Understanding efficiency

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RandalG

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I'm having trouble wrapping my head around mash efficiency and in particular designing recipes at a certain efficiency.Is ME related to everyone's individual system? What is the difference in mash efficiency and brewhouse efficiency when it comes to designing a recipe? I've done 6 AG batches so far and according to beersmith my efficiency comes out higher than what the original recipe is designed for resulting in a higher abv. Which isn't always a bad thing I suppose.So should I be adjusting my grain bill down to more closely match the abv of the original recipe or is there another way to adjust your efficiency?
 
Mash efficiency measures what goes into the boiler. Brew house efficiency measures what goes into the fermenter.

If you are exceeding the recipe gravity then you need to adjust your software or calculations to account for that. Doing the adjustment will lower the base grain amount down a bit to match your systems efficiency.

I found a good article here that better explains it all:
http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2008/10/26/brewhouse-efficiency-for-all-grain-beer-brewing/
 
So is it best to average my brewhouse efficiency over several batches then use that as a starting point in determining my grain bill?
 
Yes, target about 70% for starters and then log your actuals with every batch so you know what to expect.

I'd just nitpick that mash efficiency is how much starch you convert to sugar IN the mash tun, mash/lauter or just "lauter" efficiency is how much of the sugar you converted + how much you got into the boil kettle. Brewhouse is how much got to the fermenter.

Beersmith calls mash/lauter efficiency "efficiency into the boiler".
 

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