Owly055
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- Feb 28, 2014
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It's easy with brewing software to calculate your efficiency as a percentage. Mine ranges from 75% or so, up to close to 90% based on the amount of water and grain used, using Brewer's Friend as my handy dandy calculator. I've fallen below, and come out above.
What is efficiency really? Is it OG as related to grain and water? Is it minutes of labor per glass of beer? Is it glasses of beer per pound of grain?
................ Is it even relevant? If I can produce great beer, do I really care about pounds of grain, or minutes of labor to achieve the result? Probably not.
I've focused heavily on time because I brew 2.5 gallon batches...... I brewed 44 times in 2014....... I like to brew, but I can't justify 4.5 hours brew time alone for 2.5 gallons of brew.... But we've been there before and everybody's tired of it. I can do 2.5 hours easily,, and that's good enough for me.
Grain is cheap....... I pay $25 for a 50 pound of Malteurop 2 row, and a buck seventy five a pound for specialty malts...... I buy my hops in half pound quantities from Yakima Valley Hops, and average about $9 per pound..... About 60 cents worth of hops in a 2.5 gallon brew..... Total that up...... About $3 worth of two row. A dollar or less for specialty malt, 60 cents worth of hops in a generic ale.... add perhaps 50 cents for yeast..... as I culture my own. Add that up and I have about $5.10 in 2.5 gallons of beer (materials only), or 34 cents per half liter bottle. (15 bottles per brew + plus around half a bottle)
Do I really care about materials cost? Obviously not.
An interesting number.......... 15+ bottles from a 2.5 gallon brew. With no trub, and no waste, 2.5 gallons should yield 19 half liter bottles (3.8 liters per gallon) My yield is 81.5%
Obviously BIAB is costing me beer...... I'm losing 3.5 bottles per brew
"Conventional" brewers...... mash, lauter, sparge..... seem to brew based on 5.5 gallons for a 5 gallon yield..... 90% yield........ That would give me a bottle and a half more beer per brew. I've done a lauter and sparge using the grain in a bag resting in a colander before, actually recycling 100% of the worth through the grain bed to filter it, then sparging with hot water...... it adds at least half an hour to the process, and yields a bit more beer due to less trub.........But I haven't documented the gain. It also gives me more sugars per pound of grain.......I might gain one bottle, perhaps 1.5 which would push me right up against 90% efficiency...........but is that increase in yield worth the investment of time? Clearly not. I'm adding at least 20% to my brew time to increase the yield by perhaps 8%. Does it improve the quality of the product.......... I would say not. Does it save me money..... clearly it does.......I'm earning about 51 cents for that extra half hour......... Excellent wages ;-) (NOT).
On the other hand, If I were brewing a 15 barrel batch, the equation would change significantly. Those of us on the very low end of the scale in terms of batch size are at a major disadvantage in terms of time, and have to make choices accordingly. The biggest thing I could do to increase efficiency all the way around would be to move to 11 gallon batches......... But I do not foresee even upgrading to 5 gallons.
As far as I'm concerned quality is my number one priority.... Time is a high priority to me because of the way I brew and the number of brews I make and the size of them.... We all have our priorities, and I expect that quality is number one for all of us. I would hope so.
How do you measure efficiency?
H.W.
What is efficiency really? Is it OG as related to grain and water? Is it minutes of labor per glass of beer? Is it glasses of beer per pound of grain?
................ Is it even relevant? If I can produce great beer, do I really care about pounds of grain, or minutes of labor to achieve the result? Probably not.
I've focused heavily on time because I brew 2.5 gallon batches...... I brewed 44 times in 2014....... I like to brew, but I can't justify 4.5 hours brew time alone for 2.5 gallons of brew.... But we've been there before and everybody's tired of it. I can do 2.5 hours easily,, and that's good enough for me.
Grain is cheap....... I pay $25 for a 50 pound of Malteurop 2 row, and a buck seventy five a pound for specialty malts...... I buy my hops in half pound quantities from Yakima Valley Hops, and average about $9 per pound..... About 60 cents worth of hops in a 2.5 gallon brew..... Total that up...... About $3 worth of two row. A dollar or less for specialty malt, 60 cents worth of hops in a generic ale.... add perhaps 50 cents for yeast..... as I culture my own. Add that up and I have about $5.10 in 2.5 gallons of beer (materials only), or 34 cents per half liter bottle. (15 bottles per brew + plus around half a bottle)
Do I really care about materials cost? Obviously not.
An interesting number.......... 15+ bottles from a 2.5 gallon brew. With no trub, and no waste, 2.5 gallons should yield 19 half liter bottles (3.8 liters per gallon) My yield is 81.5%
Obviously BIAB is costing me beer...... I'm losing 3.5 bottles per brew
"Conventional" brewers...... mash, lauter, sparge..... seem to brew based on 5.5 gallons for a 5 gallon yield..... 90% yield........ That would give me a bottle and a half more beer per brew. I've done a lauter and sparge using the grain in a bag resting in a colander before, actually recycling 100% of the worth through the grain bed to filter it, then sparging with hot water...... it adds at least half an hour to the process, and yields a bit more beer due to less trub.........But I haven't documented the gain. It also gives me more sugars per pound of grain.......I might gain one bottle, perhaps 1.5 which would push me right up against 90% efficiency...........but is that increase in yield worth the investment of time? Clearly not. I'm adding at least 20% to my brew time to increase the yield by perhaps 8%. Does it improve the quality of the product.......... I would say not. Does it save me money..... clearly it does.......I'm earning about 51 cents for that extra half hour......... Excellent wages ;-) (NOT).
On the other hand, If I were brewing a 15 barrel batch, the equation would change significantly. Those of us on the very low end of the scale in terms of batch size are at a major disadvantage in terms of time, and have to make choices accordingly. The biggest thing I could do to increase efficiency all the way around would be to move to 11 gallon batches......... But I do not foresee even upgrading to 5 gallons.
As far as I'm concerned quality is my number one priority.... Time is a high priority to me because of the way I brew and the number of brews I make and the size of them.... We all have our priorities, and I expect that quality is number one for all of us. I would hope so.
How do you measure efficiency?
H.W.
