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continueous mashing to regulate mash temp, reculation mashing liquor

beercheer4me

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How many brewers do this or what beer styles does work best on, I recently build a 3 keggle system and put a copper ring  with drilled holes about 1 inch apart on top my mush tun to rinse the grains down when sparging........how do you know what your brew efficiency is or how to calculate brewhouse efficiency ?
 
bc4
Are you talking about a RIMS, recirculating infusion mash system? 
Are you recirculating your mash?
Do you have an inline heater to maintain temperature?

You have asked a lot of questions in a very short space without much detail.

Brewhouse efficiency in simple terms is how much of the potential sugar did you extract from the grain. This is measured as original gravity into the fermenter divided by the potential of the grain in your grain bill.  Each grain has a potential starting gravity (indicated in BS in the grain detail window).  A typical base grain will have a potential of 1.035.  This means that one pound of  grain in one gallon of water will result in a specific gravity of 1.035 at 100% efficiency.  100% efficiency is not possible, there will always be losses.  The typical expected efficiency is 75% and can range between 65% to 85%.  There are two primary operations where the efficiency losses occur, 1) is the conversion of the starches to sugars (Mash Efficiency) and 2) extraction of the converted sugars into the boil kettle (Sparge Efficiency).

To accurately measure efficiency it is very important to measure volume, temperature and of course specific gravity accurately.  Your grain bill will determine your potential starting gravity.  The easiest way to do these calculations is to convert the SG into a points of sugar, by subtract 1 and multiple by 1000.  In other words, 1.035 becomes 35 pts.  [ (1.035-1.000)*1000  ] 

With 10 lbs of grain with a potential of 1.035 will get you a potential of 35 pts x 10 lbs = 350 pts.
Assume a 75% efficiency (both Mash and Sparge Efficiency) you will have 350 x 0.75 = 262 pts of sugar into the fermenter.
Assume 5 gallons of liquid will yield a specific gravity of (262 / 5  =  52 points per gallon or 1.052)
if you have 5.5 gallons the SG will measure 1.048, but you will have the same amount of sugars.  This is why it is very important to measure accurately
If your recipe called for 5 gallons @ 1.050 with a 75% efficiency (250 pts / 333 pts) and you ended up 5.5 gallons @ 1.045 and you didn't properly measure you would think that your efficiency was only 67% (45 pts x 5 gallons  =  225 pts / 333pts  =  67%) when in fact you hit your target exactly.

Beersmith will calculate all of these numbers for you, IF you put in accurate measurements.

Hope this helps

David
 
Thanks to all,
Yesterday I finished my 2nd all grain  brew  ,,,,using a three keggle system,,, based off the burtis ten for some reason it wanted 16 gallons of strike water,, I know my equiement profile is not  right, been trying to correct the problem here is what my equiement is  first 
HLT has a weldless fittings w/ temp and valve , petty striaght foward,moving to the mashtun,  I am using a pico screen with the riser slates to raise screen  , above valve and temp gauge, I measured the water vol. And it is 3 gallons flush with top of screen, third the boil kettle is the same as HLT, ALL three keggle are.the same as for placememt of valves and temps gauges, I imstalled dip tubes on all the Keggle's to use up all the liquids, to make it easier to figure volumes out, can some one with this type of system help me with the  same equiementand or profile help with this,,, I ended up flew by the seat of my pants and hit my OG numbers 1054 thanks to using my refactometer,, I, checked my numbers 10 minutes before the end of boil, before adding the last hops additions, brewvint, and irish moss, I brew a fat tire from byo magazine in last addition, yeast was smack packs , this was a 10gallon brew, it is fermenting, with big yellow cheese looking chunks, thanks
 
If someone has this similar system send me your equiement list profile in brewsmith ,,,Thanks in Advance........
 
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