How do you know what your typical brewhouse efficiency is?

[JLW]

Is there a calculation? Is it based on experience? I'm pretty new to AG and I am into my 3rd/4th. AG batch and I am unsure of myself on this topic. My mash tun is a 10 gallon igloo water cooler with a stainless steel false bottom. Sometimes I batch sparge and sometimes I fly sparge. Just depends if I have the time to fly sparge.

I've been reading articles ont he subject but must confess I may have a little information overload.

Thanks in advance for any responses and help.

 

[Hammy71]

I use Beersmith and by taking pre-boil and post boil hydrometer readings it will calculate your brewhouse efficiency for you. If you want to do just your mash efficiency for free:

http://www.brewheads.com/efficiency.php

After you have your system down pat, you'll start to see a constant eff. number.

 

[Northcalais40]

I may be way wrong, but I take the OG*actual beer volume (in the fermenter) and divide by the total potential gravity points, and I do round off.

Example:

Grist weight: 13.25#
Potential Gravity points:13.25#*36(PPG)=477
Collected in fermenter: 5.5g @ 1.066
BH Eff.: (5.5*66)/477= 76%

Maybe a bit inaccurate to call all my grain 36ppg, but I can consistently hit my numbers.

 

[old_tx_kbb]

I know that mine sucks....65%...even lower with high gravity brews. I use brewsmith as well. Most extraction calculations are based at 75%. So if you hit your pre-boil gravity and your OG numbers, you can repeat your process to obtain consistent results.

Although I try to improve my stats, it's not so bad to have to spend an extra 2 dollars for grain hit the numbers I need to stay consistent.

But......I do continue to try to improve my brew house efficiency on each batch....hoping for an extra point or 2.

There are some excellent posts on improving your extract efficiency.

 

[jdoiv]

Most important thing is to try and be consistent. As Old Tx says, whats a couple of extra bucks to get the final product you want. Many things effect efficiency. The ones you want to focus on that will make a good product are pH and temp. Sparge with too hot water or the pH gets out of whack and your quality will be effected. It's just a number after all.

 

[beeber]

I use BeerSmith, my efficiency is around 72. When I batch sparge, if I double sparge the efficiency goes up.

 

[CPooley4]

JLW - My brew chart in my signature below will take care of all that for you. It's free to use/download. If you have questions please feel free to ask. I'll be releasing a new version of it in the next week or so as well that is a fairly substantial upgrade.

Good luck.

cp

 

[Seven]

Here's another calculator: http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewhouse-efficiency/