90% Efficiency... with home malt?!

[Monstar]

Please prove me wrong so I can see where my calculation errors are!

I brewed today with some more home malted grains. This is my 4th batch. My 3 previous batches I hit my target perfectly, batch sparging, with BeerSmith set at 75%.

Today was my first attempt at a fly sparge. I actually posted earlier today about when to stop collecting wort, hehe. Anyway, by the time I got an answer, I had collected 5 gallons of wort instead of my usual 4 (I brew 3 gallon batches).

I just cooled my wort, and I'm getting a gravity reading of 1.055 (adjusted for temperature) with 4 gallons. My target for a 3 gallon batch was 1.059. Im not great at math, so in BeerSmith I switched the batch size to 4 gallons, which put me down to a target of 1.044. I calculated the efficiency and BeerSmith comes up with ~93%!

I tested my hydrometer in water, and have been trying to find out what is going on. Help please!

 

[jvcjbl]

I'd say leave the batch size the sized intended in Beersmith and then input the collected amount of wort and what OG it was. My latest batch was figured at 70% efficiency with a projected collection amount of 5.5gal @ 1.062 OG. I collected 5.65gal @ 1.065 for 75.2% efficiency.

 

[Monstar]

K. Ill do that right now...

Still coming up with 93.8. O well, I guess I just have an extra gallon of beer... will be less hoppy, but I can deal with that. Good thing I have a 5 gal bucket laying around for no damn reason.

I dont know what to do about future brews. i think Ill plan for 80% next time and see what happens. Ill for sure be fly sparging from here on out...

 

[jvcjbl]

Post your recipe and I will see if I can recreate your efficiency in the software.

 

[Monstar]

Amount Item Type % or IBU
5 lbs 8.0 oz Pale Malt (2 Row) US (2.0 SRM) Grain 84.62 %
9.9 oz Home Amber (35.0 SRM) Grain 9.54 %
4.0 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 20L (20.0 SRM) Grain 3.85 %
2.1 oz Caramel/Crystal Malt - 80L (80.0 SRM) Grain 2.00 %


TG: 1.059
OG: 1.055 @ 4 gallons.


Mashed @ 150 for 60 min. 60 min boil.

 

[Monstar]

3 gallon batch. Thanks man!

 

[Monstar]

Sorry, that was the wrong recipe. I edited the post to show the correct ingredients. My bad!

 

[jvcjbl]

Seems right as you are getting more than the intended amount even at a lower efficiency. I come up with the same numbers. *cheers*

 

[Monstar]

Woohoo! Hopefully I can keep this up! Thanks for your help.

 

[Yooper]

One thing you can do next time, especially until you've nailed your predicted efficiency consistently is to take a preboil OG. If it's super high (or too low!) you can adjust your hopping rate on the fly, so that you still end up with the correct IBUs and and the correct balance for the beer.

 

[Monstar]

Totally. I will definitely be doing that next time. Thanks for the tip!