acceptable efficiency?

[HopOnHops]

After many batches of being right on the money I kit a batch at a different homebrew shop. I never questioned effencncy until this time. I formulated my recipe for an og of 1.055. I came up at 1.038. Going by the numbers aparently I was getting 80ish% efficiency with the grain crush from my typical shop. This new shop gave me a value around 60%.

I believe typical efficiencies lie between 60-75% So do I have a reason to be upset with this homebrew shop if their mill gives an effencncy at the lower end of the typical spectrum?

 

[rjschroed]

Without knowing a lot more detail of your process it is kind of hard to pin point exactly why that might have happened. That being said, if you suspect it was the crush you got from that shop then I would either ask them to run it through twice or stick with your typical shop. No need to go pointing fingers at this point but it is possible that the crush was less than ideal for your set up this time. . . there are other possibilities too though. Could be anything from a faulty hydrometer to a faulty thermometer to simply that particular recipe doesn't work well with your brewing water. What a lot of guys do is keep some DME on hand so they can adjust the Pre-boil gravity to what they expect in case something like this comes up. What was it that you were brewing?

 

[amandabab]

with a my corona mill, i'd worry it I wasn't getting consistent 75-80% mash efficiency

 

[Arrheinous]

I get 70-75% off my LHBS grains. I'm still working on getting the AG stuff down. Been thinking about playing around with water composition.

 

[TopherM]

You could have just as easily missed your mash temps low or lost a lot of heat in the mash and lost efficiency. I wouldn't automatically blame the crush.

 

[Arrheinous]

You could have just as easily missed your mash temps low or lost a lot of heat in the mash and lost efficiency. I wouldn't automatically blame the crush.

An on-target but low mash temperature (depending on OP's unknown recipe) would also require a longer conversion time?

Happened to a Belgian tripel I made. Now it's more of a dubbel...

 

[WDT]

I'd rather have a consistently low efficiency than a sporadic high efficiency numbers. What's a couple extra bucks with of grain per batch now anyway?

Know your system and know what to expect out of it and adjust your recipes accordingly. There are lots of calculators out there that do that specific thing. I get 70% in my system for most beers and as low as 60% on really big beers. I just adjust for the extra fermentables I need to use.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Less than 70% would have me searching for problems. But anything over 70% AND consistent would make me happy. Consistency over big numbers any day.

 

[beergolf]

Consistency over big numbers any day.

Could not agree more. Give me the same consistency any day. Much rather have that , than hitting 60% one brew and 80% the next time.

I set my efficiency in my brew software at 73% and know that I always end up within a point or two of the predicted OG. I am happy with that.

 

[billl]

"So do I have a reason to be upset with this homebrew shop if their mill gives an effencncy at the lower end of the typical spectrum?"

Crush is a balance between efficiency and ease of use. Not everyone agrees on where that balance should be and not everyones system response the same to tweaking variables. So, there is no reason to be upset if a particular product doesn't work perfectly for your system. Either ask if they can double crush to be more compatible with your system or just go back to your prior shop.

 

[HopOnHops]

I brewed a simple pale ale. And I use 2 thermometers to check temps, refractometer to check gravity throughout the process and double check the starting gravity with a hydrometer at the end. The mysrery beer was
8# 2 row
1# munich
8oz Crystal40
8oz Melanoidin
8oz Carapils
Mashed at 148F. Beersmith estimated an OG of 1.055 and I got 1.038.

Before this batch ive never seen a crush where most of the grist still looks whole.

 

[SpeedYellow]

...

Before this batch ive never seen a crush where most of the grist still looks whole.

You found your problem.

But generally, 60% efficiency doesn't necessarily mean something went wrong-- If I'm making a low-grav pils, I get 75%, but my smoked bocks only get 62% because of that particular malt (Weyermann). And high-grav stouts will commonly get around 60% since efficiency suffers for high-grav beers.

 

[wilserbrewer]

If it is not too late, I would gather a little sample of the barely crushed grain to show the people that sold it to you. You could stash a cup or so in your freezer.

I think they deserve the feedback. From the pics, I'm surprised you got the efficiency you did.

 

[passedpawn]

Note that the higher the OG, the lower your efficiency is going to be. When you make a big beer you must lower your expected efficiency (i.e., increase your grain bill). It's just the physics of sparging.

But, with the standard 1.055 OG, I'd say anything over 70% is good enough to not worry. It's been a long time since I figured it, but I think my system sits between 75 and 80 with 2 sparges.