Is it possible to have too high efficiency?

[yugga]

Hi all, my last two brews went well but, on both of them i overshot the OG by a fair amount. I followed the recipes which assumed around 70-75% efficiency but i got 85%. I do BIAB with a dunk sparge and hard squeeze. What i am wondering is if i compensate by using less grain, will it change the way my beer tastes even if the OG is the same as the recipe calls for? Hopefully I'm not being too confusing.
thanks for your help

 

[brewkinger]

Cutting back on your grain would be the proper method to get your OG back into line.
The taste of the beer should not change drastically because you you would decrease all ingredients proportionally and the balance should be the same.
You may get a hoppier beer with less ABV, but again I would think it would be closer to the correct interpretation for that particular beer.

Enjoy


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew

 

[daksin]

Are you sure you know what your boiloff is? If you are actually boiling off more wort than you think, your beers will be stronger than expected, but not because of high efficiency. As an aside, I get ~85% eff on low gravity beers when doing BIAB+sparge like you.

 

[aiptasia]

That's also about average for me, right around 85%. I always ask for a double grind and my average boil off is right around a gallon.

 

[yugga]

Are you sure you know what your boiloff is? If you are actually boiling off more wort than you think, your beers will be stronger than expected, but not because of high efficiency. As an aside, I get ~85% eff on low gravity beers when doing BIAB+sparge like you.

My final volume has been right on. I guess my thinking is that grain adds more than just sugar, it also adds flavor. By reducing the total grain bill to compensate for higher efficiency am i missing out on some flavor? It also has an impact on the color of the beer.

 

[Alchemist42]

Well, this was a nice thread to find. It's really nice to see others getting 'oddly' high efficiencies. I average 82-85%.

It's frankly been annoying me for some years now as all I get is the 'you're just bragging' instead of any understanding of why my numbers are as high as they are. I kept trying to see if my calculations were off.

I started off again looking into it from a batch yesterday that was almost a near disaster. My first in 20+ years brewing. Due to a faulty thermometer (low battery) I WAY overshoot my strike temperature and got zero conversion....but a lovely thick, viscous, glutenous....mash. Upon much head scratching (temp off? pH off? bad malt? other?) and 2 hours with no conversion, I replaced the batteries and found out I had struck at 180 F. I added in couple pounds of pale malt, a touch more water and some alpha amalyse (shot gun approach) and bam, conversion.

With all that gelatinization, I walked away with an efficiency in the range of 92-95% (depending on the calculator I use)! And hopefully no odd flavors. And frankly, please check me. 8 lbs 2 row PM, 1.5 lbs Roast barely, 5.5 gal final vol, 1.060 OG.

 

[acidrain]

You have to know the efficiency of the recipe, and then scale it to your equipment/efficiency. This is true with "less than", or "more than" recipe efficiencies.
We're talking mash efficiency here. Don't get confused with brew house efficiency.

 

[Alchemist42]

I believe I am talking brew house efficiency. Which encompasses mash efficiency, no?

With what I gave, what can you calculate? Both what do you get and is it mash or brew house? I'm assuming later as it's my entire procedure, from grain, to carboy, not just grain to kettle or sparger.