95% extract efficiency. Is that even possible?

geaux_brew

New Member
Trial Member
Joined
Jul 21, 2018
Messages
20
Reaction score
1
Points
3
I just finished brewing a recipe that I found on Mobcraft Brewing. It is a maple vanilla porter (out of season, I know). I use two Igloo coolers for the mash and sparge. I am typically around 85% extract efficiency. Today my numbers read, 95%.

During my brew session, I have a pump attached to the front of the mash tun. I circulate the wort for two minutes at the beginning, middle and end of the mash. My mash appeared to be partially stuck, so the fly sparge was really slow. Other than that it went like a typical brew day. I have missed my numbers before, but I am usually able to pinpoint where things went wrong.

Has anyone hit those kind of numbers with a cooler setup? I know it is unlikely, but can't find any obvious mistakes I made.
 
Not a cooler system, but a single vessel system with recirculation running for most of the mash, which is usually full volume. So theoretically I should be less efficient that a cooler setup, but my extraction/conversion is pretty commonly in the 90% range.
 
Absolutely I'd be scratching my head if I found my extraction below 90%. We're talking conversion efficiency pre boil right?

I'd say post boil into the fermentor at 95% brew house efficiency more unlikely.
I've got high 80's brew house before like 87%
But I put that down to my human measuring grain error.
I can pretty much garentee 83% batch to batch up untill 1.060 +~ range
I'd expect it to drop the higher the gravity but rarely brew up over 1.060...
 
Absolutely I'd be scratching my head if I found my extraction below 90%. We're talking conversion efficiency pre boil right?

I'd say post boil into the fermentor at 95% brew house efficiency more unlikely.
I've got high 80's brew house before like 87%
But I put that down to my human measuring grain error.
I can pretty much garentee 83% batch to batch up untill 1.060 +~ range
I'd expect it to drop the higher the gravity but rarely brew up over 1.060...
Yes, pre-boil. Post b
Absolutely I'd be scratching my head if I found my extraction below 90%. We're talking conversion efficiency pre boil right?

I'd say post boil into the fermentor at 95% brew house efficiency more unlikely.
I've got high 80's brew house before like 87%
But I put that down to my human measuring grain error.
I can pretty much garentee 83% batch to batch up untill 1.060 +~ range
I'd expect it to drop the higher the gravity but rarely brew up over 1.060...

Yes. Pre-Boil.
I have seen people with HERMS get into the 90s. But I didn't think cooler systems typically got that high.
This recipe was designed to get a pre-boil OG of 1.076 but got 1.088 instead.
 
Yes, pre-boil. Post b


Yes. Pre-Boil.
I have seen people with HERMS get into the 90s. But I didn't think cooler systems typically got that high.
This recipe was designed to get a pre-boil OG of 1.076 but got 1.088 instead.
Wow well if your brewing someone else's recipie the brew house efficiency might be different to what your seeing with your system.
So you've got to adjust that first then make any grain alterations to hit your targets.
 
I generally get around 72% brewhouse efficiency, so that seems crazy high as a preboil gravity to me.
 
I get crazy good efficiency but its a herms like you mentioned and great yeast but just for preboil I set my recipes to 85% and hit it dead on but not 95 so I'm guessing your water is low giving you false readings
 
I generally get around 72% brewhouse efficiency, so that seems crazy high as a preboil gravity to me.

Brewhouse efficiency is different than extract efficiency. Extract efficiency is only a percentage of sugars extracted. While brewhouse efficiency is a measure of the entire process. 90% isn't uncommon in electric/HERMS systems, but never seen anything that high with cooler systems. But 95% is definitely high for my setup.
 
here's what can happen, this is my formula for preboil, the reason I say this, the problems that can happen are, was your original gravity correct as well as your boil size, if one is wrong your readings could be off

=IFERROR(ROUND(((1000+(Batch size*((Original Gravity-1)*1000)/Boil Size))/1000),3),0)
 

Back
Top