AG recipes, efficiency & dialing in

[Ki-ri-n]

I've done two AG brews so far. I think I have a handle on what my efficiency is for my setup. And what I need to change in order to improve it. But, I don't know how/what to change in my brewing to achieve similar results to someone brewing the same recipe.

1st, I notice with all the recipes posted, no one ever lists efficiency. Is it just assumed that the recipe is for 100% eff? And you have to adjust the recipe to take into account your efficiency?

2nd, I assume I'd have to adjust the grain bill to reflect my efficiency based on the recipe given @ 100%? If so, how do I go about doing that? Are all grains compensated in the same way? Or do you just do the base malts?

I'm using Brewtarget as my brewing software. I've tried manipulating the recipe based on my eff but I could never get "the numbers" to come out the same as it was @ 100%. I could get it close but I'm not sure if I was adjusting the grain bill correctly.

 

[archiefl98]

I usually assume 70% efficiency
Then I compare the OG readings from their recipe to what BeerSmith says
Then adjust accordingly to figure out what efficiency the author used
Then I scale to adjust to my own efficiency.

If no OG is listed and no efficiency is listed, I just assume 70%.

 

[Catch-22]

I don't even think you can get 100% with a congress mash. I go for 70% as my target. I usually end up around 75% and am happy. Some believe the higher your % the more likely you are to extract unwanted tannins. I don't know whether that is true but BYO mag sets their eff at 65% for recipes listed.

 

[Ki-ri-n]

archiefl98:
How do you scale? If you have 75% eff, do you just up each grain by an additional 25%?

Catch-22:
I know you can't get 100%, nor do you really want too. But so far I have never seen efficiency listed in a recipe. And I haven't seen anything stating that a given recipe is generally thought to be produced at "X" amount of efficiency.

Not sure if this is specific to Brewtarget or not but, I've entered recipes in BT as listed and it shows the recipe is balanced IF the recipe is @ 100% eff. If I change the eff to reflect that of my system & practices, the resulting beer shows it is not balanced. Am I to assume that I need to adjust the grain bill to get it back to "balanced" based on MY efficiency? How do you do it? It's got to be more than trial and error.....

 

[archiefl98]

Yeah, I just use BeerSmith to adjust the amount of grains until the gravity matches the recipe. There's a "Scale" feature but I don't usually use it. I'd rather just adjust the base malt and not worry so much about adjuncts.

 

[Hammy71]

With Beersmith you can convert a recipe from 70% to what ever your efficiency is. Very simple and quick.

 

[lowlife]

I just scale my grain down to match the recipes intended original gravity