Hello I am really scratching my head on this one. See last night I brew a 3.5gal BIAB Dead ringer Ipa that I got off of Beersmith everything when smoothly my per-boil gravity was 1.049 after temperature correction an then my original gravity after my boil was 1.063 again after temperature correction I only miss the recipe projected original gravity of 1.064 by 1 point according to my calculations. But here the part I am scratching my head I put all this information into beersmith an it told me I had a efficiency of 59.06% now I did have my malt’s for this recipe double crush here a copy of my recipe https://i.imgur.com/qR8cOi3.png. An yes I am brew this using a Brewer’s Edge Mash&Boil unit see the another time I brew I only got 54% efficiency but I was brewing the same Dead ringer IPA but this one was from Northern Brewer…
The recipy before you did. Had the same grain bill. Like the nothern brewer recipy ? Only thing i can think. Different grains have different gravity points. This might give a lower. Preboil grav and a orginal grav. I had this. One time using. European grains vs. Usa grains. Still not sure if this was the case. But that was the only thing i could think of. Or the volume to much of preboil wort. Did you use hydro or refracto meter
What were your pre-boil and to the fermenter volumes?
My pre-boil was 5.04gal an the volume in the fermenter was 3.5gal
Recipes are created with an efficiency, usually 70 - 75%. If you hit the gravity then your efficiency should match the recipe. How are you measuring efficiency? Calculations are off somewhere I would think.
I put my information into beersmith mobile brew session data that were it calculated my Efficiency of being 59.06%… An also when I used beersmith for this recipe I put the recipe Efficiency at 60% because the last time I brew this beer using northern brewer 3gal BIAB recipe kit I got 54% Efficiency.
That’s a lot of grain for a 3.5 gal batch. I put it in BS3 at 60% efficiency and I get a predicted OG of 1.064 with your 1.049 pre boil it’s a 66% mash efficiency.
Did you do this in your mash n boil? On my system that grain bill and volume would have produced about a 1.080 OG beer.
Yes I did mash it in my Mash&Boil for 3.5gal BIAB batch. I dough in with 5.85gal which given me after the grain’s Absorption 5.04gal pre-boil an after the boil I got 4.16gal now after 0.50 Trub loss from my Mash&Boil after I chilled I get 3.00 gal to keg. Now I guessing I am Calculator it right… here a pic of my set up in my Beersmith profile https://i.imgur.com/pUHmjvX.png.
So the good news is your system is predictable and will likely be consistent in producing beers at around 60-70% efficiency. Consistency is good.
Having said that, I’d incorporate a sparge of some kind into the process. If you brew a lot it will save you some money on grain over time. The key is just to develop a process that works for you consistently at an efficiency you’re happy with.
Whenever someone tells me they are getting under 65% efficiency I assume they must be calculating wrong. That’s really low especially for BIAB.
