Efficiency

I recently ended up with 5 UK gallons of liquor ready for yeast pitch with an OG of 1.047 after mashing 10 UK lbs of crushed maris otter pale malt in 9.5 UK gallons of water at 67 deg C. (I just run off the liquor, with no sparging) . I had to waste one gallon as my boiler only takes 5.5 gallons, and obviously some liquor was retained by my hops. So whilst my efficiency is poor, what would be the OG if my efficiency was as good as it reasonably could be? Thanks.

Bob, suddenly I have a headache . . . .

I don't calculate by hand, I use Beersmith. You can punch in a recipe and type in different efficiency percentages and it will give you the predicted OG. Very handy. If you don't have Beersmith yet, you might consider downloading it. It has a free trial period, so you can see if you like it or not.

Personally, I don't worry about maximizing efficiency - I get around 70% which is just fine for my setup and brewing needs.

With your figures, I calculate your efficiency to be about 75% even with leaving 1 gallon of wort behind. That is a very respectable figure
However, I wouldn't try mashing 10 lbs grain with 9.5 gallons water, as (without correction) the pH of the mash would be much too high which would result in lower efficiency. You need to use about 0.8 to 1.7 imperial quarts per lb grain, drain off the first runnings, then add however much sparge water you need to obtain the required volume at a higher temperature (you want to raise the grain temperature up to 74 - 76C), stir, wait a few minutes, vorlauf a quart or so, and then drain the runnings.

-a.

so if I have a respectable efficiency AJF - surely mashing 10lbs in 9.5 gallons water was efficient. I am confused. I will check out Beersmith in any case. Thanks.

Thanks biermuncher, I went from 70 to 78% with this method and it was faster as well. This batch is your centennial blonde