) I noticed a 5% increase when I started doing that.

honestly the best way for a constant high efficiency is get your own mill. I used to average 50-70%, now Im usually 80's plus.

A corona mill and a drill should be enough to start grinding your own
Its not mash effichensy that makes the difference between a roller mill and a grinding one...

I just bought a barley crusher

i have consistent low efficiency - pretty sure it's grain crush and crushing my own is the next step... i'm always about 65%... i just want it higher so i can use less grain/money.

talked to a pro-brewer the other day (healdsburg BC) and they don't hit 80% - always about 78% he said... but that's with constant stirring in the MT and fly sparging. i don't do that...