Biab efficiency and og questions.

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duffstuff

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Hi there, I recently started working out my efficiency using the how to brew book. I have confused myself beyond belief. I wonder can someone help fill in the gaps . Also I brewed and ipa and my hydrometer only reads up to 1.066. Can I use the information I have to work out or
Guess my OG .
Here is all the information I have .
13lbs pale ale malt
2lbs Munich
1lb caramunich 2
(All wayermans)
Pre boil gravity was 1.063
Pre boil volume 7.5 gallons.
Boiled down to 5 gal but hydrometer is now useless .
If I understand it right I can work out my efficiency with my pre boil gravity and volume but this gives me an efficiency of 88% !! Seems too good to be true for me.
Te formula was grain x max ppg \ volume
Any help , insight or answers greatly appreciated . Cheers
 
First I'd say get a hydrometer capable of reading higher gravities. Second, depending on your crush, conversion, and how much you squeezed, 88% is entirely possible. I typically get about 75% for "regular beers," and about 83-85% for session beers.

I'm sure you can use BeerSmith or similar to figure out your OG based on volumes and pre-boil gravity, but I've never tried.
 
I think that's your max possible efficiency from those grains. Divide you're actual measured OG by that and you should get your efficiency
 
I'm getting 78% efficiency using Beersmith defaults for those malts. Are you using 1.038 potential for the Weyermann's pale and munich and 1.035 for the caramunich II?

If you are sure of your volumes and readings then yes you can just calculate from the pre-boil readings, the points don't go anywhere. But I agree spend the $6 or so it would cost for a cheap beer hydrometer. What kind do you have that only goes to 1.066?
 
I live in Korea so this was the easiest hydrometer I could find. I will invest is something better . I used potential pale ale 38. Munich 35 caramunich 34 , these were in how to brew and on hopsville .
Thanks for all the help , very new to all grain and delight to be understanding everything a bit more
Cheer
 
Here is where I get confused. If I have the efficiency at 78% and a pre boil gravity of 1.063 at 7.5 gal .. Can I just work out the maximum efficiency for 5 gal and find 78% of that ,and that would be my og at 5 gal. ?? Not sure if that works though
 
I used potential pale ale 38. Munich 35 caramunich 34 , these were in how to brew and on hopsville .

Close to what Beersmith said, I get 79% efficiency with those numbers.

38 x 13 = 494
35 x 2 = 70
1 x 34 = 34 for total of 598 possible pts.

You had 7.5 gallons of 1.063 = 472.5 pts.
 
Here is where I get confused. If I have the efficiency at 78% and a pre boil gravity of 1.063 at 7.5 gal .. Can I just work out the maximum efficiency for 5 gal and find 78% of that ,and that would be my og at 5 gal. ?? Not sure if that works though

V1 x G1 = V2 x G2 where V is volume G is gravity in pts.

7.5 x 63 = 5 x G2

G2 = 94.5, so post boil gravity 1.094
 
Wow that's way past anything I have ever gotten before . Does it seem a bit high for the grain bill I used .? 13lbs pale ale, 2 lbs Munich and 1 lb caramunich .
I want to believe it but it seems so high
 
No sounds about right, 16 lbs in a 5 gallon batch is a pretty big grainbill. Nice that you were still able to pull that efficiency.
:mug:


Edit: you probably do want to check the calibration on the hydrometer though if you haven't used it before
 
Yeah that's the first thing I did , it seems fine. Thanks for all the feedback . I'm delighted I was able to achieve that kind of efficiency. It was supposed to be a hop ottin ipa clone but I think that plan is out the window haha.
 
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