Help with extract brew

Ok first im using beertools pro. second im brewing a partial mash (or i guess i consider it to be) imperial ipa with 9 pounds of extract and 1 pound of crystal malt and 1 pound of bonlander malt in the mash and am going to mash at 155F for 60 min, im going to do a late kettle addition of half the extract and am going to use wyeast 1056 and the fermentation temperature should be around 70F as that is what my house pretty much stays at. what should i set the attenuation, and efficiency to in the software to accurately predict what I should expect to get as a result? thanks for all the help to a new brewer.

The efficiency setting won't matter a whole lot, but you could probably put 60% in there. The attenuation I'd set at 73 for your extract batch.

Wyeast 1056 from the Wyeast website:
Flocculation: Medium-Low
Attenuation: 73-77%
Temperature Range: 60-72F, 15-22C
Alcohol Tolerance: 11% ABV

but isnt the efficiency of DME like 97% since its only like 3% water and 97% sugar?

There are a few different "efficiencies" related to brewing. The software has all the extract efficiencies set (Edit: this should be "extract potential"). For DME I'm thinking that's somewhere in the 70s (I'd have to look it up) and would depend on the type (Pilsen Light, Light, Amber, Munich, etc) - on the other hand, simple sugars like corn sugar and cane sugar have an extract efficiency (edit: extract potential) of around 97%. BUT like I said, that's the beauty of software; all of those extract efficiencies (edit: extract potentials) are built into the calculations.

All you have to worry about is your brewhouse efficiency. That's a measurement of how much of the available sugar content in the grain that YOU can get out of the grain by mashing. And THAT's the measurement you need to enter into the "efficiency" field in your software. All-grain homebrewers seem to run anywhere from 70-85% brewhouse efficiency. For an all-grain recipe it's really important to know approx what efficiency you're going to get, or you'll either under- or over-shoot your anticipated OG maybe by a lot. BUT when you're doing a partial mash the grain is typically only a small portion of the expected total sugar extract, in comparison to how much the extract will be contributing. In your case, with 1 lb Crystal and 1 lb Munich (I assume that's what Bonlander is - I had to look it up), compared to 9 lbs DME (?) they'll only be a really small portion of the total sugars; therefore, the brewhouse efficiency you put into the software will not matter all that much.

Since you're doing a partial mash, and probably don't have a great set-up to rinse the grains after they're mashed, I figured you'd get maybe 60% of what you could possibly get out of the grains.

When you're doing the partial mash (and BTW that's what you need to do, since the Munich needs to be mashed not just steeped - the Crystal on the other hand could just be steeped to dissolve the sugars), just make sure you follow partial mash directions. Use around 1.5 to 2 qt water per lb of grain (so 3 to 4 qts for your 2 lbs of grain), and follow the temperature guidelines. The temps are really important when you're mashing.

So, in case it wasn't clear, make sure you don't change the pre-set extract potentials that the software already has built in... ONLY change the brewhouse efficiency.

tnbrewer371 said:

but isnt the efficiency of DME like 97% since its only like 3% water and 97% sugar?

Click to expand...

I think it's true that DME is 97% sugar, but some of those sugars (like 20 to 30%) are not fermentables.

thanks for all the help guys! frodo: where would i find the information as to what temp and times bonlander (yes munich) needs to be mashed at?

Mash temps aren't specific to any certain type of grain. Typical single infusion mash temps are generally from 148F to 158F; the lower end of that range will yield more fermentables, and the higher end will yield more non-fermentables and provide more character. I'd mash the Munich + Crystal at 154F - that's a very typical mash temp, and it will give you some character taste from the Munich and Crystal which is what you're looking for from them. Cheers!