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  • How I like to boost my brewhouse efficiency

    Right, so I think it's high time I start this thread, since I'm thinking about it each brew and I love playing around with methods on how to increase this. It's going to be a longer post, this one, so please bare with me.

    I'll start with "what is efficiency". I know there has been a lot of discussions and some people have different opinions about what it is and what it means to them. For me though, it's pretty simple. I define my efficiency with "how much sugar can I get out of my malts, using my process and my equipment". That's it. It that means more sparging and longer mashes or extended boils to hit my volumes, that's fine. Boiling doesn't affect how much sugar I got out of my malts, so to me boiling a bit longer is fine. So, using that definition for myself, I use this calculator to calculate my efficiency each and every time: https://www.brewersfriend.com/brewhouse-efficiency/ I use the brew house efficiency setting, which takes into account your grain bill vs fermenter volume and gravity, and nothing else. I like that. It also has a nice selection of malts in it's list, so I believe it's nice and accurate.

    Now, with that out of the way, I have developed somewhat of a thing for high efficiency brewing. I don't know why, because the cost implication is so low, but I have, so sue me. Like I went through a "hop everything" phase, I think this is the new one. I have my process pretty damn well dialed in and my efficiency has never been better.

    My process is a combination of "think smart" and "I'm lazy" all in one. Step by step, what I currently do, is this:

    1. Fill up my blue boiling bucket up to 10l with water (depending on the recipe). Switch it on.
    2. While the boiling bucket heats up, I weigh out my malts and run it through the mill (great mill, will give a review on it in a bit).
    3. When the boiling bucket hits strike temp, I unplug it, dump in the brew bag, dough in, wrap the bucket in a towel and set a timer to 30 minutes.
    4. With the timer running, I fill up my boiling urn up to about 14.5l of water (depending on the recipe). I've not measured it yet, but I believe it's around 14.5l with my current Vienna lager recipe.
    5. When the timer goes off, I get up, switch on the urn and set the temp dial to low. I sparge in quite cool water these days. I also give the mash a good stir, and then reset the timer for another 30 minutes.
    6. After the next 30 minutes, the work starts. I lift the grain bag out of the boiling bucket, spin it around to squeeze out wort and place it in a pasta strainer. I let it sit for a minute or two just to let the most wort run out, and then pour that runoff into the boiling bucket. I then place the strainer into a large stainless steel bowl I had lying around, and squeeze from the top with another large stainless steel bowl that kinda fits into the strainer. It works like a charm. Anyway, I then squeeze the crap out of the bag until the wort stops flowing, and pour the squeezed wort into the boiling bucket as well.
    7. Once the squeezing is done, I take the whole grain bag and dump it into the urn. The urn is at this stage probably around the 55°C mark, which is warm but not too hot that I can't handle the temp. So the grain bag is dumped in there, poked down with the brew spoon (because it floats from all the squeezing dry) and properly watered down. I leave it there until I've finished weighing out my hops and getting the hops bag and piece of string ready and all that, probably around 10 minutes in total.
    8. With the "rinse" done, I lift the grain bag and repeat the squeezing at Step 6 until the grain is pretty dry. I also switch on the urn to max here, to get the boil started.
    9. Fill up the urn to it's max volume, probably around 20l with wort from the boil bucket. It doesn't take all the wort, so around 3l remains in the boil bucket.
    10. Once the wort is boiling, I drop in the hop bag, set a timer for 45 minutes and leave.
    11. After 45 minutes, I get up, switch on the boil bucket so it can start heating up, add any additional hops to the urn according to the hop schedule and set the timer for 15 mins again.
    12. After the last 15 minutes, I connect the hose to the urn, stick it in the no-chill cube, open the tap and let it rip (while keeping the urn on a rolling boil). I also decant the boiling contents of the boiling bucket into the urn to get all the wort into the cube.
    13. When the urn is empty (the last bit of wort I decant into the cube using a funnel as there's always a bit remaining), I seal the cube and set it aside.

    Now, I've done this process a few times over the past few weeks. It's been working like a charm. Between the batches I've changed up my malt, the mill and the process a little bit, all for better efficiency. I like this process and the whole thing takes me about 3 hours, start to finish.

