Which Efficiency?

I did my third AG this weekend but this time I made my own grain bill and crushed the grains myself with my new BarleyCrusher. I batch sparged in an IceCube.

I looked at the efficiency calculations in BeerSmith and found three numbers:
1) Brewhouse Calculated Eff.= 71.3% (default 75%)
2) Efficiency into Boiler = 80%
3) Efficiency into Fermentor = 74.6%.

Which is the most common talked about here and am I on track (if not, what could be done to improve efficiency?)?

Thanks,

Mike

Efficiency does three things for the homebrewer,

1. Bragging Rights if you have a high Efficiency.  Pro Brewers (especially of mega breweries) have a financial bottom line they have to be concerned about.  The dollar or maybe two a lower efficiency equates to really means very little.
2. A flag that something may be wrong with your process if your Efficiency is too low.  Your Efficiency  says you are fine.
3. Most Importantly, Efficiency lets the homebrewer predict what grainbill he/shee will need to hit a certain gravity when developing a recipe.  For this reason, efficiency into your fermenter is what you need to be concerned about.  Note that because this includes all losses in your system it will be the lowest number.

Most homebrewers will talk about efficiency into the boiler because that will be the highest number.  If you are having efficiency problems you should measure it at several locations to see where you are having a problem.  What do I mean,

Let's say you have an 80%eff into the kettle but only 60% into the fermenter.  This means either your measurements were not accurate (especially volume, a common problem with homebrewers because for the most part we estimate volumes) or you are losing a lot of product between the kettle and the fermenter.  These losses include non-drainable volumes in the kettle, hopback, CFC, piping, pumps, tubing, etc.  Losses to trub, wort contained in hops, etc.

Hope this helps.

Fred

Fred - thanks for the info.. I suppose the most important thing is to be consistant like you say so I develop the correct grain bill.

I know what you mean about volumes. I tried to measure them but noticed that 1 qt. off will change the numbers quite a bit.

Now from the numbers for eff. I posted above should I leave the 75% default brewhouse eff alone for the next batch or does it need adjustment?

Thanks,

Mike

The answer depends a bit...

The best number to use is the "Efficiency into fermenter" as this number is based both on your actual batch volume and measured OG.  Correcting to this number will provide you with good predictions for future batches as long as your "actual volume" is pretty close to your planning volume.

If your planning volume varies significantly from your predicted volume, then you probably need to take a close look at your equipment settings before you start adjusting your efficiency numbers too much.  Here's a link:
  http://www.beersmith.com/equipment_setup.htm

Finally, if you are brewing high gravity ales, your brewhouse efficiency will be as much as 10-15% lower than an average beer because you are sparging a large amount of grain with a (relatively) small amount of water.  This is something you need to take into account by lowering your efficiency number for high gravity ales.

Cheers!
Brad

Thanks for the info. but I need a little more.
(I'm brewing again this weekend and want to know if I should adjust anything.)

I'm inexperienced at AG - only 3 to date. Do these efficiencies look normal, low, or high (they were calculated using my actual data, boiler vol my have been a little low)???

As I read them using BeerSmith as a guide they are right on you default values. Does this mean BeerSmith and I did good?

My mash-in temp. was also right on about 154 deg for the full 60 min.! If the final beer is in line with these results I should be a happy camper. You software is a great tool.

I looked at the efficiency calculations in BeerSmith and found three numbers:  
1) Brewhouse Calculated Eff.= 71.3% (default 75%)
2) Efficiency into Boiler = 80%  
3) Efficiency into Fermentor = 74.6%.  

75% seems right for now,  check it with each brew and see if it needs to be adjusted.  75% is a good efficiency.

Fred