I find some people in Queensland report to have over 100% efficiency yet here in WA we only get about 80%.
GB
[Edit: I will address the BeerSmith question posed earlier in this thread but first...]
LOL Nev!
But, what Gryphon is saying has a lot of truth. A lack of quality measuring equipment that exists in home brewing amongst other things leads to some bewildering claims on efficiency and a totally inappropriate focus.
I now, after, well over 50 BIAB brews plus many traditionals and a hell of a lot of equipment, can say that you can confidently expect 75% efficiency with BIAB if you follow the procedure at the end of this post. This is the same 75% you should expect from batch-sparging.
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But, did I say what efficiency figure I was referring to?
No! So the 75% I quoted above is of absolutely no use to you as is any other efficiency figure you hear quoted by BIABers or traditional brewers.
Please stop and think about this.
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Was the 75% I quoted above or the efficiency figure that anyone quotes here referring to mash efficiency, efficiency into kettle, post-boil efficiency, efficiency into fermenter or efficiency into packaging?
What efficiency figure were they quoting?
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Some people in their efficiency claims are quoting their volume and sugar into the kettle. Others are quoting their volume and sugar into the fermenter (after
all the break and trub are gone) and anything in between.
A 90% pre-boil efficiency does not mean a 90% efficiency into your fermenter after all break and trub is removed yet many brewers choose to quote the former as their efficiency.
A 55% efficiency into fermenter figure after break and trub is a perfectly respectable figure and one rarely quoted.
I have written essays on this efficiency myth many times before (just browse through my last ten posts - I must have gone on about it there at least once!)
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Why is 75% Quoted So Often?
You will see a 75% "brewhouse" efficiency figure posted in a lot of recipes on any brewsite. This figure comes from most common brewing software and the terminolgy and programming they use for this figure has confused a billion brewers before you or I. It is a ******** figure and has nothing to do with a regular brewhouse efficency. BeerSmith and ProMash's Brewhouse Efficiency is really post-boil efficiency. (And there can be a lot of variance there!!!)
This though basically means it includes all your trub and cold break.
But, you may ask, why do they ask me for my trub and cold break figures in BeerSmith?
A great question, because none of us know! Try changing them. It will make no difference to your brewhouse efficiency figure reported in the program!!! (If you think this isn't right, do a search on this forum on BeerSmith. Read the 300 posts in each thread and you will see the same conclusion every time.)
As a new brewer, with half a brain in their head, you will keep thinking that this can't be right. Surely, a brewing program would describe brewhouse efficiency accurateley???
Well, the only answer for that is that I am writing this in Western Australia where no one wants daylight saving because we are on the far edge of a time zone. The government here really wants it and are telling us it is because of business reasons, i.e. so we can communicate better with the rest of Australia. So, we have had a 3 yr compulsory trial here but guess when we turn our clocks back? A week before the eastern states.
%^&* FFS! It makes no sense at all!
When you can explain the logic of that then I might have a hope of why computer programs call their post-boil efficiency, brewhouse efficiency.
It is incorrect and confusing.
What Should We Do
Stop quoting and worrying about your own efficiency figures. (Unless you are really confident in your measuring equipment, technique and understanding of how to properly quote efficiency.)
Stop focussing on efficiency figures you hear about from others. (Well for the same reasons above!)
Stop focussing on posts that say I just got two (or ten) more percent efficiency on my last batch by doing this... I'm sure I made these sort of claims when I first started out brewing. Now I realise that such claims are well-meant but now know that, for a myriad of reasons, you can't make a claim unless you have repeated it at least five times in a controlled environment. Try doing that in a home brew environment! (What proved this to me is having two side by side rigs. This is as good as it gets for the home brewer.)
Start focussing on recipes you like. Meet and taste other AHBrs beers. If you find a recipe you like, it will taste great even if you brew it at plus or minus ten percent of their quoted ABV.
Start focussing on things relevant to you. Are you wanting to brew a champion beer or an easy drinking light-tasting ale that tastes like a lager that you and your friends will like? The latter is a good challenge for a beginner anyway but.. Are you brewing for your own enjoyment (and your friends) or to gain accolades for some obscure beer style at a comp? Are you focussed on making brewing easier? For any of the above goals, efficiency is pretty much irrelevant!!!!
Start focussing on the way that is easy for you to measure. If you use a brewing program then end of boil will be the easiest guide for you but even that has problems. Probably less than the other ways I have tried which all have their down falls.
How To Measure Your Efficiency
When following a recipe, original gravity is the thing to strive for. OG measurements don't vary much post-boil or into the fermenter so this is the easy factor to measure.
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As usual, didn't expect to write all the above. I was about to write an easy way of measuring volume but suddenly realised that, whilst the answer is simple, the measurement of volume has countless qualifications and corrections which would require another essay. e.g. Are you chilling or no-chilling? Are you using a counter-flow or immersion chiller?
See what I mean?
Anyway, I hope the above will get one or two people just focussing on recipes.
Spot ya,
Pat
