Efficiency Clarification

[iXanadu]

Hi,

We just completed our second all-grain and the efficiency seems to be so high I would like someone to check my understanding/math.

Batch 1:
Grain Bill:
20 lb 2-Row
1.2 lb Crystal 60
1.5 lb Choc Malt

Mash in 7 gal for 90 min
10 Gal fly sparge over 65 min
Collected 13 gal
Gravity for 13 gal = 1.050
Efficiency 82.1%


Batch 2:
Grain Bill:
15.15 lb 2-Row
1.2 lb Crystal 20
.5 lb Cara-Pils Malt
1.5 lb Rye Malt

Mash in 6 gal for 60 min
9.5 Gal fly sparge over 95 min
Collected 12.75 gal
Gravity for 12.75 gal = 1.042
Efficiency 85.0%
* I stopped the sparge a little early when I checked the gravity with my refractometer and read 1.0076.
** This sparge was so long because my burner was busy with another extract brew.


The efficiency's come from Beer Tools Pro. The grain inventory items conform to the manufacture's gravity contribution. I can adjust the gravity up and down, and the numbers above are where my collection match.

Seems like this is too good to be true.

 

[ericm]

I'm not familiar with beer tools, but I got different numbers:

batch 1:
2-row - 38 ppg * 20 lbs / 13 gallons = ~58.5
C-60 - 34 ppg * 1.2 lbs / 13 gallons = ~3.1
choc. - 28 ppg * 1.5 lbs /13 gallons = ~3.2

for a total of ~ 64.8 ppg; 50/64.8 = ~77%


batch 2:

2-row - 38 ppg * 15.1 lbs / 12.75 gallons = ~45
C-20 - 35 ppg * 1.2 lbs / 12.75 gallons = ~3.3
carapils - 32 ppg * 0.5 lbs / 12.75 gallons = ~1.3
rye malt - 29 ppg * 1.5 lbs / 12.75 gallons = ~3.4

for a total of ~ 53 ppg; 42/53 = ~79%

those max ppg numbers are from palmer's table, which I think are based on averages, so they might not be totally accurate for whatever particular malt you're using, but they should be close.

Either way, they're totally respectable efficiencies; congrats!

 

[iXanadu]

I'm not familiar with beer tools, but I got different numbers:

batch 1:
2-row - 38 ppg * 20 lbs / 13 gallons = ~58.5
C-60 - 34 ppg * 1.2 lbs / 13 gallons = ~3.1
choc. - 28 ppg * 1.5 lbs /13 gallons = ~3.2

for a total of ~ 64.8 ppg; 50/64.8 = ~77%


batch 2:

2-row - 38 ppg * 15.1 lbs / 12.75 gallons = ~45
C-20 - 35 ppg * 1.2 lbs / 12.75 gallons = ~3.3
carapils - 32 ppg * 0.5 lbs / 12.75 gallons = ~1.3
rye malt - 29 ppg * 1.5 lbs / 12.75 gallons = ~3.4

for a total of ~ 53 ppg; 42/53 = ~79%

those max ppg numbers are from palmer's table, which I think are based on averages, so they might not be totally accurate for whatever particular malt you're using, but they should be close.

Either way, they're totally respectable efficiencies; congrats!

Thanks for the reply. Your example caused me to dig deeper into BeerTools to understand how it calculated the efficiency. Seems like it uses the same formula as you, but like you suspected the grain data base has different ppg numbers than palmers table. Not sure which is still relevant or most right. BTP generates the PPG from the grain analysis published from the manufacturer see image below.

Batch one using BTP PPG numbers:
2-row - 35.3 ppg * 20 lbs / 13 gallons = ~54.3
C-60 - 32 ppg * 1.2 lbs / 13 gallons = ~2.9
choc. - 31.1 ppg * 1.5 lbs /13 gallons = ~3.5

for a total of ~ 60.85 ppg; 50/60.85 = ~82%

Again - thanks for the reply - confirms my numbers and made dig deeper into the software I use.