Let's Talk Efficiency

[KurtisCummings]

Can someone please thoroughly explain brewing efficiency to me please? I just am not grasping it.

Help me figure out how to calculate it, what it's meaning is, and why its important in brewing.

I believe I understand it has to do with the amount of fermentable sugar potentially available for alcohol production... but I don't want to flub it up.

Thanks!

 

[dkennedy]

Try Here for the math- effectively it is a measure of what you should have extracted from your grains vs. what you actually extracted (technically the reverse, I guess!). So you have your pre-boil OG, which tells you what you extracted, divided by the maximum that your grains could have provided.

Importance is really linked to utilization of your grains- higher efficiency = less "extra" grain needed to hit target gravities, body, etc.

Hope this helps!

 

[Special Hops]

100% efficiency means you have extracted all of sugars from the grains. 50% means you extracted half. Typically homebrewers will hit around 65-80%.

 

[brushvalleybrewer]

Technically, 100% means you have extracted all that the maltster was able to extract using a special mashing technique. You won't get 100% and you wouldn't want to.

 

[postal_penguin]

It should also be mentioned that efficiency is really only pertinent to all grain or partial mash brewing. If you are making extract beers there is no need to worry about efficiency.

 

[KurtisCummings]

Try Here for the math- effectively it is a measure of what you should have extracted from your grains vs. what you actually extracted (technically the reverse, I guess!). So you have your pre-boil OG, which tells you what you extracted, divided by the maximum that your grains could have provided.

Importance is really linked to utilization of your grains- higher efficiency = less "extra" grain needed to hit target gravities, body, etc.

Hope this helps!

Perfect explanation - this is exactly what I needed.

I did my first batch as an extract, and the three following are partials... I have two Gatorade coolers on standby in the garage that I would like to convert over so I can begin doing full grain. I am decently happy with the partial's that I've produced thus far.