Remember When I was Complaining about Losing Eff. Between the Boil and the Sparge?

I got worse, and worse, and worse. Finally it settled down to around 67% efficiency. Not good as I was at around 78%. This went on for about 7 Batches. Finally, this evening, I had a buddy of mine over to hang out and smoke some Cigars while we Brewed. Once I got the Boil going, First thing he says. "You call that a Boil?" Well, yeah... I mean, 212 degrees is 212 degrees, right? Uhm, I guess not. So we brought my boil to a more vigorous roll. I was trying to save gas prior. But this time, I Boiled. Well, guess what happened. My efficiency shot back up to 76% with this batch. Holy SHATS Brewman!!!

Losing a bit of water due to evaporation during the boil can do wonders for efficiency. I collected over 7 gallons of wort for my RIS (when I recognized that my pre-boil efficiency was crap), and I wound up with less than 5 into the fermenter after a prolonged boil. Post boil efficiency was 80%-ish with a HUGE grain bill.

Some people claim a boil is a boil. I disagree. A kick arse, bout to spew over the edges, outta control boil is a boil...

Bet you get a cleaner, clearer beer as a result...

So that means you're talking about overall efficiency as opposed to mash efficiency... right?

Either that, or we're doing some really weird math.

Were you boiling the same when your efficiency was higher? I would agree that a stronger boil is not a bad thing but if is the only item that changed then it might be something else.

I was Aggresively boiling when i had a higher Efficiency. I started to lose Effiency when I was trying to save on Propane. I was getting results of 78% Efficiency into the Boil Pot, but a Total Efficiency rating of around 68%.

BierMuncher said:

Some people claim a boil is a boil. I disagree. A kick arse, bout to spew over the edges, outta control boil is a boil...

Bet you get a cleaner, clearer beer as a result...

Click to expand...

I hope so. I forgot to add the Whirlflock to this Batch...

tell ya the truth i hardly ever use boiling coagulants anymore cause the hard boils are great for clearing beer imho:rockin:


but my eff is still sucking

Hmmm, I guess this is what happened to my first AG.

73% efficiency going into the boil.... 64% efficiency when everything was all said and done with. I kept the flame just high enough to keep a boil going, but it was not vigorous because I didn't want to lose too much to evaporation.

I just don't see how a vigorous boil can lead to better efficiency though.... I mean, after the mash and everything all the sugars are out in the wort, and 212 IS boiling.... the only difference, I thought, was that you are losing more to evaporation. The temperature of the wort really isn't getting higher.

I think next time I'll boil more vigorously, and then top off to 5.5 gallons in the fermenter...

Brew Dude said:

I think next time I'll boil more vigorously, and then top off to 5.5 gallons in the fermenter...

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I think the idea here is to use more sparge water so you can pull out more sugar, then boil down to the volume you want to ferment.

How does evaporating more water during the boil affect efficiency? It'll result in a higher gravity, but a lower volume, but the actual efficiency would remain unchanged. The only time I can see that the evaporation could affect efficiency would be if you ended up with so much wort after the boil that it would not fit in the primary.

-a.

Yes, plus one ajf. I read this thread and kind of questioned my understanding of efficiency?? But then just shook my head and moved on.

Is efficiency basicly, (weight of sugars extracted) / (weight of grain) ?


Hah, I've never calculated efficiency, nor have I used a hydrometer in decades. Maybe I'll stay the course. A little bit of knowledge can be dangerous thing.

I always do the mash & sparge, then check effeciency w/ my refractometer.

From there I never check it again (with exception for letting it cool for a bit, it usually goes up a point). I think it mute point anytime afterwards.

Efficiency stays the same no matter the boil. IT all depends on the volume that goes into the fermenter. You OG will be higher but you will have less wort. If you increase the volume of water you use for sparge and then boil vigouroulsy to get a larger boil off and same volume then you would be able to get a higher eff. If the only thing you are changing is the vigor of the boil and not the amount of wort into the boiler then you wont have any change in eff.

+1 tbulger - The amount of fermentables do not change with length of boil, just their concentration.

jason.mundy said:

+1 tbulger - The amount of fermentables do not change with length of boil, just their concentration.

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Exactly what I was thinking!!

I saw early on in Promash (PM) the best time to take an efficiency reading is after the sparge process is done. You need to account for the grain and all water used. PM tells you exactly how much water to add and what the target gravity should be based on on your desired efficiency.

PM makes it simple figure out and hit the mark.

Schlenkerla said:

I saw early on in Promash (PM) the best time to take an efficiency reading is after the sparge process is done. You need to account for the grain and all water used. PM tells you exactly how much water to add and what the target gravity should be based on on your desired efficiency.

PM makes it simple figure out and hit the mark.

Click to expand...

+1 to this: when you measure the gravity of the sparge, you are measuring whatever sugars you extracted from the mash. After the boil, the amount of sugar is the same but you have increased gravity is because some of that water was boiled off and it is more concentrated.