Efficiency

[azbrewnewbie]

I see a lot of folks talk about the efficiency of their grains and wort. Is it necessary to measure the efficiency? I didn't do this with my first brew, and am wondering if maybe I should start.

 

[tjmac5071]

The biggest part of efficiency is knowing what your average is so you can plan future brews. When I started all grain my first two batches were around 68. My standard now is 75-78. If you try to brew a recipe off of the internet, this site or a brew magazine you will see they likely list "based on 70% efficiency" this helps you change around your level of malt to hit the starting gravity per the recipe. I personally do not think it matters much more than recipe design but you will see people bragging about 90% efficiency or others that are chasing a bigger number. For me, as long as I'm pretty consistent I don't care.

 

[JKaranka]

You shouldn't worry about numbers first time around. Just make sure to mash at a relatively ok temperature, boil well and sanitize everything that gets into contact with the boiled wort. Remember to chuck in hops and yeast. After you have that under your belt start measuring to get better results in the long term.

 

[gspot]

No, it's not absolutely necessary to measure it, although you don't really measure it per se (it's simply your achieved OG divided by the theoretical potential of your fermentables).

Instead of figuring it out, You can just assume that you'll get some arbitrary efficiency and then adjust your grain bill for later brews. For example, you could assume that you'll end up with 1.050 from 10 lbs of grain. Then, if you only end up with 1.045, you'll know that your system is less efficient than your assumption and mash next time with 11 lbs instead. Conversely, if you get 1.055, you'll know you need less grain for future brews to achieve a given O.G.

This is really the only reason it's important IMO. Otherwise it doesn't really matter, unless you're a commercial brewery using hundreds of pounds of grain and trying to minimize your costs.

 

[Yellowirenut]

Otherwise it doesn't really matter, unless you're a commercial brewery using hundreds of pounds of grain and trying to minimize your costs.

i agree with this also. Was listening to a podcast with pro brewers on it. It was on what pro brewers do and why, also why its not necessary for homebrewers to do those things. His outlook on it was a purely economical one. Many pro brewers do not look into the efficiency of there process until they are able to get a constant quality product. He brews on a 60 bbl system.

 

[azbrewnewbie]

Thanks guys. I screwed around and didn't measure my OG before i pitched the yeast so I won't have much a clue about my first brew. I brewed a simple blonde ale and stuck pretty close to the instructions/recipe. The second time I tried a red ale and did measure my OG so I should be able to tell a little more about that one. Although I think i over did the roasted barley and hops (think i over did hops on both as I am starting with 1 gallon brews and threw in 1 oz hops both times). But I'm learning and will be trying my hand at the cream ale (three kings or whatever it's called) next to see if I can get that right and start brewing possibly bigger batches.

Thanks again guys.

 

[azbrewnewbie]

Thanks guys. Definitely still learning.

Didn't measure the OG in my first batch but did for my second. I over did the hops I would bet as I'm doing one gallon batches and used full 1 oz packs and boiled for 60 minutes for both. Will get this right eventually and going to try my hand at the three kings cream ale. Sounds like a great beer and will tweek that as I see necessary.

 

[gspot]

I can strongly recommend looking into some basic brewing software that'll help with some of these unknowns like what using 1 oz vs .5 oz hops will do to your brew (IBUs), and it'll automatically calculate efficiency for you. I use Beersmith (and before that Promash), but that's probably overkill in this situation. Do a search for brewing software and you'll get a lot of good recommendations. Just be careful: you seem to be on the slippery slope towards... well, I'll let you find out

 

[Jim311]

All that really matters is that you meet your original gravity numbers your recipe calls for. People get hung up on efficiency but what is really important is brewing consistently so you can adjust your recipes accordingly. A little extra grain is cheap compared to the cost of a lot of things that people use to up their efficiency, like pumps, expensive mash tuns, etc. If you like to geek out on that stuff that's cool, but if you don't, there's hardly any reason to worry much about it if you're meeting the gravity numbers you need.

 

[brewcat]

The biggest part of efficiency is knowing what your average is so you can plan future brews. When I started all grain my first two batches were around 68. My standard now is 75-78. If you try to brew a recipe off of the internet, this site or a brew magazine you will see they likely list "based on 70% efficiency" this helps you change around your level of malt to hit the starting gravity per the recipe. I personally do not think it matters much more than recipe design but you will see people bragging about 90% efficiency or others that are chasing a bigger number. For me, as long as I'm pretty consistent I don't care.

That's about where I am on efficiency. Although this last time I hit 81. Average at like 78 gives me a good starting point for recipe design. My last kit brew gave me a higher ABV; presumably it was set for 70.

 

[doug293cz]

If you want predictability of OG from random recipes, you need to have a process with consistent and predictable efficiency. Doesn't matter if it's high or low efficiency, you just need to know what it is. Then you need to know the efficiency assumed by the recipe so you can scale it for your process and system. Alternatively, if you know enough about efficiency calculations, you can figure out the efficiency implicit in the recipe, even if the author doesn't tell you.

If you're not hung up on hitting exact OG's, then you can just RDWHAHB, and let the gravities fall where they may. There's no right or wrong here, it's all about what matters to you.

Personally I like to nerd out with efficiency calculations, but don't actually practice trying to hit exact numbers when I brew. As long as the beer tastes good, I'm happy.

Brew on