Brewing Efficiency: What It Is and Why It Matters
Whether you’re brewing on a little three-vessel system in the garage or scaling up at a commercial brewery, efficiency plays a big role in the final product—and your brewing costs.
What Is Brewing Efficiency, Exactly?
In plain English, brewing efficiency is how well you’re converting the potential sugars in your grain into fermentable sugars during the mash. The more sugar you extract, the higher your potential alcohol (ABV) and the less grain you technically need to use.
🔍 Example:
Say you’re brewing with 10kg of grain and 100 litres of water. Based on calculations, you should be able to hit a certain ABV if you extract everything properly. That’s 100% efficiency—but here’s the catch:
You don’t actually want 100% efficiency.
Why? Because it would make your beer too thin, too dry, and lacking in character—especially for styles like Pilsners, where you want a bit of sweetness left behind.
💰 How Efficiency Impacts Cost
When your system is less efficient, you’ll need more grain to reach the same target (e.g., a certain ABV). That doesn’t mean you’re “wasting” money, but you are spending more per brew to hit the same result.
Higher efficiency (e.g. 85–90%) = you’re getting more out of your grain bill, so you use less grain per batch.
Lower efficiency (e.g. 65–70%) = you’ll need to up your grain quantity to compensate, which increases your cost per litre of beer.
So, while it's not a direct dollar-for-dollar loss, it does affect your ingredient usage and cost-efficiency over time—especially when you’re brewing regularly or scaling up.
Homebrew Setups vs Commercial Systems
In my home setup, I use a gravity-fed three-vessel system. It’s simple, does the job, but I’m not hitting those ultra-high efficiency numbers. I’m usually sitting around the 70–75% mark, and I’m totally happy with that.
🚫 Why Not Higher?
Because smaller setups have limitations:
No fancy whirlpools
No false bottoms
No sparge arms
Less control over mash temps
And that’s okay. You trade a bit of efficiency for hands-on craft and flexibility.
🏭 On the Commercial Side…
Once you move into 25,000L tanks and big commercial gear, that’s when things get serious. You can dial everything in, squeeze more sugar out of your grain, and push that efficiency up to 85–90%.
The Sweet Spot for Most Brewers
I reckon if you’re sitting somewhere between 70–90%, you’re doing just fine. Anything higher might come at the cost of flavour and body. Especially if you’re brewing traditional styles that benefit from a bit of malt sweetness.
👇 My Tip:
Focus less on chasing maximum numbers, and more on understanding what works for your system and your desired beer style.
Final Thoughts: Don’t Stress the Numbers Too Much
At the end of the day, efficiency is just one part of the puzzle. It’s important, but it’s not the be-all and end-all. Good beer comes from balance, not just math.
So yeah, keep an eye on it, but don’t lose sleep over hitting perfect numbers every time. Unless you're brewing for a commercial release, that extra 5% isn’t worth ruining the beer over.
🍻 Keen to Learn More?
Come have a yarn at the bar, or follow along with our other brew breakdowns. Got questions about your own setup? Drop a comment or message me—always happy to chat brewing.
Cheers, Paul
To All My Friends