Efficiency! Help

[SteveD]

But if I use SD' calc I get different figures

OG x VOL = efficiency
Ext x WGT

40 x 50 = 0.77 ?
300 x 8.55

Wot?! You dissing my Calcs??!

You can see where you went wrong? The calc I use matches Scooby's head on...because it uses the same figures and gets to the same end. The bottom line is your max extract, the top line is the extract you got. Divide the top by the bottom and there's your percentage.

Besides, it's Graham Wheeler you were dissing...the formula was from 'The Camra Guide to Home Brewing' Original wort stained edition.

Good extraction, Vossy

I might have mentioned earlier, but I'm currently wondering wether chasing max extraction is altogether a good thing because as we sparge and sparge trying to wring the maximum out of the goods in the mashtun, we might over-extract and end up with tannins, husk flavours, phenols, and other haze forming stuff we don't want....the practice of stopping at 1006 is common, but have you tasted the runnings at that gravity? It's not great...husky water.

I know I can get 90+% extraction efficiency..I averaged 90% across the last 60 brews. My highest is 98.5% and apart from one statistical blip, never been below 80% so the gear and method works fine. What I want do now is a few test brews where I aim for a target OG and volume brewing with view to maximum efficiency, and then repeat the recipe aiming for the same OG and volume but using more grain than necessary and stopping the sparge short when enough wort is collected to hit the set target. The extraction efficiency will be lower, but which will be the better beer? Oh, the research will be taxing but somebody's got to do it!!

Another quicker way would be to double mash as they used to but adjust the first and second runnings in the boilers to both be at the roughly same OG because of gravity dependent differences in hop utilisation and then if necessary a final minor top up in the FV of the stronger to match the weaker's OG.

I'm far more interested in brewing the best beer I can rather than brewing as cheaply as possible, as unlike commercial brewers, we're not fettered by accountants....apart from the wife. If I was only interested in cheapness I'd be opening small cans of goo and chucking it into a bucket with a couple of bags of sugar and filling it up with the weak chlorine solution available from the cold tap.

Cheers,

Steve

[Scooby]

It's fair enough that people want to work out their efficiency SD, thats all I want to do

[Vossy1]

Wot?! You dissing my Calcs??!

Yep ....I think so anyway

Just had another look at your equation and it's missing x 100 at the end, That's why I was getting 0.7797 instead of 77.97%

Ps, Forgot to add,

Thankyou SD and Scooby

[SteveD]

It's fair enough that people want to work out their efficiency SD, thats all I want to do

Oh yes, I agree. You need to know for reasons of consistency and accuracy, and to ensure that gear and technique are working well. What I went on to ramble about was a feeling I have that VERY high efficiency might be a mis-placed goal. I tend to get very high efficiency figures but I'm just wondering if that actually makes the best beer.

What are the views on that?

Just had another look at your equation and it's missing x 100 at the end, That's why I was getting 0.7797 instead of 77.97% Rolling Eyes

Ahh yes. Sorry. My laziness. I just mentally move the decimal point 2 places right instead of writing in the 'x100'

Main thing is the confusion is sorted.

[Scooby]

Personally high efficiency is not my goal and not having compared a 50% with a 90% eff' beer can't say which is better.

What I would say is that if the difference was just down to inefficient sparging and all else was equal, I can see no reason at all for there to be any difference

[mr.c]

Were do torrefied wheat fall under on the "Potential Extract table" Extract for 1lb in 1 gal =?


sorry to come back to this Subject again

[SteveD]

Were do torrefied wheat fall under on the "Potential Extract table" Extract for 1lb in 1 gal =?


sorry to come back to this Subject again

In the spirit of the flaked maize thread.....puffed wheat breakfast cereal. There's one in Sainsburys that has no added anything. Useable in brews methinks.

[Calum]

For what it is worth, I have rattled together a wee spreadsheet that calculates efficiencies using a range of malts, adjuncts and sugars in the calculation.

If anyone wants a copy PM me with your email and I can pass on.

However, if you have already bought some brewing software then you won't need the spreadsheet.