how accurate is brewers friend

[jason1973]

how accurate is brewers friend efficiency calculator?
just done my second 5 gallon biab, and getting very high efficiency,
first was %86 was simple grain bill, this time was about %96 percent, first batch was full infusion, this time did 5 gallon mash with 4 gallon sprage, then placed bag in sterile bucket to drain more poured about another 2 litre into kettle. would my method have do with high efficency or inacuracy in brewers friend or just pure luck. was a 90 minute mash.?

 

[Brauer]

96 is extremely high did adjust for your hydrometer temperature correction when you took your gravity reading. What was the gravity, temp, grain bill wort volume.....,

 

[jason1973]

96 is extremely high did adjust for your hydrometer temperature correction when you took your gravity reading. What was the gravity, temp, grain bill wort volume.....,

readings taking about 65f used both hydrometer and refractor meter measured twice, preboil was 1.045 og was 1.052 grain bill here
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/print/225815

 

[jason1973]

readings taking about 65f used both hydrometer and refractor meter measured twice, preboil was 1.045 og was 1.052 grain bill here
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/print/225815

just ran again brewfriend sais %86 must made typo earlyer, but still %86 nice

 

[Gavin C]

5 gallon mash
4 gallon sparge
0.5ish gallons poured into kettle also.

Thats 8.5-9 gallons preboil volume for a 5 gallon batch.

What are you using to boil all this off. How long is the boil?

A sanitary bucket for collecting wort preboil is not needed. (It's not sterile anyway) Clean is what you want preboil. Sanitary post boil

The 80% plus efficiency for BIAB you give is absolutely achievable. However, if your inaccurate with measures of volume, temperature of a sample, or gravity it will skew the numbers. An efficiency number is very useful if you can repeatedly hit the target gravities and volumes into the FV

Just some thoughts. If all your data is correct sounds like you have your process nailed down.

With volumes this big, I'm thinking something is amiss though.

 

[jason1973]

5 gallon mash
4 gallon sparge
0.5ish gallons poured into kettle also.

Thats 8.5-9 gallons preboil volume for a 5 gallon batch.

What are you using to boil all this off. How long is the boil?

A sanitary bucket for collecting wort preboil is not needed. (It's not sterile anyway) Clean is what you want preboil. Sanitary post boil

The 80% plus efficiency for BIAB you give is absolutely achievable. However, if your inaccurate with measures of volume, temperature of a sample, or gravity it will skew the numbers. An efficiency number is very useful if you can repeatedly hit the target gravities and volumes into the FV

Just some thoughts. If all your data is correct sounds like you have your process nailed down.

With volumes this big, I'm thinking something is amiss though.

sorry didnt relize typo, was 2.5g sparge not 4, had planned 4 and 4 but thermometer on kettle is sitting at 4.5g mark.

 

[TexasWine]

We need to clarify which efficiency you are speaking of. Brewer's Friend has a handy-dandy chart to get us on the same page. Which of these are you talking about?

http://www.brewersfriend.com/brewing-efficiency-chart/

From what I can tell, Brewer's Friend is as accurate as any other software out there. But, as they say, garbage in = garbage out. If your readings of volume, gravity and temp are accurate, AND you put those numbers into the software in the correct place, then the efficiency calculated by the software will be accurate. If any of those are off, then your calculated efficiency will be off too.