first brew efficency question

[mrlard]

I was wondering if anyone can help me out?

I am about to set out on my first all grain brew this weekend but am paranoid about what sort of efficiency I am going to get from my first brew.
So my questions to you guys are

what can i expect?

and

Would I be better

a) Not worrying about it at all

b) Under estimate the efficiency and increasing the grain bill accordingly – My logic is this would increase the OG just allowing me to just add more water at the end to dilute it down.

c) Your suggestions please

[Martin G]

My view is that it doesn't really matter what the final alcohol is that much, just follow a recepie, maybe with a few tweeks. I'm only on my 3rd brew so I'm still at the stage where I am surprised the stuff I have made tastes like real beer. Odd how the grain, gravity and percent seem to roughly line up on a 23l brew eg. 4kg grain, ~1.040, ~4%.

[mark4newman]

Hi

I wouldn't worry about it. Just see how the first brew ends up, and learn your eff from that. (I suspect you will get something like 75% eff +/-5%, so the beer won't be too far out)

[Wolfy]

It's generally easier to add some water to adjust gravity down than it is to add malt extract to adjust it up, so I'd assume an efficiency of about 70% and go from there.
When you work out what your actual efficiency is, just be prepared to adjust it a little, either in the kettle or fermentor as required.

[smeggedup]

dont worry about it, ive done about 12 brews now
what matters is that it tastes nice,
i'm getting low efficiency nomally round 69% but the beer tastes great
alot of stuff makes for a varied efficiency, just go with the flow you'll learn with each brew, i did i changed so much stuff in 12 brews i might as well have re built most of it.

[InsideEdge]

I aim for 75% efficiency and I batch sparge. I always get pretty close.

[mat69]

i'd concentrate on getting your temperatures right and learning how your set up works.(losses to hops,grain,boil ect..)
it took me three brews to hit my target volume,efficiency was an afterthought..