Help Understanding Efficiency Numbers

Trying to get a handle on my numbers to plug into BeerSmith and other calculation programs. Here are my BIAB numbers, need help understanding what they actually mean.

5G (fit in my soda keg) target batch Hefeweisen

6.5# Wheat, 3# Pils, .25# Melanoidin

7.25 G gal strike water, no sparge, light squeeze BIAB

6.65 G in boil kettle after mash out. Wort was 1.043 Temp adjusted

5.5 G in boil kettle after 90 min boil and wort cooled to 72F

5.25 G went into fermenter after break material was strained out. Wort was 1.049 temp corrected before yeast pitch.

I am not real sure how to use these numbers, but BeerSmith recipe told me I should see 1.049 as my OG. And I did. So I suppose I am on track.

Can a knowledgeable brewer tell me a quick breakdown of what my numbers I listed mean? THANKS!!!

1) Volumes don't make sense. To get 7.25 gal strike, and 6.65 run off you'd have an absorption rate of 0.6 gal/lb. This is a very hard squeeze.

2) Target batch size is the volume transferred INTO the fermenter, not at packaging.

3) Do not adjust temp your gravities. They need to be cooled and then read. Temperature adjustments are not accurate.

Anyways...

Beersmith does not tell you anything regarding efficiencies, or estimated gravities. You tell it what brewhouse efficiency you expect, and it calculates the rest for you. If you're wrong on your entered expected BH % then it's calculations will be wrong.

Efficiencies, I didn't adjust my grain yield for your recipe, so it's ballparking +- 2% or so. Actual numbers are probably a smidge lower, since wheat malt has a high yield.

Conversion: ~95% This is good. Might be able to get another 2-3% by tightening your grain crush and adjusting ph, but don't worry about it for now.
Lauter: ~80%. This is good as well. Nice job.
Sparge: ~15.8%. This is good for not doing a sparge. 0% is typical for no sparge process'.
Mash: 77%. Really good for no sparge.
brewhouse:~74%. Small dip here due to the kettle losses after straining break material.

pricelessbrewing said:

1) Volumes don't make sense. To get 7.25 gal strike, and 6.65 run off you'd have an absorption rate of 0.6 gal/lb. This is a very hard squeeze.

2) Target batch size is the volume transferred INTO the fermenter, not at packaging.

3) Do not adjust temp your gravities. They need to be cooled and then read. Temperature adjustments are not accurate.

Anyways...

Beersmith does not tell you anything regarding efficiencies, or estimated gravities. You tell it what brewhouse efficiency you expect, and it calculates the rest for you. If you're wrong on your entered expected BH % then it's calculations will be wrong.

Efficiencies, I didn't adjust my grain yield for your recipe, so it's ballparking +- 2% or so. Actual numbers are probably a smidge lower, since wheat malt has a high yield.

Conversion: ~95% This is good. Might be able to get another 2-3% by tightening your grain crush and adjusting ph, but don't worry about it for now.
Lauter: ~80%. This is good as well. Nice job.
Sparge: ~15.8%. This is good for not doing a sparge. 0% is typical for no sparge process'.
Mash: 77%. Really good for no sparge.
brewhouse:~74%. Small dip here due to the kettle losses after straining break material.

Click to expand...

Thanks for taking the time to help me with some numbers for BeerSmith. I can plug these in to get a better handle on my recipes. Yeah, I think I may have squeezed harder than gentle. The bag wasn't dripping at all when I took it to the compost pile. I was pretty careful measuring since I knew these numbers would be important to get numbers in my program. THANKS for the help.

If you're interested, Brewers Friend has a nifty chart explaining what these numbers mean.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewing-efficiency-chart/

Not to hijack this thread but I've figured that my "brew house " efficiency is 82%.

Does that sound plausible for using a 10 gallon igloo w/false bottom and kettle?
I mill my own grain also.

TexasWine said:

If you're interested, Brewers Friend has a nifty chart explaining what these numbers mean.

http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewing-efficiency-chart/

Click to expand...

This is a good resource! Thanks!!

fatherdan said:

Not to hijack this thread but I've figured that my "brew house " efficiency is 82%.

Does that sound plausible for using a 10 gallon igloo w/false bottom and kettle?
I mill my own grain also.

Click to expand...

Yes, it's plausible. But, without seeing some of your measurements it's not possible to independently verify. What's plausible is anything under the bottom dashed line on the following chart (assuming you batch sparge.)



Note how efficiency drops as the grain bill weight increases.

Brew on

doug293cz said:

Yes, it's plausible. But, without seeing some of your measurements it's not possible to independently verify. What's plausible is anything under the bottom dashed line on the following chart (assuming you batch sparge.)

View attachment 360773

Note how efficiency drops as the grain bill weight increases.

Brew on

Click to expand...

That is a sweet chart. Any chance you'd be willing to share the formulas?

schematix said:

That is a sweet chart. Any chance you'd be willing to share the formulas?

Click to expand...

It's all based on mass balances of the sugar and water during the mash and sparge. You start with a grain bill weight and SG potential (I use 1.037 as a default) or a fine grind dry basis potential extract percentage. If working with an SG potential, convert to percentage using the following formula:46.173 is the ppg for sucrose. 37 ppg = 80.13% extract potential.

Next adjust the grain wt from as is to dry basis by multiplying the total grain wt by (1 - fractional moisture content):Next calculate the potential sugar weight created in the mash:Convert the water volume to water weight by multiplying by the density of water (8.3304 lb/gal @ 68˚F):Calculate the Plato of the wort in the mash (˚Plato = Weight % of sugar in the wort):Convert ˚Plato to SG:Calculate the volume of wort collected on first runnings:Calculate wort weight from:Calculate weight of sugar collected in run off:Calculate weight of water collected in run off:Calculate retained sugar and water weights:Now Repeat the above for each of the sparges, except:When you have completed all the sparges, total up the collected sugar weights and the collected water weights, and calculate the pre-boil ˚Plato and SGFinally, calculate lauter efficiency:
Let me know if you have questions.

Brew on