    So, the efficiency I get with this process right now, is around 90%. I use 3.5kg of malt in my Vienna lager, and the above process gives me 20l of wort at 1.051~1.052 OG. I've done this numerous times now over the past few weeks (9 times, to be exact) and my efficiency keeps sticking to between 88% and 90% with this process. I did do an extended mash and sparge once (90 minutes mash, and about an hour in the urn to sparge), which boosted those numbers to 94%, but it's not worth it for me for that little gain. Interesting note is that I can easily detect how much less sweetness remains in the malt when I follow this process. Usually, my spent grains were still quite sweet, when my efficiency was around the 70% mark. At 90% though, it's pretty bland actually. Very little taste other than the actual base malt flavour.

    And that's my process and my story. I wanted to share it in detail here as well because I get several people asking me about it, and I don't want to keep typing it in detail each time. I like this process. The waiting times between the "busy" times allow me to do other things around the house and I'm strongly considering doubling up my capacity so I can brew more, in the same time, with the same effort but with double the reward. All good and fun for myself. I like having beer on the "backburner", so to speak, and I see some places say cubes can be stored for up to 2 years with no ill effects, so that's a positive note as well.

    Anyway, I'll stop rambling on now. Thanks for reading!

  • #2
    Thanks for explaining your process. It has give me a few ideas to simplify my process.
    Do you want to be good or be praised - Epicurus
    Do what you do to the best of your ability, and blessings will follow you

    Comment


    • #3
      Originally posted by Toxxyc View Post
      <> For me though, it's pretty simple. I define my efficiency with "how much sugar can I get out of my malts, using my process and my equipment". That's it.<>
      Called : Mashing efficiency ... The reading that MOST brewers looks at ... and its the pre-boil / post mash gravity reading we play with ... cause once that reading is off from the recipe, you need to figure out why ... was it your fault ... a bad crush ... old grain ... wrong temp ... and the list goes on.

      EDIT: You should take ALL the wort from the blue bucket and mix that with ALL the wort from the sparge urn ... The gravity of this combined wort IS your Mash Efficiency
      JIGSAW
      Senior Member
      Last edited by JIGSAW; 17 June 2020, 15:34. Reason: See Edit
      The Problem With The World Is That Everyone Is A Few Drinks Behind.!

      Comment


      • #4
        I just clapped a 1.083 OG, found it odd that I'm so far below GFs expected 1.089. Plugged my recipe into brewfather and adjusted my mash efficiency to my now usual 80% It spat out an expected OG of 1.080, which is better (tested my motorized mash mixer hence the slight increase) and then I saw that GF connect integration launched last night in beta. I'm done with the GF app for good. Point being, the GF recipe creator is not accurate or there's a lot less diastatic power in peated and munich than expected

        Comment


        • #5
          Good read. Some pics on your bowl in colander press would be nice as I hand squeeze and for sure lose out on some efficiency there. I'll look into changing my process to allow a "second mash" as you do. To improve extraction. I'm at around 70% eff.
          As I read you mash in 10l my immediate thought was your grist ratio is going to be tight! "Making stywe pap" but with your high efficiency you only use 3.5kg grain so you should be fine. For the same beer I've used 5kg. Down to 4.7 now.

          One last note. I'm real happy about my single vessel BIAB approach. All this back and forth in your process had me lost for a bit.

          Comment


          • #6
            Man no wonder you get that efficiency, I guess that second soak gets you there for the most part.

            I initially thought it sounded fiddly with all the vessels and water to heat, but I guess I forget that I still do a second vessel (and third too), albeit on a much smaller scale, when I put the bag in a colander, over a pot (vessel #2) and then pour hot water through from the kettle (vessel #3). I guess taking that further with bigger vessels and more dilution makes quite a difference.

            There are 2 things you have said here and previously which struck a chord with me:

            1. Just check the taste/ sweetness of the spent grain to see if there is much more to be taken out. Seems logical and obvious, but I have never really thought of it like that, and often its still sweet and yum when I toss it. Goodbye sugars and extra beer!

            2. If you are going to be adding water/ or topping up the kettle anyway, you might as well run it through the grains (in whichever manner), as any extra sugars you get are a win. This concept works for me because I chase 'maximum beer out of my grain & equipment' rather than a target OG. ie. Missing or hitting a number is irrelevant to me.


