94% efficiency-Even possible?

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RCCOLA

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I read a thread where a brewer claimed this efficiency by tightening up his grain crush.I went on my brew calculator and entered in 90%(highest it would go)and came up w/ 1.050 for 7 1/2 lb 2-row. The same amt. of malt syrup only came out to 1.054.Is this one of those "Mine's bigger than yours" :confused:boasts or is it even possible?
 
I got something like 92% on the 999 barleywine, but I did 16 gallons of runnings for a 5 gallon batch. Yes I boiled a long time.
 
I got something like 92% on the 999 barleywine, but I did 16 gallons of runnings for a 5 gallon batch. Yes I boiled a long time.

Evil I think you made barleywine extract :rockin:
 
It's possible. Even with batch sparging, but more likely with good fly sparging as batch sparging has an inherent efficiency limit. If you want to get this efficiency with batch sparging you need to make sure your conversion efficiency in the mash is 100% (crush, pH, mash thickness and time effect this). If that is not the case you will leave efficiency behind. Now you need a lauter efficiency of 94% plus. If you want to get this with batch sparging you need to brew a beer with a small grist otherwise to much wort get trapped in the grains between each sparge. According to my calculations you need to be sparging twice.

But keep in mind that brewhouse efficiency is not an indication of beer quality. While possible to do with batch sparging, I would consider that high of batch sparging efficiency oversparging.

Kai
 
I often get 90+, I sparge super slow with pretty hot water. My grain comes precrushed from the maltster. The mash out seems to be important to.

It can in fact be a bit of a pita in the end of the sparge since you need to watch your gravity so you dont oversparge.
And getting it all into the fermenter can be troublesome.
 
Looking back at my notes, my two highest brewhouse efficiencies have been just under 92%. That means my mash/lauter efficiencies were at about 94% so yes, it's obviously possible. I've got my process dialed in to 88% right now for target OGs of 1.050. I drop the expected efficiency down by about 1% for ever .05 points higher than that. I do miss it by a great margin if I'm really lazy about my sparge temps though. (batch sparging FYI).
 
I think pro breweries get really high efficiencies. I've yet to break 65 but my beer always tastes good.
 
I think pro breweries get really high efficiencies. I've yet to break 65 but my beer always tastes good.

I've just recently surpassed the 62-65% efficiency range on my last two batches (both at 70). Heating up my batch sparge water above 190 to get the grainbed temperature up at the end to about 168 makes a difference in my opinion.
 
I got 92% brewhouse efficiency on my last batch. Crushed at 0.025", water was a perfect 5.2 pH thanks to RO/DI + custom salts, I always dough in for 20 minutes at 104F which is purported to add 1% efficiency, mash out at 170F, and then very slowly fly sparge with 170F water. Another key here is decoction mashing. All that water I don't have to add as an infusion is held in abeyance for fly sparging. Also I can fly sparge with a little extra water because of my 90 minute boil.

This wasn't a small beer either. My OG into the fermenter was 1.074!
 
I got 92%, 94% 94% my last three brews. I had a pretty fine crush. Problem was it evidently was too fine and had too much flour. All three these beers were cloudy. I have always had crystal clear beers. I believe the mill was at .0.025 I am opening it back up to about 0.035-0.040 next brew and figure in on the efficiency drop. I was getting a consistent 80% then and that was quite acceptable to me and I had clear beer.

Also, I fly sparge. My efficiency jumped drastically when I started doing that and added a domed false bottom in the cooler. I was always in the mid 60's batch sparging. That was one of the reasons for tightning the gap on the mill. I have never been below 80% fly sparging.
 
I always dough in for 20 minutes at 104F which is purported to add 1% efficiency

While it is beneficial for the enzymes to dough in at a lower temp, I doubt that one could assign a universal number to the efficiency gained from that.

Kai
 
While it is beneficial for the enzymes to dough in at a lower temp, I doubt that one could assign a universal number to the efficiency gained from that.

Kai

From How To Brew 14.3:

With all of that being said, the use of a 20 minute rest at temperatures near 104°F (40°C) has been shown to be beneficial to improving the yield from all enzymatic malts. This step is considered optional but can improve the total yield by a couple of points.

Palmer doesn't assign a number but does indicate that it helps overall efficiency. Seems pertinent given the thread topic.
 
From How To Brew 14.3:

With all of that being said, the use of a 20 minute rest at temperatures near 104°F (40°C) has been shown to be beneficial to improving the yield from all enzymatic malts. This step is considered optional but can improve the total yield by a couple of points.

Palmer doesn't assign a number but does indicate that it helps overall efficiency. Seems pertinent given the thread topic.

Yes, he said what I said. It can benefit efficiency but it's difficult to assign a percentage to that gain.

Kai
 
Wow ,that makes my 72-76% batch sparging seem wasteful.Guess I'll tighten up my JSP mill and see what happens.I've been triple sparging thinking that would be the best way but I'm gonna try 2 on my next batch.
 
Yes, he said what I said. It can benefit efficiency but it's difficult to assign a percentage to that gain.

Kai

Okay. When I read your first post I interpreted it to mean "it probably will not help your efficiency." My mistake.
 
Back to the OP question... I got around 93% on my last batch. The crush had an insane amount of flour (crush myself, but use LHBS mill) and I batch sparge. It's actually a little annoying because I set my efficiency to 85%, and had to dilute after I was done.

I need my own mill...
 
I get the low 90's ofter....slow warm fly sparge....plus I use a spark plug gapper for my JSP
Do you have one adjustable on one end or both?Mine is the one only adjustable on 1 end and I was wondering how even the gap is after adjusting it tighter.Also what gap setting are you using?
 
I know this thread is old but no need to start a new one. Last night I got the highest I've even gotten brewing a stout with 8.75 lbs I grain I got a prevail of 1.043 and a final of 1.052. I fly sparge and last night I had extra sparge water and I just dumped it into the mash turn the last 5 mins with my pump Vurlofing. This acted like a mash out I suppose; the water was around 200 when I dumped it in. My mash efficiencie was 97% an my brew house was 94%. I have recently been getting the low 90s for mash but maybe something to the mash out. I use a round cooler system electric.

Tipos and misspelling due to iphone
 
Last edited:
@treesforme

Assuming an average PPG of 1.036 in your grain bill

100% efficiency would be 315 gravity points.

Depending on your fermentor volume the points you got were

254 in a 5 gallon batch 80% brewhouse efficiency

281 in a 5.5 gallon batch 89% brewhouse efficiency

It begs the question. What was the fermentor volume. And how accurate a measure is it.
 
All my fermentors are measured to 5.5 gallons and my preboil volume is 7.2 for my brew house and I got 7.1 in the boil and my usual 5.5 in the fermentor
 
All my fermentors are measured to 5.5 gallons and my preboil volume is 7.2 for my brew house and I got 7.1 in the boil and my usual 5.5 in the fermentor

with a corrected preboil volume of 6.9225 gallons

~94% mash efficiency (approximate based on an assumed average PPG of 1.036)


Sounds like you run a tight ship. :)
 
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