When to change Total Efficency setting in Beersmith?

BVilleggiante · Mar 4, 2013

I'm a bit confussed with regards to Beersmith and what to do regarding the total efficency setting you can change.

I usually enter in my total efficency variable at 75% and 99.9% of the time am able to meet the 75% total efficency I have set, exactly. What I don't understand is since I'm consistantly meeting this 75% total efficency without being under or over on my OG, should I be bumping up my 75% total efficency in Beersmith? Basically, I don't know when or even if I should be bumping the % level up if I'm consistenly meeting the level I have it set at? Do you continue to bump it up until you can't meet the OG for the total efficency level you have set and then back it down a bit or what?

chickypad · Mar 4, 2013

Okay, I read this through 3 times and I still can't quite figure out what you're getting at. Are you asking if you should be striving to achieve higher and higher efficiency with your brewing? 75% seems fairly good and at the homebrew level probably not a huge gain cost-wise to bump it up. So if you want to try for a few extra points go for it, on the other hand if you're happy I see no need to change as you've got it dialed in and reproducible. As far as setttings in Beersmith I would think you want to set it at what you know you can hit consistently, so you know how to plan your recipe.

BVilleggiante · Mar 4, 2013

Sorry for the confusion. I'm horrible at these kinds of questions when it comes to Beersmith. Here's my attempt to explain it as simply as I can...hopefully.

If I set BeerSmith to have an estimated efficency of 75% in a recipe, and I consistently hit this number, can I up the percentage to say, 78% and see if I can hit that % as well? In otherwords, do I up the % until I reach a point where I can't get that efficency and then back it down a notch thus maximizing what I'm getting out of my grains and saving me $ in the long run?

BrewKnurd · Mar 4, 2013

BVilleggiante said:
Sorry for the confusion. I'm horrible at these kinds of questions when it comes to Beersmith. Here's my attempt to explain it as simply as I can...hopefully.

If I set BeerSmith to have an estimated efficency of 75% in a recipe, and I consistently hit this number, can I up the percentage to say, 78% and see if I can hit that % as well? In otherwords, do I up the % until I reach a point where I can't get that efficency and then back it down a notch thus maximizing what I'm getting out of my grains and saving me $ in the long run?

But what are you going to change in your process to actually improve your efficiency? Changing the number in beer smith won't make it happen, you would actually need to change your process.

So if you think you have places in your process to improve your efficiency, try them, and if they work, then update beersmith for future batches....

thirstyutahn · Mar 4, 2013

No if you're hitting your numbers then stay exactly where you are. Consistant efficiency batch after batch at 75 is beautiful and you should be stoked.

If you were achieving a higher efficiency your starting gravity would be higher.

tflew · Mar 4, 2013

Increasing the estimated effeciency in Beersmith wont do anything to increase your actual brewing effeciency without physically changing something in your process. If anything you would be less likely to hit your gravity targets because your ingredients would be based on a 78 or 80 percent effeciency when you can really only get 75%. You want to try and match Beersmith to your system, rather than your system to beersmith.

chickypad · Mar 4, 2013

Agree with all the above, and as I was saying bumping it up a few points on a homebrew scale is not that big a savings. I just played around with one of my recipes in Beersmith - on a 5 gallon batch going from 75% to 78% efficiency is like a half pound of grain, so I'd save about 50 cents. It would be different if you were getting like 55% efficiency or something.