One more detail. I use Beer Tools Pro to formulate all my recipes, even recipes I get from a reliable source like Jamil and John's book. This tunes the recipe to my equipment. BTP takes care of all calculations and volume temperature compensations so that I can focus on formulating the recipe and making accurate measurements. With good preparations I can hit the mash temp within one degree, and I have exactly 0.5 gallons of liquid left in the MLT at the end of the sparge.
E-HERMS--What kind of efficiency should I be getting?
- Thread starter utopeya
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There's a compelling argument for using brewing software. I'm kind of old school still, and do most of my calcs by hand, and don't bother calculating irrelevant but useful data like sparge volumes. Using software like that would streamline my process, reduce variables, and help me dial in on some of my recipes.
I've only calculated efficiency a couple times, once with a trial version of software, and they were not the same. That was before I built the new rig. Perhaps I should make the leap to the 21st century now that I have the new rig and the ability to produce more consistent beers, and buy some software...?
TB
wildwest450
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That has to be it. My first two beers on my new e-herms hit 80%, exactly where the last 50 batches I did in a cooler ended up at. This last one got away from me and I sparged way to fast, like 4 gallons in 15 minutes.
I have never missed an OG by more than 2 points, this one came up 8 points shy.Beer is ALL about the process, that's why I was so hesitant to change setups, there will be a learning curve. Damn you, mediocre transitional beers.
It certainly did the trick for me. Also I tried two programs to calculate efficiency. The results were different and neither matched my hand calculations. I figured that those guys must know something I don't so I picked one and let it do the calcs from then on. It is still enlightening to do the calculations once in a while to keep up with how it works.
I am really happy with Beer Tools Pro. It is inexpensive and it does a great job. It takes a little time to get the hang of, but now it makes perfect sense how it works.
Bowtiebrewery
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I have a corona Mill sitting around and I could grind that into a fine powder on my next wheat beer. I'm thinking about doing a hefe soon.
I tried wetting the grains with a spray bottle once after reading Kai's brewing wiki page and I had a problem with grains sticking to the hopper... I'll certainly have to try it again, but to be honest... I havnt been super pleased with my Malt Mill.. I'm thinking about selling it and getting a Crankenstein 3D
I tried wetting the grains with a spray bottle once after reading Kai's brewing wiki page and I had a problem with grains sticking to the hopper... I'll certainly have to try it again, but to be honest... I havnt been super pleased with my Malt Mill.. I'm thinking about selling it and getting a Crankenstein 3D
