How much grain...

[McCall St. Brewer]

do you find yourself using for an "average" 5 gallon AG batch of homebrew? Now, I understand that every recipe is different. I also am not talking about really big beers or really light or session beers. So, in other words a typical homebrewed ale.

I've got a reason for asking this. I've been poring over a lot of AG recipes lately, from a lot of different sources, looking for something new to brew, and I've been frustrated that the recipe sources I find seem to fall on both ends of the spectrum on how much grain to use in a 5 gallon batch. I find lots of recipes on the one hand that are calling for 6 or 7 pounds of grain, and I'm thinking "I'm not trying to make Budweiser here." On the other hand, I find other sources where some of their recipes use about 12 pounds of grain, but their bigger brews are asking for more like 14-18 pounds.

I have a 5 gallon round orange cooler for mashing, and I don't have my own grain mill yet. My efficiency from using grain ground by the HBS is not the best, so I find that to get a decently substantial brew I need to use around 10-12 lbs. of grain. It's not easy to fit very much more than 12 or 13 lbs. in my cooler.

 

[Soulive]

My efficiency is around 78% on average and I'm using around 9lbs on average...

 

[IowaStateFan]

My efficiency is about 65% and I typically use 10 - 11 lbs for a 1.050 O.G.

 

[Yooper]

I use 10-11 pounds of grain for most batches. My efficiency is in the 70-72% range.

 

[Kai]

I use about 11lbs in most batches. I'm still hitting 60-65 on my LHBS's crush.

 

[Bobby_M]

7-10lbs for 6 gals.

 

[Funkenjaeger]

I'd say 8-10lb for 5.5g batches. But I'm not sure that's really what you should be asking.

The amount of grain you use is of course determined by the OG of the beers, the batch size, and your efficiency. The batch size and efficiency are really in your hands, so it really doesn't make too much sense to compare people's recipes based mainly on pounds of grain, since it depends on these two factors so heavily. It makes a lot more sense to compare people's recipes based on OG instead - and the OG range you target with your beers has little to do with all-grain brewing in particular, more on your personal preference on beer styles and where you aim on the gravity range within a given style - except of course for the practical limitation of how much grain you can reasonably mash. Of course, if you know how many pounds of grain you can mash, you can rather easily figure out an upper limit on OG for your normal batch size and keep that in mind when checking out recipes.

 

[RoaringBrewer]

My efficiency is around 78% on average and I'm using around 9lbs on average...

This is my situation for an average beer (read: 1.045 - 1.055 gravity) as well... Using the 5g cooler MLT and a crush from the LHBS (one uses a JSP mill, not sure on the other).

I have been surprised at the efficiency for my very simple AG setup.

 

[DeathBrewer]

average of 70% efficiency.

i use from 11-15 lbs, usually.

 

[ohiobrewtus]

I average right around 10-14 lbs. and have been consistently hitting over 80% lately.

 

[RichBrewer]

I have this mental problem of not brewing anything under 1.050. I usually use about 11 to 13 pounds of grain for the most part. My efficiency is in the 75 to 80 percent range.

 

[BierMuncher]

Back in the five-gallon days...

9-10 pounds
75% efficiency
1.040-1.045 on average
4.5%-5.3%
5.75 gallons post boil.