Brew UK Forum | Grain
Success Rate??
Hi Guys
As an extract brewer wishing to convert to AG im a little confused to when people say that they had a rate of say 90% during mash! What does this mean and how do they know???
Thanks in advance
Gazz
Responses
Posted 2 years ago by Admin
Hi Gazz, this is about the efficiency of your mashing/sparging process. It a measure of the total amount of fermentable sugars available from a batch of grain compared to what you what you actually manage to extract.
Basically in a certain volume of grain you should be able to extract a certain amount of sugars. If you managed to extract all the possible sugars then this would mean you have an efficiency of 100%. This is nearly impossible but the better your equipment/process the higher the rate. If you are aiming for a certain starting OG then knowing your efficiency means you can add more grain to the initial mash to compensate for the fact that your system is of a certain efficiency and therefore compensate by adding more grain.
Depending on how you sparge (rinse the grains) will really effect your efficiency.
To be honest if you are looking into AG don't worry about it too much, assume you will get 75% and go from there.
AG is really not that complicated but you can make it more complicated if you get hung up on efficiency and water treatment.
I would suggest that you go for it and see how it turns out. You can then start getting more involved with playing around with things as your confidence grows.
You will find the beer is amazing even if you do not worry too much about efficiency or water treatment but will get better and better.
Basically don't over complicate things to start with, just get stuck in.
I'm going to do a brew tomorrow and post my method which is fairly heath robinson but works for me.
There is so many combinations of grain/hops/yeast this keep me happy for now.
Posted 2 years ago by Member
Maybe I'm thinking too much!!!!
Just gotta bite the bullet!!!
Thanks Again!
Posted 2 years ago by Member
I have to agree with Greg, I've read books and books on brewing and the more I do, the more the fun seems to be taken from it. Go with the flow and follow the basic rules... but have fun!
(with grateful thanks to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and slightly adapted)
Posted 2 years ago by Admin
I think some people love the chemistry and get really involved with every single process but if that's not really your thing (like me) then it can blow your mind.
The basic process is fairly straight forward and once you get the technique sorted for your equipment (mainly driven by budget and diy skills) then making beer is easy.
The fun bit for me is experimenting with the flavours and there is enough combinations of hops/grain/yeast to keep me going and going.
We stock over 35 varieties of hops alone and there are more that we will be adding.
Concentrate on the basic technique first but get stuck in. Its really not that complicated and so long as you keep sterile after the boil, the worst that will happen is you product some okay beer. You will have issues at times but that's part of the learning process, something that will never end and what makes a forum like this really handy so we can learn from each other.
Its a bit like cooking (something else that I love), you will always be learning and experimenting with new recipes and techniques to improve your results.
Tony is right, the most important thing is to have fun.
Posted 2 years ago by Member
Basics & Fun sounds good to me, can sometimes get carried away with all the detail written in books and on-line which inevitably puts people on the back foot like myself.
My project this week is to build the mash tun, maybe i'll post some pics if it goes ok!!
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