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working out my efficiency?

Post #1 made 15 years ago
by scottmal
Hi Folks,
did my second brew yesterday, All went well, much easier during the day ! Today I was fiddling with the figures trying to work out the efficiency, I am using the free Qbrew software to keep records etc.and found that if I know the volume and change the efficiency figure in the preferences until the OG it predicts matches the OG I measured i can get the efficiency. If I put in the post mash volume is that my mash efficiency? likewise if I put n my volume into the fermenter is that the "brewhouse efficiency"
heres what I think I have , does it look right to you guys ??????
For example;
6kg of base malt and .5 kg of crystal mashed in 33L of water. pulled the bag out, that left 31L at 1.050 gravity, lost 2L in the boil so got 29L at 1.060. managed to drain 24L into the fermenter before I got to the crap in the bottom.
brewhouse eff. =70% ?
mash eff. = 85% ?

Also 5L seems a lot to loose in the bottom of the kettle, should I put more of it into the fermenter so top of the crap hopefully ends up just below the tap and I gain a few more liters? :think:

Looking forward to your opinion on this
cheers
Scottie

Post #2 made 15 years ago
by hashie
Hi Scotty, your reasoning looks fine to me, 85% mash efficiency is what you should be getting. Most people tend to talk about post boil efficiency, rather than mash or brew house.

Trub is another topic altogether and possibly needs it's own thread. I drain my kettle completely into my cube, then the whole lot goes into the fermenter. While others will not allow any trub into their cube.

Horses for courses.
Last edited by hashie on 21 May 2011, 07:52, edited 5 times in total.
"It's beer Jim, but not as we know it."

Post #3 made 15 years ago
by scottmal
Hi Hashie, thanks for the swift reply, so I should use my efficiency post boil while Im mucking around with recipes on the software then?
i.e. Size =29 L ,at 1.060 in the above case.
I will start another topic on trub,but what is a cube? Don't think people use them over here,I drain into my fermenter then 7-10 later bottle from there.
cheers
Scottie

Post #4 made 15 years ago
by stux
scottmal wrote:Hi Hashie, thanks for the swift reply, so I should use my efficiency post boil while Im mucking around with recipes on the software then?
i.e. Size =29 L ,at 1.060 in the above case.
I will start another topic on trub,but what is a cube? Don't think people use them over here,I drain into my fermenter then 7-10 later bottle from there.
cheers
Scottie
Yes, its post-boil that matters with BIAB as your Mash-efficiency should be the same as your post-boil efficiency (except for complex edge changes which we'll choose to ignore)

In traditional 3V brewing your mash efficiency would suffer due to losses at the bottom of your mash tun, but that is not the case in BIAB as there is no transfer so thus no losses.

And your brewhouse or "into fermenter" efficiency, does not affect your recipe, but rather your brewlength, and basically you're just measuring the loss of efficiency due to kettle losses.

If you wanted to you could drain your kettle through a filter or false bottom and all that rubbish... to get your efficiency up, but instead you should concentrate on getting your OG spot on, and then you can compensate for volume.

I normally end up with about 3L of kettle trub in a 40L brew.

I do a strong whirlpool with some whirlfloc added which gets me a trub cone in the centre of the pot, then I siphon to a cube from the edge. I generally can get the pot down to the last mm or 2 of liquid with the trub in the centre.

After cubing, I will filter the 3L of trub in the kitchen and get 2L or filtered liquid, which I then boil down and freeze to use for a Real Wort yeast starter

I then lose another 5L or so in the fermenter due to cold-break etc.

My post-boil efficiency is generally about 85%
Last edited by stux on 21 May 2011, 10:13, edited 5 times in total.
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