            So thanks for sharing your methods and ideas.
            Cheers,
            Lang
            ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
            "Dudddde...Hold my beer!".... ; "I wonder what will happen if I ...."

            Comment


            • #7
              Just remember most fly-sparge homebrewers as well as commercial breweries stops their runnings at 1,010 for a reason .... a 100% efficiency wort does NOT make the best beers ....

              It might also be an old brewers tale/myth, but it's believed that you get off flavors and tannins that's associated with low wort concentration, but i think we will only start running into problems when you soak the grains for a 3rd time
              The Problem With The World Is That Everyone Is A Few Drinks Behind.!

              Comment


              • #8
                Yeah with toxyc's taste buds he would have picked it up. So maybe by the 3rd mash. As soon as I saw the second mash I was reminded of a you tuber that made a high gravity beer 1090 or something and then a second mash which came out at like 1040. Tasting the grain is also a good touch

                Comment


                • #9
                  Look I'm no expert, but I was literally chasing as much sugar from the malt as possible. That's it. I made a few beers with this process, and it works for me. So far I've made several, the latest being my Pilsner. I decided to try a Pils this way as it's a gentle beer with not much to hide. It came out fine.

                  I like this process. One thing I've tweaked over time was to do the "second mash" or whatever in much cooler water. It apparently reduces the tannin extraction, makes the grain bag easier to handle and doesn't negatively affect the efficiency that much. Maybe 1% or something down, which can easily be attributed to just not squeezing as hard on the day or something. It greatly speeds up my process as I can then handle the bag with the spent grains easily, moving it quicker and I don't have to handle it "just by the edges" as it's otherwise too got to handle.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Could you send a pic of your "press" /colander and pot? Is it suspended above the brew pot

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Originally posted by jannieverjaar View Post
                      Could you send a pic of your "press" /colander and pot? Is it suspended above the brew pot
                      Uuuuh I don't have a pic on me right now, but it's essentially this:

                      1. Colander: https://berlingerhaus.co.za/products...getable-washer
                      2. SS Bowls: https://www.corecatering.co.za/produ...-mixing-bowls/

                      The colander fits into the larger SS bowl, and the smaller SS bowl fits into the colander, so it makes a really nice "press". I'm planning something else though, a sort of press I can use with something perhaps like a bottle jack so I can just dump in the grain bag and jack it down into a SS container with a bunch of holes to force out more of the liquid. Still idea in progress though.

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Originally posted by Toxxyc View Post
                        Right, so I think it's high time I start this thread, since I'm thinking about it each brew and I love playing around with methods on how to increase this. It's going to be a longer post, this one, so please bare with me.

                        I'll start with "what is efficiency". I know there has been a lot of discussions and some people have different opinions about what it is and what it means to them. For me though, it's pretty simple. I define my efficiency with "how much sugar can I get out of my malts, using my process and my equipment". That's it. It that means more sparging and longer mashes or extended boils to hit my volumes, that's fine. Boiling doesn't affect how much sugar I got out of my malts, so to me boiling a bit longer is fine. So, using that definition for myself, I use this calculator to calculate my efficiency each and every time: https://www.brewersfriend.com/brewhouse-efficiency/ I use the brew house efficiency setting, which takes into account your grain bill vs fermenter volume and gravity, and nothing else. I like that. It also has a nice selection of malts in it's list, so I believe it's nice and accurate.

                        Now, with that out of the way, I have developed somewhat of a thing for high efficiency brewing. I don't know why, because the cost implication is so low, but I have, so sue me. Like I went through a "hop everything" phase, I think this is the new one. I have my process pretty damn well dialed in and my efficiency has never been better.

