Member mash efficiency

[greenxpaddy]

What typical efficiencies are we achieving?

I haven't been hung up about mash efficiency but recently calculations suggest with UK malts I am achieving 83% routinely. (Fawcetts malt). This seemed unbelievably high to me. However it may be down to my new tall cylindrical MT which rinses the grain really well. I've also just perfected raising the mash bed to around 73degrees C by the end of sparge.

What is everybody else achieving?

For info my mash ph is about 5.3 average, temp 66c, sparge and top up liquor 85c, 75c at sparge arm

[Matt12398]

75% batch sparge.

[barney]

I get 70% brewhouse efficiency and between 80% and 90% mash efficiency depending on the grain bill.

[Eric]

Only get 80% or more from grain at the bottom of the sack.

[Kev888]

It depends on what I choose to believe 100% yield is for the grain I'm using, when I choose to stop fly sparging, how hot I choose to make the sparge water and how slowly I choose to fly sparge. As well as lots of real/intrinsic reasons why I may get different efficiencies.

Usually I take an approach that achieves around 72%, as I find in my particular setup that is safe for consistency and quality, but I can get up to around 80% if I choose to stretch more (after that it tends to get a bit erratic); to me as a non-commercial home-brewer, efficiency isn't one of the most important goals.

Obviously, I could get over 100% (on paper) if I were to use an inaccurately low estimate of the potential yield. I often wonder how many of the boasts you see on here are just plain wrong, perhaps innocently, based on software or other guides using yields from grains in days gone by. Sometimes people have clearly just misunderstood how to calculate it; in fact In some cases even what it is.

But I can believe you're getting 80%+, its not unreasonable. A tall MT will theoretically sparge more evenly than a squat wide one, especially if the grain filter isn't very even (like a manifold). They can stick more easily due to higher pressure on the grain, but avoiding that with slow run-off can again help efficiency. But if its a recent improvement and a new set-up I'd also suggest being vigilant to start with, just in case you can detect subtle issues from over sparging or over warm sparging and stuff like that.

Cheers
Kev

[leedsbrew]

80-83% routinely on sub 1.60 beers. With higher OG worts I tend to drop down to 75% as the solubility of the fermentable sugars reaches saturation concentration.

[orlando]

I often wonder how many of the boasts you see on here are just plain wrong, perhaps innocently, based on software or other guides using yields from grains in days gone by. Sometimes people have clearly just misunderstood how to calculate it; in fact In some cases even what it is.

I confess I rely completely on what the software tells me but like you I don't care about efficiency. If it is to be believed it tells me I regularly achieve 80 + % (just checked my last brew and it claims 87%). The OP was getting very similar results to my own given the same parameters. Fly sparging as slowly as you can seems to be an important factor in getting the higher extractions, but as I said as long as I'm hitting the expected numbers I don't take much notice.

[jonnyt]

I use a kind of BIAB RIMS system and tend to hit bang on 70% every time (apart from larger OG brews where it drops). Before adding the RIMS element it was around 65%

[Horatio]

My calculations tell me I get 80% most brews. If that figures is wrong or right doesn't really bother me as long as I can get the same result consistently.

[gregorach]

Brewhouse efficiency (end-to-end) or mash / lauter efficiency? I've recently been breaking 90% on the latter... Never really bother calculating the former. I suspect that my recent high efficiencies may have been down to malt variations - I should really try to lay my hands on the malt analysis some time.

[wilsoa11111]

if i do everything right(do a mash out decoction or standard) 72%- batch sparge (else 65%) but seems good even up to 7% beers normally(with my rectangular coolbox and small single out flysparging makes no difference- can be worse), end of bag and partiglyle did manage 84% once- that was a good day

[Underground Joe]

75%, batch sparge. Although this could change with my new mash tun that will get used for the first time this weekend.

[Morten]

I recently got a Deluxe Insulated Mash Tun and my efficiency has dropped from 75% to about 65%

[orlando]

I recently got a Deluxe Insulated Mash Tun and my efficiency has dropped from 75% to about 65%

Not much consolation I suppose but I have exactly the same one and my last brew was 87% so it must be something else, possibly speed of sparging?

[Morten]

I recently got a Deluxe Insulated Mash Tun and my efficiency has dropped from 75% to about 65%

Not much consolation I suppose but I have exactly the same one and my last brew was 87% so it must be something else, possibly speed of sparging?

It could be, I sparge about 0,8 litre a minute.

This is slower than I did on my old system, but I have only done 3 brews on this new system, so I might be able to gain some points when getting more to grips with it.