Efficiency

[LiverDance]

Just taking a little poll of what kind of mash and brewhouse efficiency others are getting? I consistantly hit 70% but i'm always looking for ways to up that of course

[mr x]

It depends on the OG with me, and sometimes the grains. For beers up to 1.065, I usually get from 75 to the low 80's. Once I go over that into the barleywine/IIPA range, I start moving quickly towards 70 and under. For my big BW's and RIS's, I usually add 3-5 lbs lme/10 gallons to make life more manageable. When I use high proportions of raw wheat, for some reason I get much lower yield than other beers...

[LiverDance]

I forgot to mention I am batch sparging. X, are you fly or batch sparging to get those numbers?

[BBrianBoogie]

Usually low to mid 70's for a normal (<1.075), high 60s for bigger beers. I batch sparge, and have to sparge 2-3x (usually lowest I go is around 1.013) and do a longer boil to get halfway decent efficiency. I have a feeling that my crush at Noble Grape is accounting for lower efficiency than I should be getting. Haven't confirmed that yet, just a suspicion.

[akr71]

Mid to high 70's for me, though I take an efficiency hit for larger grain bills.

[moxie]

I mash in a rectangular cooler, (batch sparge) and I am usually right around 70%. I usually boost my grains for bigger beers to compensate. One issue I have is that my cooler is a bit large for 5 gallon brews, I think the extra headspace is causing the cooler to lose some heat which is affecting efficiency. I am actually getting better efficiency with a stainless braid than I got with a manifold.

I also get my grain milled at Noble Grape. It will be interesting to hear if others are getting lowered efficiency with their crush.

[LiverDance]

I've been thinking of switching to a braid. Maybe that will allow me to ajust my crush a little more and hopefully give me a bump.

[mr x]

I forgot to mention I am batch sparging. X, are you fly or batch sparging to get those numbers?

Batch, sometimes a double sparge depending on the volume.

[mr x]

I mash in a rectangular cooler, (batch sparge) and I am usually right around 70%. I usually boost my grains for bigger beers to compensate. One issue I have is that my cooler is a bit large for 5 gallon brews, I think the extra headspace is causing the cooler to lose some heat which is affecting efficiency. I am actually getting better efficiency with a stainless braid than I got with a manifold.

I also get my grain milled at Noble Grape. It will be interesting to hear if others are getting lowered efficiency with their crush.

Adjusting your grain bill efficiency for bigger beers is common, I think everybody does that. I agree with too much headspace causing temperature loss, but I'm not sure that would effect efficiency though. I get great efficiency with my crush - never used NG.

[LiverDance]

X, what type of mill do you have and what is your gap set to? Do you use a braid or mainifold?

[mr x]

I have a 3 roller Crankenstein. The gap is usually set to .020-.025. I want to see a bit of flour in there. I use a manifold, but I would prefer a false bottom, I just don't have the proper set-up for that yet.

[John G]

I batch sparge with a cooler and ss mesh manifold. I do two batch sparges through the mash during lautering and consistently get 82% efficiency for normal gravity brews. It's a 48qt cooler and efficiency does not change if I do a 5 or 10 us gallon batch. My mill is a barley crusher set at the factory default of 0.039. I suspect I'd get lower efficiencies if I did a single batch sparge.

When I fly sparge I get around 80 - 85% with a Phil's false bottom lauter tun.

For my small scale homebrew setup I think that if you're in the 70 -85 range it doesn't really matter that much the actual value compared to others. What's more important is that you know what you will expect to hit for efficiency so that you don't have to make too many last minute hop or DME adjustments at the start of the boil.

My 2¢