RyanDe680
Well-Known Member
This weekend, well yesterday, was a good day to brew for me....
My goal was to up my efficiency by a decent margin. I was brewing in the 70% to 72% range, which was okay and very acceptable. I really wanted to focus on the process this time though, as I felt I had a good thing going, but just wanted to perfect it a little more each time.
This time around, I brewed a blonde ale. My coffee stout is almost ready to be bottled and there were a few 6 gallon carboys without company, so I figured why not.
This time around, I took a decent amount of time collecting my runnings. By decent I mean 40-45 minutes both for first and second runnings. This seems to have made a huge difference, as my efficiency spiked to 80.26%.
Now I know there is a great debate on efficiency and sometimes it doesn't matter, but to me, it was one area where I felt I could have used some improvement. To me, efficiency is just a measure of perfecting your process to what you want it to be. That's all really.
The collection of the runnings, hitting my mash temps and ensuring a good crush were key for me. Having all of those elements helped improve my efficiency, which is what I was going for.
Just wanted to share for those looking to work on efficiency.... I found the above elements to be key. Brew days aren't something that can be rushed, this extended my process by almost 2 hours, but in the end I hit my numbers and will hopefully end up with the taste I was hoping for in my recipe.
My goal was to up my efficiency by a decent margin. I was brewing in the 70% to 72% range, which was okay and very acceptable. I really wanted to focus on the process this time though, as I felt I had a good thing going, but just wanted to perfect it a little more each time.
This time around, I brewed a blonde ale. My coffee stout is almost ready to be bottled and there were a few 6 gallon carboys without company, so I figured why not.
This time around, I took a decent amount of time collecting my runnings. By decent I mean 40-45 minutes both for first and second runnings. This seems to have made a huge difference, as my efficiency spiked to 80.26%.
Now I know there is a great debate on efficiency and sometimes it doesn't matter, but to me, it was one area where I felt I could have used some improvement. To me, efficiency is just a measure of perfecting your process to what you want it to be. That's all really.
The collection of the runnings, hitting my mash temps and ensuring a good crush were key for me. Having all of those elements helped improve my efficiency, which is what I was going for.
Just wanted to share for those looking to work on efficiency.... I found the above elements to be key. Brew days aren't something that can be rushed, this extended my process by almost 2 hours, but in the end I hit my numbers and will hopefully end up with the taste I was hoping for in my recipe.
