uncleben113 said:That's interesting. I always figured commercial breweries of all sizes would try to max out their efficiency and have to be super consistent but that makes a lot of sense. As long as it comes out consistent and passes your quality standards then you're golden. Thanks for the info
I would THINK (I am guessing) places like Boston Beer (Sam Adams) or An-Bush... BIG breweries like that... Maxing out efficiency is more important because I think you get into a "if we can squeeze another two points of efficiency out of our process, we will increase our profit margin by X%". For us... We would make another $4. It's not worth risking over-sparging and pulling all sorts of tannins, or crushing the malt into powder and sticking a mash, etc. it's just not worth it.
From a homebrewer perspective, and I swear I don't mean this as some sort of dig, but I never understood the big push for the highest efficiency possible. It alway struck me as a "I made 5.2 gallons instead of 5.0 gallons! Yeah!! High five!!!" situation. I get you can save a little money but again... Personally I just don't think it is worth the trouble. That said, if someone wants to tackle that aspect to see what they can squeeze out of a grain bill.... more power to em.
We are very consistent and our efficiency is at a reasonable level so... It's not something we even think about.