Did my first biab with a northern brewer all grain kit yesterday. It was the dead ringer ipa kit that I got on sale a few weeks ago. Started with 7.5 gallons of water and ended up a little shy of 5 gallons because of an excessive amount of trub in my kettle over a gallon. My preboil gravity was 1.045 and post boil was 1.060 on the refractometer. I’m trying to figure out if I calculated my efficiency correctly. I came up with roughly 70 percent. Can anyone confirm this? 6 gallons in the kettle after the boil. I used an online calculator as I don’t have beersmith yet
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Would you post the grain bill/femetables? I would assume you did weigh them out too to verify? Sneezles61
11lbs rahr 2 row and 1 lb brides caramel 40. I didn’t weigh them. I figured northern brewer took care of that?
Very close… just a bump over… Sneezles61
Do you mean the weight or my efficiency?
I use 35 points per pound for your grain… multiply by 12… Then divide by your final quantity… call it 5… Then multiply by .7 and see what you get… I use this to formulate my ABV… Of course other fermentable do vary… Sneezles61
Ok Thanks!
Its not too tough… its just like brewing… the more you utilize this, the easier it gets… I just can’t get my PC to run a program to help me… So I’ve come to figure this out and I can devise/build an ABV to my own grain bills… the color and flavor are another rabbit that WILL take time to evolve… I’m still learning and doing lots of reading… Sneezles61
Yeh I can’t seem to stop the reading on brewing. It’s more simple the more I actually practice it
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I get 72% with beersmith using your numbers. Did you top off the wort in the fermenter? You can do that if you end up low but remember it will affect your OG and of course your final ABV.
Sounds like you had a good brew day but boiling off 2.5 gallons is a lot. You could probably lower you burner. You want a good rolling boil but the wort doesn’t have to be jumping out of the pot.
I did not top off because I don’t want to affect the nav at all. Thanks for plugging that into beersmith for me dannyboy58. I started the boil with 7 gallons and ended with 6. Just lost a lot of wort due to heavy trub from all the hops I used. 3.75 ounces total
Gotcha…if you’re pouring wort from your BK to your fermenters you can strain it to maximize your volume. When I did that I used a stainless double strainer and it worked great to get most of the hop debris and some of the trub. You can also use muslin or cheese cloth.
Another option is to put your hops in paint strainer bags in the boil. That’s what I do now because I pump from the BK to the fermenter. Don’t be afraid of a little hot break or trub in the fermenter it won’t hurt a thing and some even believe it’s beneficial to healthy yeast production.
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I seem to think of the points per pound may be different from site to site… Dannyboy, does Brad use 35 PPG? I’ve seen some that also use 37PPG… That does change the out come… Sneezles61
No clue. Never thought about it and at a quick glance I can’t find it in the settings or options. Only reason I pay attention to efficiency is for consistency in recipes. I don’t think I’ve looked at the calculation once since I got BS2. One less time in my life I’m forced to use algebra. I’d rather let BS2 calculate it for me and spend the saved algebra time drinking beer.
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Brad includes potential yield as SG per pound in the Grain table, under Ingredients. Not all grains list the same potential.
Yeh from my understanding, you are suppose to look them up from the manufacturer
Right, I’m aware of the grains being different. I sometimes think that each site may be using different PPG for the same type malt… Thats what leads me to believe there are some differing on set. gravities… I have tried to read what the manufacturers put out, but its eluding my simple comprehension… 
Sneezles61
That’s been my observation also. I’ve seen a couple of printable lists that provide a range (so for example, most base malts would have been listed as 35 - 37).
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