95 % efficiency?

[jmancuso]

Hi just finished my mash and have a quick question. I scaled my recipe for 80% eff. Just put a tiny bit less than 14 gallons in the kettle and took a gravity reading and had a preboil of 1.050 recipe says it should have been 1.042. What do i do?

 

[BlindSquirrelDiscNBrew]

Boil, cool, pitch, ferment, carb and....ENJOY!

 

[JOHN51277]

You will have a tad more flavor.......Celebrate!!!

 

[BlindSquirrelDiscNBrew]

I'm assuming you're going for a 10 gal batch, correct? It sounds like you had a better efficiency than expected. Congrats.

Did you make temp adjustments for the hydrometer reading? I rarely make any adjustments unless the numbers are way off. If you want to adjust your gavity points down you can correct them by adding water to the kettle, thus diluting the wort and reducing your hydro reading.

If you need to increase your fermentable sugars you can add an amount of DME (or other sugar) to get up to the number you're looking for. Another method would be to increase boil time/temp to evaporate more of the liquid. This second method has some drawbacks concerning final volumes and color of the beer.

If I were in your shoes, I would just stick with what you got and drink a beer with more alcohol. This way you have also increased your personal efficiency in getting schwasted.

 

[MNDan]

Could u post your recipe along with your final volume? I'm just curious. Efficiency can be calculated in different ways, and if u are truly getting 95% efficiency I might be a little concerned about tannins/over extraction. What program are you using for your calculations?

 

[jmancuso]

Marzen

Batch size 11 gallons
Boil size 13.4 gallons
Boil time 90 minutes
Grain weight 21 pounds
Efficiency 80%
Original gravity 1.053
Final gravity 1.014
Alcohol (by volume) 5.1%
Bitterness (IBU) 24
Color (SRM) 11.3°L
Yeast
8 liquid packs
White Labs
WLP820 Oktoberfest/Märzen Lager

Grains/Extracts/Sugars
21 pounds
Vienna
35ppg, 8.5°L 10 pounds
47.6%
Munich (Dark)
34ppg, 20°L 4 pounds
19.0%
Munich (Light)
34ppg, 10°L 4 pounds
19.0%
Pilsen
36ppg, 1.5°L 3 pounds
14.3%

Hops
2.35 ounces
Hallertauer hops
8.1%, Pellet 1.25 ounces
Liberty hops
5.2%, Pellet 1.1 ounces

Mash
125 minutes, 16.9 gallons
Strike
Target 154°F 6.6 gallons
168°F
60 minutes (+0)
Sparge
Target 170°F 5.2 gallons
182°F
Sparge 5.2 gallons
170°F

Boil
90 minutes, 13.4 gallons
Hallertauer hops
8.1%, Pellet 1.25 ounces
60 minutes (+30)
Liberty hops
5.2%, Pellet 1.1 ounces
60 minutes (+30)
Wort chiller 15 minutes (+75)

Ferment
21 days @ 52-58°F
Rack to secondary 7 days (+14)



split 5.5 gallons in two fermenters 1.062 og

 

[a10t2]

11 gallons at 1.062 works out to about 88% efficiency, which is still really high (good for you), but a little more believable IMHO.

Frankly, I still suspect a measurement problem somewhere.

 

[jmancuso]

Yeah it did turn out to be about 88 %. The pre boil was at 1.050 and that is what shocked me. All of the measurements should be accurate I did the same thing I do every time. The only thing different is that this was my first 10 + gallon batch. Does the larger amount of grain help with efficiency somehow?

 

[piperbrew]

Are you sure you had the preboil volume correct (both in your recipe calculation and what was in the kettle)? I wish I could be more help on what may be up with that jump in efficiency points, but I did want to reiterate what MNDann said:

Efficiency can be calculated in different ways, and if u are truly getting 95% efficiency I might be a little concerned about tannins/over extraction.

x2. When you start getting above ~80% efficiency (for a homebrewer, at least), you start pulling a lot of undesirable elements into your wort/beer.

So how did the wort, preboil and post boil, taste?

 

[samc]

off topic a bit, but 8 liquid packages of yeast?

 

[Walker]

off topic a bit, but 8 liquid packages of yeast?

My guess is that he uses Mr Malty to calculate pitching rates and didn't make a starter. That'll "require" a ton of liquid yeast packs.

People swear by the calculations that Mr Malty does and pitch whatever it says to pitch, but I find the pitching rates from Mr Malty to be almost absurd.

 

[Special Hops]

holy Cow 8 liquid packs - You spent about the same on yeast then I did for my last entire last 10 gal batch!

 

[Walker]

holy Cow 8 liquid packs - You spent about the same on yeast then I did for my last entire last 10 gal batch!

Yeah.... sometimes it's crazy. My buddy just made 10 gallons of lager and, following the advice of Mr Malty, had to make almost 4 gallons of STARTER WORT using two yeast packs.

Literally had to make a batch of throw-away beer just to get enough yeast to make the lager he wanted.

 

[SumnerH]

Yeah.... sometimes it's crazy. My buddy just made 10 gallons of lager and, following the advice of Mr Malty, had to make almost 4 gallons of STARTER WORT using two yeast packs.

Literally had to make a batch of throw-away beer just to get enough yeast to make the lager he wanted.

4 gallons???

That was either a crazy Utopias kind of beer or user error. mrmalty calculates just over a 2 gallon starter for a 10 gallon batch of 1.120 eisbock! Even without a stir plate, you're still looking at just over 3 gallons.

 

[Walker]

4 gallons???

