A question on efficiency

[barry44]

Hi guys,

I am four all grain brews in and currently pulling together a recipe for my fifth.

My first three recipes led me to believe that I have an efficiency of 65% which I used to make the grainbill for my fourth.

My fourth brew seemed to have jumped to 72% but it was with a different type of grain than the first three, lager as opposed to maris otter.

My next brew is going to be a maris otter base and as such I was wondering if I should expect the 65% again or if I should plan for 72%?

My fear is that I brew to 65% and get 72% then the beer will be an additional 0.6%. Which is not too much of a deal but the hops won't be in balance.

What's your thoughts?

[jaroporter]

Hey, you don't say which lager malt you're using, but it could be the malt. or you're refining your process.. i do get good efficiencies with the flagon lager malt, but i've not used maris otter for a while to compare.
i'd plan for the lower efficiency as you can then liquorback before the boil if you do better to hit your target gravity, and increase the hops proportionally to the larger brewlength. for me, that always feels better than overestimating efficiency and coming up short.

[Deebee]

It could be many things.

If you have used a lot of adjuncts your efficiency should be lower.

higher gravity beers like RIS and barleywine will give around 5-10% lower efficiency.

I guess we need more info. Do you crush your grain yourself, or is it done by your supplier, ifs the crush the same each time? I recently changed my malt mill and am getting 10% almost better efficiency than before so it is all relative:)


How do you sparge and how long does it take etc.

I like to think that you have refined your process and gotten better, hence the increase. Either way, it will all be beer!

[barry44]

THanks for your responses, they have made me think some more about my process.

For brews 1, 2 & 3, i used crisp maris otter from the malt miller that had been milled by him prior to dispatch. This was the base and i added some vienna, munich, crystal and wheat in differing amounts to the brews.

The fourth brew was mysterio's SNPA clone with lager malt and crystal, milled once again by the maltmiller. I assume that these were Thomas Fawcett, going by the website.

I carried out 60 minute mashes with the exception of brew no 3, which i mashed for 90 minutes to see if thataided my efficiency at all.

I batch sparged with a top up to the mash being one and 14.5 litres, half the pre boil volume, being the second. This was after 10 minutes with the water in the mash tun following a stir. I then sparged very slowly to ensure that i am not creating a channel through the grain.

One thing i am thinking of now as i write this is that on brews 1 - 3, i hadnt got a handle on the dead space within my mash tun and collected too much wort in my first sparge until i realised that the grain took up my dead space so i discounted that for brew no 4. The second batch sparge of brews 1 - 3 was always for the half volume so i may have lost some gravity by collecting too much initially perhaps??

I am going to brew this weekend using a new sack of crushed Crisp Maris Otter fromthe maltmiller and will see how i get on with it.

[floydmeddler]

Set it to 72%

Decide on an end target (in boiler, not fermenter) I.E. 23L at 1.040

When you have 23L in the boiler, take a reading. If you're bang on target, don't add any more and go for the boil. However, top up with treated water throughout the boil so that it still ends on 23L at 1.040.

If it is below 1.040 (it more than likely will be), keep adding more wort from the M.T and take gravity checks every litre or so. Don't be afraid to add more wort during the boil. Just make sure it's throughout the first 30 mins and do a 90 min boil. You may do a check at 28L and it's sitting at 1.032. That reduced to 23L equals out at 1.040. Target met.

This is how I brew as I like to ensure I hit my target O.G every time. Especially with beers I'm repeating for obvious reasons!