brewhouse efficiency. Is % in the 90s too high?

[DBhomebrew]

Yep

 

[hottpeper13]

I like the waste not want not attitude. what i do is pour the kettle trub into a sanitized pitcher,cover with foil and let it settle out overnite in my 33* lagerator. I end up with 1.5-2 qts I decant and freeze for starters( haven't used DME since going all grain). Because it's already boiled I just bring it to boil then let chill on down draft fan.

 

[DBhomebrew]

Do you sparge that mass ... if not why not you are missing out on a few percent !

Why not ? Sparge with a a quart next time you make a brew and check the gravity. If there is a decent return boil to the desired OG and add it to the fermenter ... there is a lot more sugar in there than you think

my brewhouse was only 78.5% because of hop and trub volume losses ... I could have improved that figure by sparging the hops in the boil kettle and boiling that volume to the OG ... sorry but life is too short

I see.

 

[Miraculix]

I like the waste not want not attitude. what i do is pour the kettle trub into a sanitized pitcher,cover with foil and let it settle out overnite in my 33* lagerator. I end up with 1.5-2 qts I decant and freeze for starters( haven't used DME since going all grain). Because it's already boiled I just bring it to boil then let chill on down draft fan.

That is a pretty neat idea.

 

[balrog]

My spleen clenched at the thought of blowing air, chock full of with microbial dust particulates, on cooling wort.

I'll get over it.

 

[MicroMickey]

I end up with 1.5-2 qts I decant and freeze for starters

A friend of mine has done this for years. He calls them "wort-cicles".

 

[hottpeper13]

I'm a gear head and brew with a couple of'em, we call it starter fluid.

 

[jambop]

I recently started taking notes on my brewhouse efficiencies using the Berwersfriend.com calculator and I'm getting numbers that I'm having difficulty actually believing.

As I continue to refine my various brewing processes...I find that my gravity readings keep going up, causing me to reduce my grain bills on recipes that I like and repeat often.

For example, I just did an Oktoberfest. I got a recipe on line that looked interesting but based upon my recent other beers and gravity results I reduced the grain bill significantly, yet hit the recipe OG.

Recipe:
3.5# Pilsner
3.5# Munich
4# Vienna
1# aromatic Munich 20L
0.33# CaraVienne
12.33# total grain
yield: 5 gallons
OG: 1.055

What I did:
2# Pilsner (Great Western)
2# Munich (Briess Bolander)
3# Vienna (Briess Goldpils Vienna)
0.75# Briess Aromatic Munich 20L
0.25# Dingemans CaraVienne/Cara 20
8# total grain
yield: 4.85 gal in the fermenter which is also the serving keg (kettle wort strained to remove kettle trub, about 1 quart volume of solids)
OG: 1.055

The calculator came up with 91.53% brewhouse efficiency. My last few beers calculated out between 89%-96% brewhouse efficiency. How is this possible? I'm using 1/3 less grain but getting basically the same results.

Some things about my process...I BIAB using a bag inside a solid wall basket. I mashed for about 10 hours at 150' (I'm at work and let it run all day and recirc). I mash with less than full volume so I then pull the basket and sparge the mash with about 1.5 gal of water to capture extra sugars. The bag is then squeezed to extract as much wort as possible. Then boil down wort to my "boil start volume" target. All the wort at the end of the boil goes into the kettle after straining with a 200 micron filter to remove he solids (about 1quart volume of solids are discarded). I basically have zero wort waste thru the entire process. All the wort makes it to the serving tap since I ferment and serve in the same keg and all trub is screened out first.

Just returning to the above post to put something straight when you key the quantities for the original brew recipe into brewers friend using a modest but easily attainable Brewhouse efficiency of 75% you will find that the OG figure is not the 1.055 you have quoted it is in fact 1.071 and final gravity 1.018 for a 5 US gallon brew. A more realistic and believable result . In fact assuming 91.5 % would give a OG if 1.083 !!!
Using the recipe you used to make your brew gives a OG of 1.056 at BH efficiency 91.5 % still an amazing but less believable result.