Mashed in by 8:30 am today

[sonvolt]

That's all . . . just thought I'd share my elation!!

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

Nice work. I love being done by lunch.

 

[parasonic]

Wow, sure beats being up till 0530 in the morning. HEH.

 

[sonvolt]

Can anyone help me calculate efficiency . . . or give me a link to an online calculator that might do it? I have never done it before, and I do not have any brewing software.

I used 6 lbs of wheat malt (5 lbs. was nicely crushed; the other pound is just stuff I had laying around - rolled through with a rolling pin and through it in the mash tun. I also used 5.5 lbs of American 2-Row. Mashed with 3.5 gals water and sparged with 3 gals of water.

My SG reading prior to boil was 1.054.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

What was your pre-boil volume?

 

[Bernie Brewer]

Here's a couple:

http://hbd.org/recipator/
or:
http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/

 

[sonvolt]

What was your pre-boil volume?

Hmmm . . . didn't measure exactly, but I will assume it was close to 6 gals. I only had just over 4 gals after a 60 minute boil.

 

[Ivan Lendl]

im getting 77 percent: 6 lbs X 38 + 5.5 lbs. X 35 =420.5 divided by 6=70 (1.070)

so 54 divided by 70 = .77

 

[RichBrewer]

That's all . . . just thought I'd share my elation!!

Last Sunday my mash in was at 5:00 AM!

 

[alemonkey]

Last weekend I did my first batch sparge. Cut my brewing time down to 3.5 hours. (I crushed my grain the night before). Back when I started it used to take me 6 hours for one batch. So, even if I mash in at 6:00 after work I can still get to bed at a decent time!

 

[flingdingo]

That's all . . . just thought I'd share my elation!!

That's WAAAAAY too early to do anything beer related. Except recover from a hangover.:cross:

 

[sonvolt]

im getting 77 percent: 6 lbs X 38 + 5.5 lbs. X 35 =420.5 divided by 6=70 (1.070)

so 54 divided by 70 = .77

Thanks a lot . . . ya know . . . for doing the math and all! Is that equation easy to explain? I guess I should just get Promash . . . but I really do like to "understand" the process before letting software tell me about it.

I get the lb. measurements . . . but where did you get the 38 and 35 #s to multiply? Why divide by 6?

I really do appreciate it!

 

[Ivan Lendl]

its easy...i dont use pro-mash, im old school...i use dave miller's calculus and for me it works. All ya got to do is plug in the numbers. he gives values for various grains and adjucnts most commonly used:
barley flakes=30 (where 1lb barley in 1 gallon h2o=1.030)
black malt=24
cane sugar=45
corn/rice flakes=40
crystal malt=24
d.m.e=45
lme=36
2-row=35
wheat malt=38
roast barley=24
etc...
for gravity you just drop the 1.0 so 1.040=40
so multiply the lbs. of whatever grain by the value of grain and divide by the volume of batch.
so 6 lbs. of 2-row is 6X35/5 where 5 is 5 gallons, if you have 6 gallons divide by 6
its easy with a scientific calculator that does linear equations, so if you have 6X35
you can add that to say 1(1 lb crystal for example)X24+.5(.5 lbs. black malt for example) divided by 5 =?(whatever)
whatever the ansewr is you just remember to stick the 1.0 back in front (48=1.048)

 

[Ivan Lendl]

and efficiency is measured by taking the actual (1.054) divided by the theoretical (1.070) just drop the 1.0 and do the math (54 divided by 70=.77)

then just multiply by 100 (.77=77 percent)

 

[Ivan Lendl]

and if you know your efficiency, which yours i would round off to 75 percent, just figure out the theoretical and multiply by your efficiency and youve got your actual
ex: 6 lbs 2-row + 1 lbs. crystal = 46.8 (1.047) x .75=35.1 (1.035)

 

[sonvolt]

Awesome! This is exactly what I was hoping for . . . it seems simple!

So, 75% is not bad efficiency, right? I know I have room to improve it, but for my second ag brew with virtually all homeade equipment, this seems at least respectable.

:rockin:

 

[Ivan Lendl]

75 is probably what most people get...i get about 65 with a fly mash, thats kind of low but i dont really care.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

75% is a great efficiency IMO. Most recipes are setup for 70-75% efficiency, and byo even goes as low as 65% for their assumed efficiency.