Efficiency question

That's possible. My experience has been those guys aren't paying a whole lot of attention. I *always* weigh my hops before adding them, because I've found that those nice pre-weighed "1 ounce" packages you get from your LHBS contain as little as 22 grams of hops. But I digress.

If everything was weighed and measured correctly, you would need to get about 88% efficiency to get about 1.056 from your grains, and the pound of sugar would bring it up to about 1.064. 88% is pretty crazy for BIAB, but not impossible.

OR ... if your lhbs guy gave you 10 lbs of 2 row instead of 8.5, you'd get the same result with a more average 70% efficiency. Seems like a fairly big error to go unnoticed, but it can happen, especially if somebody isn't paying attention to the tare button.

OR... some combination of the two: like maybe the guy weighed you out 9.5 lbs of grain and you got 75% efficiency.

 

OP: FWIW, the next version of BrewCipher will include a post-brew mash efficiency calculation based on measured gravities, measured volumes, and the original recipe ingredients. And it automatically adjusts for (removes the impact of) ingredients (like sugar) that are not subject to the mash.

 

Lower mash efficiency can result in better beer...almost no worse off-flavor (IMHO) than over-crushed/over-sparged beer. Just use a little more grain or lower your default mash efficiency.

 

I guarantee I could get sky-high efficiency if I wanted it by grinding my malt into flour and using rice hulls, but the beer would suffer. Getting an acceptable amount of both (efficiency and better tasting beer) is what most are aiming for. Cheers