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Tell me why i cant get my efficiency up

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Yep I realized that right after I said it and edited the above post

BH efficiency does account for final wort volume since some of the wort absorbed by the grain does remove sugars that could have ended up in the kettle

So if brewhouse efficiency = mash efficiency * lauter efficiency, the only way that BH = ME is if the lauter is 100% efficient meaning the total volume of water used = the total volume of wort collected with 100% of the mash sugars ending up in the kettle

No this isn’t right...at least not in BeerSmith usage. BH will equal ME if the entire kettle goes Int the fermenter. No line losses, no trub or hops left in kettle.
 
View attachment 652104

You can see from this recent batch data...

Mash efficiency is determined by how much of the potential sugar makes it into the kettle and brewhouse efficiency is determined by how much of the potential sugar makes it into your fermenter. I chose on this batch to leave a quite a bit of hops and trub in the kettle plus lost a couple cups of wort in the transfer lines. At end of boil I had about 18.25 gallons in kettle, but only got 16.25 gallons into the fermenter.

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php/Understanding_Efficiency
 
Fair enough. Maybe I’m using it wrong. But I don’t see conversion efficiency or lauter efficiency in BeerSmith. There is mash efficiency and overall efficiency. I’ve been mistakenly confusing overall efficiency with brewhouse efficiency. Now I’ve got to go look at desktop version and see what else I’ve got goofed up.

I'm fairly certain that what beersmith calls mash efficiency is the same as conversion efficiency, so then it multiplies that number by the lauter efficiency (based on volume and SG of wort in the kettle) to give you a BH efficiency.

It's still measuring how much sugar you got out of the grain as you said, but it accounts for some of that sugar already being dissolved in solution and getting stuck in your system or absorbed into the grain

So if I see a 92% in both BH and mash efficiency in BeerSmith I take that to mean that the sparge was 100% effective and none of the wort was left in the grain or the lines. BIAB with squeezing gets close but even then it's only 95% efficient at lautering, until someone invents a BIAB spin cycle machine
 
I'm fairly certain that what beersmith calls mash efficiency is the same as conversion efficiency, so then it multiplies that number by the lauter efficiency (based on volume and SG of wort in the kettle) to give you a BH efficiency.

It's still measuring how much sugar you got out of the grain as you said, but it accounts for some of that sugar already being dissolved in solution and getting stuck in your system or absorbed into the grain

So if I see a 92% in both BH and mash efficiency in BeerSmith I take that to mean that the sparge was 100% effective and none of the wort was left in the grain or the lines. BIAB with squeezing gets close but even then it's only 95% efficient at lautering, until someone invents a BIAB spin cycle machine

http://beersmith.com/blog/2014/11/0...vs-mash-efficiency-in-all-grain-beer-brewing/

Brad uses the concepts a little different than Braukaiser. In Beersmith mash efficiency really is Kaiser's brewhouse efficiency (conversion x lauter). Brad goes one step further in his brewhouse efficiency to talk about downstream losses in the system.
 
unless you have 0 volume losses anywhere in your system,

the only thing left is the yeast at the bottom of the fermenter.....i don't have a spigot in my boil kettle, so i just pan it into my fermenter then dump it once it's light enough, i siphon off the yeast from the fermenter....so out of a 10 gal batch i get two full 5 gal cornies, with 8-9% beer........and i can pretty much guarantee that's my OG...within couple points, because i don't take into consideration the little water raise around the hydrometer.......lol

i have no idea how my mash is...i just sparge until i have a full boil kettle to boil down.....but anyway, like my calorie counting, it's an art, based on science....last year i burned 2820 calories sitting on my ass drinking all day, then 2920 with working, i think i'm measuring something wrong now, because it dropped to 2620....but the scale and me measuring doesn't tell a lie...

but using that calculation i can control my weight none-the-less, just like how i can tell i use less malt for the same ABV.....
 
http://beersmith.com/blog/2014/11/0...vs-mash-efficiency-in-all-grain-beer-brewing/

Brad uses the concepts a little different than Braukaiser. In Beersmith mash efficiency really is Kaiser's brewhouse efficiency (conversion x lauter). Brad goes one step further in his brewhouse efficiency to talk about downstream losses in the system.
Correct. And BrewersFriend follows BS on definition of Brewhouse Efficiency. BrewersFriend does use the term "Pre-Boil Efficiency" for what BS calls "Mash Efficiency". Both are equal to Conversion Efficiency times Lauter Efficiency.

understanding_efficiency_normal.png


Since most HBT users are more familiar with BeerSmith and BrewersFriend than they are with the writings of Braukaiser, I suggest that we use the BS/BF terminology. If you insist on using a different terminology, then you should also give the definitions you are using in order to prevent confusion.

Brew on :mug:
 
Correct. And BrewersFriend follows BS on definition of Brewhouse Efficiency. BrewersFriend does use the term "Pre-Boil Efficiency" for what BS calls "Mash Efficiency". Both are equal to Conversion Efficiency times Lauter Efficiency.

understanding_efficiency_normal.png


Since most HBT users are more familiar with BeerSmith and BrewersFriend than they are with the writings of Braukaiser, I suggest that we use the BS/BF terminology. If you insist on using a different terminology, then you should also give the definitions you are using in order to prevent confusion.

Brew on :mug:

Thanks for clarifying Doug, and agreed on the apples to apples comparisons, my apologies for the confusion
 
I do still wish BS would add in conversion efficiency. Would be nice to have automatic estimate of gravity in mash before sparge/lauter that indicated 100% conversion.

Agreed, it's a good check during the mash to see if you're grossly under your gravity mark for whatever reason, before sparging so that you can make an adjustment on the fly if needed.

That was one benefit of doing BIAB, the no sparge method meant you knew what your gravity should be before pulling the bag out.

You can look it up as a function of mash thickness, but it would be nice to see a box for "Est. Mash Gravity" or something on the session tab
 
BS sent me an email once asking for comments and I ask for the mash target gravity. I also put a post in the feature request before that. I think the way he works things backwards from BHE it might be hard to isolate.

Getting close to 100% conversion was my first step to consistent efficiency. I used to get abut 75% BHE(beersmith) doing two sparge batch sparge, now I get about 70 to 72% BHE with a 3 vessel fly sparge.

I started using braukaiser's partigyle batch sparge calculator to estimate my mash target gravity. I then used the information in table 27 of Palmer "how to brew book" to make a spreadsheet to get my target mash gravity. I think Braukaiser's calculator works well enough though.
 
75 percent to 85 percent is a twelve percent (0.12) increase (75 / 85 = 0.88).

On a ten pound grain bill this means adding 1.2 extra pounds of grain. At $1.35 per pound (high but about the local price per pound at LHBS) this is $1.62. Ten batches a year is 12 pounds extra for $16.20.

If you're buying grain by the bag ($40 / 50#) you're at $0.80 per pound. This is and addition $0.96 per batch, $9.60 for ten batches.

I'd pay the extra before I'd worry about it.

No one wins a prize for highest efficiency.

All the Best,
D. White
 
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