Homebrewing is one of those crafts that’s easy to learn but incredibly hard to master. Still, one of the biggest obstacles homebrewers have to overcome during their time is trying to make their setup and their results as efficient and as productive as possible.
To make matters more complicated, there are two main types of problems you’ll need to address: inconsistency with your batches or just overall inefficiency with your process, whether that’s how you use your ingredients or how you use your equipment.
Today, we’re going to explore some of the issues and challenges you may come across when homebrewing, allowing you to maximize how big your batches are, as well as improving your overall batch quality.
Crushing and Milling Your Grain
One of the first steps to improving efficiency is to crush and mill your own grain. While this does mean you’re going to need to buy your personal mill equipment, this will allow you to choose the distance between your rollers, thus enabling you to determine what kind of grain you’re working with, which of course will enable you to optimize it for your own equipment.
Moreover, the mill used in a supplier or brewing shop will be used all the time and won’t be as accurate as a mill that is used less frequently by an individual, meaning the settings and metrics will be retained for longer.
The Batch Sparge Method
Do you currently mix your batch during the resting period? Do you mix it two or three times? According to some sources, mixing during the one-hour rest can boost your efficiency rating by around 2%, and while this might not sound like much, it really is.
“One brewer described their experience where they would stir the batch for around 3-5 seconds every 15 minutes during the rest and managed to achieve a whopping 74% efficiency, just through this method alone. The highest efficiency rating doing this was around 78%!” explains Harvey Smith, a writer for Revieweal and UK Services Reviews.
Checking Your Malt
The malt you’re using; think about it and see whether it’s the best malt for the job. There are reports that some people have used malt, which is slightly different with a 0.006SG point drop compared to normal, but this was enough to knock 10% of the final efficiency rating.
Be mindful of the malt you’re using, and be sure to check all parts of your process, from milling to the mash pH, to ensure you’re trying to be as consistent as possible.
Measuring Accuracy
So, you measure how efficient your process is, and you’re realizing there’s room for improvement, but then take a step back and try to understand how accurately you’re taking these measurements. Make one miscalculation, and it’s going to put this figure way off.
One key example of this is something like assuming your boiloff rate. If you predict it’s around one a gallon per hour, but you consistently get less than a gallon in your brewing sessions, this is going to throw your figure completely.
The best way to deal with this is to get yourself an equipment profile and a recipe calculator, which can help you really settle on what figures are actually taking place, ultimately giving you a much more accurate final reading and efficiency rating.
Ready to Experiment
While there are some tried and tested practices and some processes that are known as being ‘the best,’ as a brewer, you need to remember that this is all a craft, and sometimes the best idea can be to think outside the box.
“Don’t be afraid to get creative with the approach you’re taking, and don’t be scared to try something different. If your brews aren’t creating the desired outcome, tweak and tweak until you find a way that does. Even the smallest change can make a huge difference to the final outcome,” shares Bill Turner, a brewing expert for Best Writing Services and UKWritings.
Relax, and Enjoy the Process
Okay, so while there are some brewers who will go out of their way to be as efficient as possible, the art of brewing really comes down to one thing, and that’s making good beer that tastes amazing. While efficiency is good, you’re going to get so much more from the process if you simply relax and enjoy yourself.
Although you do want to be at least a bit efficient, aim for around 65%. Some brewers pride themselves on being as efficient as possible, which is fine, but don’t let it distract you from what’s important. Around the 65% efficiency mark is more than enough.
Special thanks to Bea Potter for this Great Beer Now guest post! Bea Potter is a crafting content editor at Assignment Services and Top Custom Writing Service websites. She writes about brewing. Also, Bea is also a freelance HR at Australianhelp.com Review website.
Leave a Reply