efficiency loss after the mash? or just confused about beersmith.

hey all,

i just finished up my second all grain batch, and i'm still trying to learn a bit about mash efficiency, brewhouse efficiency, and how beersmith calculates it all.

i have my total efficiency set to 75%. with this, i am right on the money with my preboil volume and gravity - my measured mash efficiency is 82%, just as beersmith estimates.

however, my measured brewhouse efficiency into the fermenter is only 70%, 5% less than the program was "set" at. This makes me think that i am losing efficiency somewhere between sparging and pouring into the fermenter. I am not spilling wort, so where am i losing efficiency? or am i just confused by all the numbers to plug into my program?


thanks!

Are you sure that you have the correct equipment profile? Could always do the calculations manually..How is your evaporation rate? Are you taking your preboil gravity?

I actually did a few brews on each of my first couple of rigs and estimated that brewhouse efficiency number. After using Beersmith for a while and brewing several times, I settled on 73%.

It is possible that your evaporation rate is too high which would lead to lower than expected gravity...or your sparge may not be as efficient as you would like (more likely).

If you get the same results consistently, then I say use that as your brewhouse efficiency and add a pound of grain if necessary. The most important thing is volume then original gravity (in my opinion).

bannonb said:

It is possible that your evaporation rate is too high which would lead to lower than expected gravity...

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I was under the impression that more evaporation -> higher gravity + lower volume. Did I miss something?

thisoneguy said:

I was under the impression that more evaporation -> higher gravity + lower volume. Did I miss something?

Click to expand...

Same here as it seems to make sense. Less water means more concentration of sugars, etc.

My first guess would be the equipment profile like someone mentioned. IN there it has numbers to input for losses you get in your mash tun, boil kettle etc. You need to measure those losses to account for them to have everything match up.