That was either a crazy Utopias kind of beer or user error. mrmalty calculates just over a 2 gallon starter for a 10 gallon batch of 1.120 eisbock! Even without a stir plate, you're still looking at just over 3 gallons.

You're missing a very important factor there.

I just plugged in your 10 gallons of 1.120 lager wort using a stir plate, and it does show that you need a 2.08 gallon starter.

But... did you notice that is says you will need 7 packs of yeast to make that starter?

We had 10 gallons of 1.050 and wanted to stick with just 2 packs of yeast and a "simple starter". That comes up to a 4.33 gallon starter.

 

[jmancuso]

Just to clarify, I was using beer pal the iphone app. The 8 vials of yeast are the recommended amount with out a starter i used a starter large enough to be close to equal the amount of yeast in 8 vials. But I still think i underpitched, I made a little bit less than 4 liters of starter split it in two flasks and pitched a vial in each flask. I had about a gallon of pretty active starter and pitched both the yeast at 68 degrees into 68 degree wort. I then let it sit at 68 degrees for about 3-4 hours than put it in my ferm chamber set it at 60 degrees for 3-4 hours and then dropped it to 52 degrees. I was seeing airlock activity in about 8-10 hours, but i'm still concerned i under pitched.Would it be benificial to add another vial directly to each carboy?

 

[SumnerH]

You're missing a very important factor there.

I just plugged in your 10 gallons of 1.120 lager wort using a stir plate, and it does show that you need a 2.08 gallon starter.

But... did you notice that is says you will need 7 packs of yeast to make that starter?

We had 10 gallons of 1.050 and wanted to stick with just 2 packs of yeast and a "simple starter". That comes up to a 4.33 gallon starter.

You can avoid pitching tons of yeast packs by stepping up to the final size.

With intermittent shaking, 10 gallons of 1.050 needs 3 packs of yeast and a 1.25 gallon starter. Personally, I'd do a 2 liter starter from 1 pack, crash it, decant, and do a 1.25 gallon starter with that.

If you're too lazy to shake, it's just over 2 gallons with 3 packs; I'd do exactly the same (2 liter from 1 pack, crash it, decant, 2 gallons from that slurry). If you can be bothered to shake the initial one a few times during the day, that'll get you the right pitch rate; if not, you might be off by 20%, but not by a huge amount.

I'll also adjust from what MrMalty wants based on the beer; for a hefe, I'll pitch half what it recommends. If I want a clean lager, I'll go with what it says.

 

[Got Trub?]

I have a 2500ml Ehrlenmeyer flask. I can comfortably make about 1800cc of starter on a stir plate with that. Anything bigger per Mr Malty and I brew ~1.040 SG session beer to make yeast for the big boy and pitch the appropriate amount of slurry. Then I get to drink the session beer while waiting for the bigger beer to ferment and condition...

GT

 

[HSM]

Hi just finished my mash and have a quick question. I scaled my recipe for 80% eff. Just put a tiny bit less than 14 gallons in the kettle and took a gravity reading and had a preboil of 1.050 recipe says it should have been 1.042. What do i do?

Stop what you are doing and post about it on the internet.

 

[JKoravos]

My guess is that he uses Mr Malty to calculate pitching rates and didn't make a starter. That'll "require" a ton of liquid yeast packs.

People swear by the calculations that Mr Malty does and pitch whatever it says to pitch, but I find the pitching rates from Mr Malty to be almost absurd.

Absurd compared to what? What do you feel is a reasonable pitching rate?

 

[lumpher]

did you scale the reading for temp? excessive temp will blow the reading off the charts

 

[Walker]

Absurd compared to what? What do you feel is a reasonable pitching rate?

Yeah, I suppose that's what I mean.

I'm not saying the numbers are incorrect from Mr. Malty, just that it seems like it might be conservative to the point of not being practical. For example, I always make my porter recipe with a straight smack-pack of 1272, and it comes out fine.

Mr Malty says I that I am pitching only 45% the amount of yeast that I should be pitching (2.2 straight packs needed, or a half gallon starter).

 

[JKoravos]

Yeah, I suppose that's what I mean.

I'm not saying the numbers are incorrect from Mr. Malty, just that it seems like it might be conservative to the point of not being practical. For example, I always make my porter recipe with a straight smack-pack of 1272, and it comes out fine.

Mr Malty says I that I am pitching only 45% the amount of yeast that I should be pitching (2.2 straight packs needed, or a half gallon starter).

Well, I guess it's whatever works for you. The pitching rates in the calculator are based on what is considered a "favorable" yeast flavor profile. I'm sure lots of research went into it (not by Jamil, I'm referring to the professional brewing community). Of course, "favorable" is subjective. If you like the flavor you get by pitching half the Mr. Malty recommended amount that's fine. It's still a good resource even it you don't follow the pitching rates. If you want to use half the pitching rate, you can calculate it with the calculator and it will allow to remain consistent from batch to batch. I think it's a great tool and I use it for every batch. It's more about consistency than the actual pitching rate for me.

 

[twoodward15]

I just ran the numbers on beersmith and it comes out to 75% efficiency. I think you may be speaking about efficiency into the boiler which would be high because you had extra wort (almost 14 gallons as opposed to the 13.4 that you planned).

 

[jmancuso]

I just ran the numbers on beersmith and it comes out to 75% efficiency. I think you may be speaking about efficiency into the boiler which would be high because you had extra wort (almost 14 gallons as opposed to the 13.4 that you planned).

If I had more wort than planned and the gravity was higher than planned. That would mean my efficiency went up. I had about 14 gallons of 1.050 preboil wort. I was sopposed to have about 13.5 gallons of 1.044 wort. Also for the 75% efficiency did you calculate that at 11 gallons