Efficiency and stirring

[kenpotf]

All,

I'll be honest. I don't understand efficiency, or even how to calculate it. I'm assuming that it has to do with how much sugar you pull out of the grain, but I'm just guessing. I've had a couple of batches that hit a little lower than expected SG and I've had people ask me what my efficiency was. That being said, I've also read on here then when batch sparging, some of you stir and let rest between run offs.

My next beer, I thought about doing something like this:

vorlauff, drain to trickle, first batch sparge (beersmith splits it into two batch sparge "sessions"), stir, let sit for 10, vorlauff, drain to trickle, second batch sparge, stir, let sit for 10, vorlauff, drain to finish.

Is this recommended? I have not been doing this. I've been draining about half and then pouring sparge water over the grain bed with the spout open, but never touching the grain bed so I wouldn't disturb it. It seems like a lot of you kind of do what I'm describing above. Is that the best way to increase efficiency? Whatever that is...

 

[BackAlley]

You got it. Many of us batchers don't wait the 10 minutes. The vorlauf process is likely long enough to diffuse the sugars into the sparge water.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[brewkinger]

This^

The key points are
STIR after the sparge water addition.

No need to wait after stirring, start vorlaufing and set the grain bed and then drain.

As far as calculating efficiency, you are also correct.
With a certain amount of grains, you have a maximum amount of sugar that you COULD get.
Efficiency is the percentage of the total that you DO extract from the grains.




Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[PastorofMuppets]

i am in the 80s on efficiency and batch sparge.
I split the sparge into two additions and stir like mad as I add each, but I dont wait any length of time before
i vorlauf and get going gathering the runnings.

beer smith has a calculator for your efficiencies built in on the fermentation tab of your recipes.

 

[kenpotf]

Thank you for the reply So, I could shorten this with:

vorlauf, drain to trickle, first batch sparge, stir, vorlauf again?, drain, second sparge, stir, drain out

Beersmith tells me what the efficiency should be, so I'm assuming that it's calculating it correctly, but because I'm not stirring, I'm probably not hitting what it's saying I should be.

 

[Yooper]

Thank you for the reply So, I could shorten this with:

vorlauf, drain to trickle, first batch sparge, stir, vorlauf again?, drain, second sparge, stir, drain out

Beersmith tells me what the efficiency should be, so I'm assuming that it's calculating it correctly, but because I'm not stirring, I'm probably not hitting what it's saying I should be.

Why drain to a trickle? That isn't necessary, or recommended, with batch sparging and it will only slow down your day.

Vorlauf, drain (let 'er rip), add batch sparge water, vorlauf, drain. No need to break the sparge into two additions unless it all doesn't fit in the MLT with one addition, and definitely don't drain with a trickle as that will give the sugars time to resettle onto the grain during draining.

 

[masonsjax]

By trickle I think he just means to drain it dry, at which point it's just a trickle.

I tilt my tun to get as much out as possible. At that point I measure the runnings and know exactly how much more water I need to hit my target volume. Add that amount all at once, stir stir stir, let er rip fast as it'll go and I'm done.

Oh and to the OP, what you talked about in the first post, adding sparge water with the drain open but not stirring, that is sorta like fly sparging, which can be more efficient than batch sparging when done properly, but you need to do it a certain way, keeping a layer of water on top of the grain by throttling the valve while controlling the amount of water going in at a calculated rate. For batch sparging, efficiency relies on disturbing the grain bed and the valve should be closed when adding the water until you finish stirring.

 

[kenpotf]

Thanks again everyone. I've never disturbed the grainbed for fear of doing something wrong. Now I'm excited for my next batch since I've learned this new information. Thanks everyone!

 

[PastorofMuppets]

I just want to add that beersmith calculates your efficiency based on the number you set for your system.
You can and should enter your actual numbers to see what you actually achieved.

 

[DurtyChemist]

You can read about mash efficiency on the home page. They had three articles about it. Mash efficiency DOES calculate how much sugar you get out of the sugars in the grain. Multiple ways to calculate it but I feel the first article on the home page explains it.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew