Grainfather and Efficiency

[redrocker652002]

OK, so I know I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, but the Helles I have working now was supposed to have a preboil gravity of 1.045 and I clocked in at 1.051. According to Grainfather that is a 91% efficiency? Does that sound about right?

 

[user 348755]

OK, so I know I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, but the Helles I have working now was supposed to have a preboil gravity of 1.045 and I clocked in at 1.051. According to Grainfather that is a 91% efficiency? Does that sound about right?

I have the same "problem" with my AOI. Totally possible. I e had to adjust my recipes to make up for the high efficiency. Just make sure you're not increasing sg with unfermentables, otherwise it's a good problem to have.

 

[FogHTX]

OK, so I know I am not the sharpest tool in the shed, but the Helles I have working now was supposed to have a preboil gravity of 1.045 and I clocked in at 1.051. According to Grainfather that is a 91% efficiency? Does that sound about right?

Make sure that the wort is well stirred before you take your sample as it can stratify significantly as soon as the vigorous boil stops. I had a post boil sample that was 6 points high yesterday when I grabbed it from the unstirred top of the wort. When I did another well stirred sample it was dead on. Also make sure that you're cooling the sample to the calibrated temperature of your measurement device.

 

[mac_1103]

Pre-boil gravity doesn't mean much without pre-boil volume. Maybe you really did get 10-12% more sugar out of the grains than expected, or maybe you got 10-12% less wort out of the mash than expected. Or maybe 5-6% of each.

 

[Yooper]

Yes, conversion efficiency should be high. Brewhouse efficiency will be lower due to losses. My last IPA's early stats:

 

[redrocker652002]

Thanks all. I was kinda fired up but now not so much. LOL.

 

[user 348755]

Pre-boil gravity doesn't mean much without pre-boil volume. Maybe you really did get 10-12% more sugar out of the grains than expected, or maybe you got 10-12% less wort out of the mash than expected. Or maybe 5% of each.

Yes. I think this is an issue with the grain absorption calcs in brewfather. I consistently have to add more sparge water than predicted, but I still get higher numbers than calculated. Even at full volume, I get 90-93% mash efficiency. Only way to deal with it is lower grain bill.

 

[user 348755]

Thanks all. I was kinda fired up but now not so much. LOL.

No worries man. This is a good problem. So many recipes are written for 3V systems and AIO blows those numbers out of the water. It's easy to deal with. We just have to make sure we don't extract more unfermentables and adjust our IBUs. Good efficiency is a good thing.

 

[Snuffy]

Yes. I think this is an issue with the grain absorption calcs in brewfather. I consistently have to add more sparge water than predicted, but I still get higher numbers than calculated. Even at full volume, I get 90-93% mash efficiency. Only way to deal with it is lower grain bill.

I have the opposite issue. I used to have to under sparge by about 1/2 a gallon or I would never make numbers and would end up with a bit more than would fit in a 5-gal corny. Is yours a 120v or 240v unit? Since I bought a mill, I have consistently beaten the predicted OG numbers by 3 or 4 points using the GF water volumes. And then I bottle a couple before transferring the rest to keg.

 

[user 348755]

I have the opposite issue. I used to have to under sparge by about 1/2 a gallon or I would never make numbers and would end up with a bit more than would fit in a 5-gal corny. Is yours a 120v or 240v unit? Since I bought a mill, I have consistently beaten the predicted OG numbers by 3 or 4 points using the GF water volumes. And then I bottle a couple before transferring the rest to keg.

It just goes to show that although these apps and AIO systems make a lot of things easier, we still have to refine a process that fits our brewery specifically.

I use the 120V system and crush my own as well.

 

[redrocker652002]

Mine is the 120V and I do crush my own. My numbers are good but it seems I am a bit under the volume that goes into the fermenter so I must have under estimated the losses either in the boil or the grain absorption.

 

[Snuffy]

Mine is the 120V and I do crush my own. My numbers are good but it seems I am a bit under the volume that goes into the fermenter so I must have under estimated the losses either in the boil or the grain absorption.

Did you set these values or are they the GF defaults? I've never tweaked any of their numbers other than the Alpha Acid ratings for hops when I was trying to stay around 32 IBUs on a bitter. Their numbers are usually low compared to what's on the packets.

 

[jschein]

Mine is the 120V and I do crush my own. My numbers are good but it seems I am a bit under the volume that goes into the fermenter so I must have under estimated the losses either in the boil or the grain absorption.

I have found using the GF app water calculations to be spot on

 

[Zadkiel]

I did my first grain brew just yesterday on my brand new Brewzilla 35. Brewfather, when I selected brewzilla as the equipment profile, set the efficiency to 78%, and expected me to get 24L of post-boil wort @ 1.046. I actually got 23L @ 1.054. In order for brewfather to show 1.054 SG, I have to manually edit the efficiency to 93%.

I think it's because I sparged - there's no inbuilt sparge ability of the brewzilla, so presumably the equipment profile doesn't take that into account, but I manually sparged by simply lifting the basket up to the top and manually pouring heated sparge water over it.

 

[hungupdown]

I did my first grain brew just yesterday on my brand new Brewzilla 35. Brewfather, when I selected brewzilla as the equipment profile, set the efficiency to 78%, and expected me to get 24L of post-boil wort @ 1.046. I actually got 23L @ 1.054. In order for brewfather to show 1.054 SG, I have to manually edit the efficiency to 93%.

I think it's because I sparged - there's no inbuilt sparge ability of the brewzilla, so presumably the equipment profile doesn't take that into account, but I manually sparged by simply lifting the basket up to the top and manually pouring heated sparge water over it.

Not sure if this thread is about Grainfather (app) or Brewfather, or if they're the same?

I've had the BZ g4 for 30 brews, and use Brewfather app.
Not sure where Brewfather gets the efficiency figure from. BZ efficiency is lightly to vary, depending on various factors, especially the grain bill. It would be very low, if you attempted say, a 15% imperial stout.

Main issue I have with brewfather, is that it usually gives water figures for a mash, much thicker than I like.
I prefer the mash fairly thin, with a small sparge. So mash water / kg grain varies with grain bill.
But brewfather only has a setting for litres/per kg malt.

 

[redrocker652002]

Since you mention the mash thickness, I will say the Grainfather app uses a very thick mash consistency. Then, seems to add quite a bit of sparge water. On the couple of things I have done so far with the unit, the mash and sparge water amounts were darn near the same. I should probably check it against Brewfather to see if they are different

 

[Zadkiel]

Not sure if this thread is about Grainfather (app) or Brewfather, or if they're the same?

The OP asked about efficiency values in Grainfather, then people started comparing to efficiency values in other platforms they were more familiar with, such as brewfather

I've had the BZ g4 for 30 brews, and use Brewfather app.
Not sure where Brewfather gets the efficiency figure from. BZ efficiency is lightly to vary, depending on various factors, especially the grain bill. It would be very low, if you attempted say, a 15% imperial stout.

Well, they have to choose something for the efficiency value. Presumably they are picking some sort of common or average value.

Main issue I have with brewfather, is that it usually gives water figures for a mash, much thicker than I like.
I prefer the mash fairly thin, with a small sparge. So mash water / kg grain varies with grain bill.
But brewfather only has a setting for litres/per kg malt.

I went with brewfather because it had a database of grains that was accurate and up-to-date, and I could simply select the exact grains in my recipe and it worked everything out. Beersmith for example just has a basic list of generic grain types and then you have to edit them to match your actual grains, which was not only difficult but as a beginner I wasn't sure if I was doing it right, plus I was using EU grains and they don't publish their data in the US format beersmith wanted. I didn't look at grainfather.

 

[Snuffy]

Since you mention the mash thickness, I will say the Grainfather app uses a very thick mash consistency. Then, seems to add quite a bit of sparge water. On the couple of things I have done so far with the unit, the mash and sparge water amounts were darn near the same. I should probably check it against Brewfather to see if they are different

My experience is similar. For a 5 gal batch with 10 - 12 lbs of grain it's usually near 4 gal mash and 3 gal sparge. Makes a thick mash. I used to under cut their sparge numbers by about a quart or so to prop up my OG and reduce post boil volume a bit. Stopped doing that since I started milling my own just before mash and the numbers are usually spot on, even tho I usually get about 5.5 gals of wort using a hop spider to reduce the sludge. A bit less if I go commando.

 

[Jag75]

Mine is the 120V and I do crush my own. My numbers are good but it seems I am a bit under the volume that goes into the fermenter so I must have under estimated the losses either in the boil or the grain absorption.

I use the Grainfather app and its been pretty dang spot on. I set my efficiency to 80% on the app.