Trying to figure out efficiency with beersmith

[Shoemaker]

I'm trying to use beer smith to figure out efficiency, but I would also like to figure out how to do this by hand. I recently brewed an Oktoberfest from Austin Home Brew. Pre boil gravity was 1.040 with 6.5 gallons. Final was 1.060with 5 gallons and the orignal specific gravity 1.054.

Recipe was:

1/2 lb Cara Munich
1/2 lb Cara Vienne
4 1/2 lb German Pilsner Malt
6 1/2 lb Munich Malt

thanks for the help!

 

[Dos_Locos_Brewery]

To calculate efficiency, you need to know the theoretical extract from each of the grains. Yours are about this:

Cara Munich 33
Cara Vienne 34
German Pilsner Malt 38
Munich Malt 37

The unit (usually denoted p/p/g) is point-gallons/pound. Multiply each of these by its weight, and sum. You get 445 point-gallons - that's your theoretical extract.

Your actual extract is (I was confused about what you meant by 1.060 vs. 1.054, but you should get about the same answer pre-boil as post-boil). Taking your pre-boil numbers, your extract was 40points x 6.5 gallons = 260 point-gallons. Thus, your efficiency is 360/445 = 58%.

 

[BeerSmith]

Hi,
I wrote an article on the use of efficiency (and how to calculated it) a while back:

http://www.beersmith.com/blog/2008/10/26/brewhouse-efficiency-for-all-grain-beer-brewing/

Cheers,
Brad