                        My process is a combination of "think smart" and "I'm lazy" all in one. Step by step, what I currently do, is this:

                        1. Fill up my blue boiling bucket up to 10l with water (depending on the recipe). Switch it on.
                        2. While the boiling bucket heats up, I weigh out my malts and run it through the mill (great mill, will give a review on it in a bit).
                        3. When the boiling bucket hits strike temp, I unplug it, dump in the brew bag, dough in, wrap the bucket in a towel and set a timer to 30 minutes.
                        4. With the timer running, I fill up my boiling urn up to about 14.5l of water (depending on the recipe). I've not measured it yet, but I believe it's around 14.5l with my current Vienna lager recipe.
                        5. When the timer goes off, I get up, switch on the urn and set the temp dial to low. I sparge in quite cool water these days. I also give the mash a good stir, and then reset the timer for another 30 minutes.
                        6. After the next 30 minutes, the work starts. I lift the grain bag out of the boiling bucket, spin it around to squeeze out wort and place it in a pasta strainer. I let it sit for a minute or two just to let the most wort run out, and then pour that runoff into the boiling bucket. I then place the strainer into a large stainless steel bowl I had lying around, and squeeze from the top with another large stainless steel bowl that kinda fits into the strainer. It works like a charm. Anyway, I then squeeze the crap out of the bag until the wort stops flowing, and pour the squeezed wort into the boiling bucket as well.
                        7. Once the squeezing is done, I take the whole grain bag and dump it into the urn. The urn is at this stage probably around the 55°C mark, which is warm but not too hot that I can't handle the temp. So the grain bag is dumped in there, poked down with the brew spoon (because it floats from all the squeezing dry) and properly watered down. I leave it there until I've finished weighing out my hops and getting the hops bag and piece of string ready and all that, probably around 10 minutes in total.
                        8. With the "rinse" done, I lift the grain bag and repeat the squeezing at Step 6 until the grain is pretty dry. I also switch on the urn to max here, to get the boil started.
                        9. Fill up the urn to it's max volume, probably around 20l with wort from the boil bucket. It doesn't take all the wort, so around 3l remains in the boil bucket.
                        10. Once the wort is boiling, I drop in the hop bag, set a timer for 45 minutes and leave.
                        11. After 45 minutes, I get up, switch on the boil bucket so it can start heating up, add any additional hops to the urn according to the hop schedule and set the timer for 15 mins again.
                        12. After the last 15 minutes, I connect the hose to the urn, stick it in the no-chill cube, open the tap and let it rip (while keeping the urn on a rolling boil). I also decant the boiling contents of the boiling bucket into the urn to get all the wort into the cube.
                        13. When the urn is empty (the last bit of wort I decant into the cube using a funnel as there's always a bit remaining), I seal the cube and set it aside.

                        Now, I've done this process a few times over the past few weeks. It's been working like a charm. Between the batches I've changed up my malt, the mill and the process a little bit, all for better efficiency. I like this process and the whole thing takes me about 3 hours, start to finish.

                        So, the efficiency I get with this process right now, is around 90%. I use 3.5kg of malt in my Vienna lager, and the above process gives me 20l of wort at 1.051~1.052 OG. I've done this numerous times now over the past few weeks (9 times, to be exact) and my efficiency keeps sticking to between 88% and 90% with this process. I did do an extended mash and sparge once (90 minutes mash, and about an hour in the urn to sparge), which boosted those numbers to 94%, but it's not worth it for me for that little gain. Interesting note is that I can easily detect how much less sweetness remains in the malt when I follow this process. Usually, my spent grains were still quite sweet, when my efficiency was around the 70% mark. At 90% though, it's pretty bland actually. Very little taste other than the actual base malt flavour.

                        And that's my process and my story. I wanted to share it in detail here as well because I get several people asking me about it, and I don't want to keep typing it in detail each time. I like this process. The waiting times between the "busy" times allow me to do other things around the house and I'm strongly considering doubling up my capacity so I can brew more, in the same time, with the same effort but with double the reward. All good and fun for myself. I like having beer on the "backburner", so to speak, and I see some places say cubes can be stored for up to 2 years with no ill effects, so that's a positive note as well.

                        Anyway, I'll stop rambling on now. Thanks for reading!
                        This needs to be a Youtube video and linked on your website

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Originally posted by BackOffMyBrew View Post
                          This needs to be a Youtube video and linked on your website
                          Haha not a bad idea. Will do one with a stout I've got planned soon (custom brew for a friend).

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            I stand amazed. Really!!
                            What an interesting read and so much to learn. I don't think I could ever go back to Tops (apart for my favourite Tripple Distilled Tipple).

                            Man, what dark rabbit hole have I entered here?
                            [emoji41]

                            Sent from my SM-G960F using Tapatalk

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              You have taken the red pill. Now you get to see how deep the rabbit hole goes.

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