I have moved on from Extract brewing into Partial Mash brewing and have done several batches now. The first few, I didn’t measure my pre-boil gravity as I was using recipes from BYO and it didn’t mention anything about pre-boil gravity…I would still hit the Target OG within a few points. Recently, I have been using the trial version of Beersmith to generate my own recipes. The first batch I brewed, I successfuly hit the target OG beersmith estimated assuming the default brewhouse efficiency of 75%…honestly, I think I just got lucky.
On my next batch, I generated a recipe in the same manner (assuming 75% Brewhouse Efficiency), but missed my target OG by about 12 points…After entering in my pre-boil gravity, pre-boil volume, batch volume and actual OG measurements, beersmiith spit out a brewhouse efficiency of 52%…When I did the calculations by hand, I calculated an Extract Efficiency of 74% and Brewhouse efficiency of 68%. So my question is why would Beersmith give me an efficiency % so much lower than what I calculated by hand if I used the same numbers I plugged into Beersmith? I am sure it’s probably something I am overlooking, but I can’t quite figure it out. I’ve spent the last 2 days at work searching the forum’s but couldn’t find anything that gave me a clear reason as to why there would be such a variance.
Below is the grain bill, measurements, and calculations I generated on my own…If one of you experts could help me out so I can get better brewhouse efficiency allowing me to use beersmith to generate a recipe I would be very greatful!
Target OG based on 75% brewhouse efficiency 1.065
Actual Original Gravity 1.053
Est. FG 1.013 - 1.018
Grain Bill: Lbs
US 2-Row 4.5
Crystal 60L 1.5
Carapils 0.5
Rye 0.75
Liquid Malt Extract 2.5
Extra Light Dry Extract 1 (Added for the last 15 minutes of the Boil)
Calculate Estimated Original Gravity
Grain Malt PPG Malt Lbs Total Available Gravity Points
US 2-Row 37 4.5 166.5
Crystal 60L 34 1.5 51
Carapils 33 0.5 16.5
Rye 29 0.75 21.75
Liquid Malt Extract 36 2.5 90
Extra Light Dry Extract 44 1 44
10.75 389.75
Original Gravity Calculation (SGP) assuming 75% Brewhouse Efficiency
=((4.5370.75)/5) + ((1.5340.75)/5) + ((0.5330.75)/5) + ((0.75290.75)/5) + ((2.5361)/5) + ((1441)/5)
65.1625
SGP = 1.065
Caclulate Extract Efficiency
TGP (Total Available Gravity Points)
Grain Malt PPG Malt Lbs Total Available Gravity Points
US 2-Row 37 4.5 166.5
Crystal 60L 34 1.5 51
Carapils 33 0.5 16.5
Rye 29 0.75 21.75
Liquid Malt Extract 36 2.5 90
9.75 345.75
Maximum Specific Gravity
=TGP/Collected Volume in Gallons
=(345.75/3.5) 98.78571429 1.099
Extract Efficiency (EE) 74%
=(Measured SG/Maximum Specific Gravity in Points) * 100
=(73/99)*100 0.737373737
Calculate Brewhouse Efficiency
Grain Malt PPG Malt Lbs Total Available Gravity Points
US 2-Row 37 4.5 166.5
Crystal 60L 34 1.5 51
Carapils 33 0.5 16.5
Rye 29 0.75 21.75
Liquid Malt Extract 36 2.5 90
Extra Light Dry Extract 44 1 44
10.75 389.75
Maximum Specific Gravity
=TGP/Collected Volume in Gallons
=(385.75/5) 77.95 1.078
Brewhouse Efficiency 68%
=(Measured SG/Maximum Specific Gravity in Points) * 100
=(53/78)*100 0.679487179
So that’s what I did to figure out Extract Efficiency and Brewhouse efficiency. I mainly want to know how to improve efficiency or at least make it consistent so that I can develop recipes and hit my target OG or at least within a few points. Again, thanks for any help you can offer!