3rd partial mash efficiency? + second Double Diamond experiment

I did my 3rd partial mash tonight
how's my efficiency?
infusion mash for my Double Diamond pale ale
4lbs marris otter
1lb 60 lvb crystal
2 oz honey malt (calculated it as 10 lvb crystal)

hydrometer read 1.041 just from grains
whole recipe below (w/o fg still chilling will edit later)
used this calc: http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewhouse-efficiency/

happy @ 1.041 for mash but efficiency came out @ 36.38%
infusion mashed 4.5 gals @152°
fly sparged 2 gallons stile @ 180°

In my previous batches I forgot to take sample before adding extract, so this is my first efficiency test.

?????How is 36.38% for an infusion? used zap pap wrapped in sleeping bag and fly sparged.????

Doing another batch tomorrow in the am using only 3 lbs+ of grain in a 2gal picnic drink cooler. no fly sparge batch sparge. (what I have done before) to test efficiency with brew in bag method.

2 karat Double Diamond clone:

.75lb 60lvb crystal
2oz honey malt (not in 1st batch but lacked a bit of sweetness)
4lbs maris otter
2lbs light dme (1lb added late last 15min)
1/2lb amber dme (late last 15min)
3/4 lb brown sugar
1/2 lb dextrine (upped from 1/4 lb sine mash temp was low)
5 tsp gypsum
irish moss

2.25 oz Williamette (4.7AA%) 60min
.5 oz Williamette (4.7AA%) 15min
.5 oz Williamette (4.7AA%) flame out 2 min steep

Yeast SA04 whitbread

Had some left over ingreds so I added for color and flavor.

1st batch tasted close to Double Diamond but better from what I remember... I think. It's been discontinued for so long. Here's what I used as a base from Cat's Meow:

9lbs Pale ale malt
1 lb crystal malt (no lvb given)
3/4 lb brown sugar
1/2 lb malto-dex (or 3/4lb carapils)
2 oz Williamette (no AA given)
3/4 lb brown sugar
1/2 oz williamette steeped flameout

infusion mash 156°
sparge add brown sugar + malto-dex

boil add 2oz williamette
steep 1/2 oz will. 10-15 after flame out.
O.G 1.051 FG 1.010

Infusion mash 1.6gal @ 156 sparge 2 gal to get to 3+ gal

You have me confused.

Gravity at 100% Efficiency: 1.029 - max
Gravity at 75% Efficiency: 1.022
Brew House Efficiency: 140.26%
Points / Pound / Gallon (ppg): 53.3


4 gallon of mash water is way to much for 5lb of grain.
5 x 1.25qts = 6.25qts = 1.56 gallons

These only makes sense to me if the figure are after adding malt extract. But I'm still confused about the amount of mash water you used.

If you did mash in 1.5 gal and sparged with 2 gal then you efficiency works out around 75% which is what I'd expect.

oops sorry mistyped 1.5 gallons not 4.5. sorry about that! 75% and 1.041 makes much more sense now!

thanks!

You made do math for nothing!

what formula do you use to calculate this?

Try to keep it simple... I'm an artist who is mathematically impaired!
online calc I used didn't seem to come even close.

thanks!

For the water ratio or the efficiency?

It's good to work out how to do the efficiency calc. but once you under stand it use software to do it.


There's a couple of ways to do it and a couple of type of efficiency to consider.

Mash and brew house.
Brew house takes in to consideration losses due to dead spaces etc.
The most important and simplest one is the mash efficiently.

When you look at the specific gravity of a grain e.g. 1050 then that is the Gravity you get at 100% efficiency if you use one lb. of grain in 1 gallon of water.

so 3lb of grain in 3 gallon of water you'd still get 1050 with 100% efficiency.

So the potential for each pound is 50 gravity points.
So for 3 lbs it is 3 x 50 = 150 and you use 4 gallons you 100% effeciency would be
150/4 = 37.5 (or 1037.5)

If your wort was 1030 then to work it out you need to find out what 30 is has a percentage of 37.5

(30/37.5)*100 = 80

Your Mash efficiency is 80%.

to work out for your actual efficiency you just add up all the potential gravity points for your grain and follow the above method.

Here's a more detailed explanation. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Efficiency

Got water ratio...
The efficiency formula was exactly what I was looking for.
great link to the wiki too!

thanks so much!
I think even I can work that math out!