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.
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.