daniel diggins
Member
- Joined
- Oct 22, 2019
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- 5
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I`m wandering through and looking over some things has got me feeling insecure. I think this is by design to get me to hire a personal trainer or buy products. My brew equipment consists of a large pot, a 5 gallon bucket and I've been buying muslin bags to "steep". I dont even test with iodine or own any meters. What's got me feeling insecure is how low tech. my setup is and no way of knowing if I`m wasting grain potential. Considering muslin bag steeping is supposedly inefficient compared to brew in a bag or false bottoms. But I wonder how Egyptians brewed beer or even as close in history as moonshine technology mash in process and can't imagine or find evidence that this wasn't a simple process of dissolving sugars and starches and natural sedimentation. Buying equipment to become more efficient or measure efficiency seems like fools logic here, since that money could also go to buying more grain and I don't scale enough to eventually make it worth the investment.
What's got me concerned is attempting to crudely measure my own efficiency here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/re-brewing-with-spent-grains.641012/
leads me to believe I`m running 66% efficiency and makes me think switching to a paint straining bag or ditching bags all together and relying on purely sedimentation in the wort process and fermentation could yield a higher efficiency. Looking at what efficiency to expect
I look to be just shy of the low end of modern "normal" efficiency
A mash efficiency of 70-80% is typical for most homebrewers, though it is possible to get upwards of 90%. And seeing claims of 90% efficiency with brew in a bag and wondering if it's a miscalculation or exaggeration. Considering the math here starts with potential gravity of a grain. And this feels like a logical fallacy, appeal to authority. Considering, if the way they measured the original potential of the grain yielded only 90% of the potential of the grain, you would be at 100% efficiency through the process of measuring brewing efficiency in the standard model.
My processes seem so off the rail and reinventing the wheel it seems to be wholly unrelated to be almost incomparable to measures of efficiency in the standard model of efficiency measurements. So I question whether a 66% measurement of efficiency the way i've measured can be compared to the standard model of measurements as the same measurement. Since I`m getting anomalous anecdotal readings. 1: lies within standard grain bill recipe models. 2: is why and how is my homebrew supply charging more for grain then LME and how is LME able to beat price points of grain on the same shelf unless there is this lost sugar potential in the all grain process that LME extractors are yielding? and all grain processes are declaring 100% efficiency on.
To answer this I have a few ideas.
1. is to buy gravity measuring equipment to establish a control on the standard model of efficiency and then run the experimental measure of efficiency and find any deviation.
2. Piggy back off a recipe that declares an efficiency level and compare that efficiency measure with my own technique that derived the 66% efficiency levels. Unlikely since reproducing it exactly requires me buying equipment.
3. Get someone nervous enough to measure their own efficiency levels using the malt extraction measurements of spent grain to compare with what efficiency levels they think their working with and hope they post and I read it.
4. Run my next run with no bag or a paint strainer bag(probably definitely doing this) and repeating the crude made up efficiency measuring process to see if there's an increase in efficiency.
5. Obtain grain declared spent from another brewer that's measured efficiency from a standard model and attempt to recover malt extract. This one seems to be the most unlikely.
What's got me concerned is attempting to crudely measure my own efficiency here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/re-brewing-with-spent-grains.641012/
leads me to believe I`m running 66% efficiency and makes me think switching to a paint straining bag or ditching bags all together and relying on purely sedimentation in the wort process and fermentation could yield a higher efficiency. Looking at what efficiency to expect
I look to be just shy of the low end of modern "normal" efficiency
A mash efficiency of 70-80% is typical for most homebrewers, though it is possible to get upwards of 90%. And seeing claims of 90% efficiency with brew in a bag and wondering if it's a miscalculation or exaggeration. Considering the math here starts with potential gravity of a grain. And this feels like a logical fallacy, appeal to authority. Considering, if the way they measured the original potential of the grain yielded only 90% of the potential of the grain, you would be at 100% efficiency through the process of measuring brewing efficiency in the standard model.
My processes seem so off the rail and reinventing the wheel it seems to be wholly unrelated to be almost incomparable to measures of efficiency in the standard model of efficiency measurements. So I question whether a 66% measurement of efficiency the way i've measured can be compared to the standard model of measurements as the same measurement. Since I`m getting anomalous anecdotal readings. 1: lies within standard grain bill recipe models. 2: is why and how is my homebrew supply charging more for grain then LME and how is LME able to beat price points of grain on the same shelf unless there is this lost sugar potential in the all grain process that LME extractors are yielding? and all grain processes are declaring 100% efficiency on.
To answer this I have a few ideas.
1. is to buy gravity measuring equipment to establish a control on the standard model of efficiency and then run the experimental measure of efficiency and find any deviation.
2. Piggy back off a recipe that declares an efficiency level and compare that efficiency measure with my own technique that derived the 66% efficiency levels. Unlikely since reproducing it exactly requires me buying equipment.
3. Get someone nervous enough to measure their own efficiency levels using the malt extraction measurements of spent grain to compare with what efficiency levels they think their working with and hope they post and I read it.
4. Run my next run with no bag or a paint strainer bag(probably definitely doing this) and repeating the crude made up efficiency measuring process to see if there's an increase in efficiency.
5. Obtain grain declared spent from another brewer that's measured efficiency from a standard model and attempt to recover malt extract. This one seems to be the most unlikely.