Yooper

Recipes 

I used the factory settings (.039 I believe) and liked the look of the crush. My efficiency has always been around 72%. Well, I'm always hearing "crush till you're scared", so today I tightened it up a bit. What's yours set at?

__________________
Broken Leg Brewery
Giving beer a leg to stand on since 2006

chumprock

Recipes 

Factory default, and I'm too chicken to muss with it.

CyclingCraig

Recipes 

Just brewed over the weekend,

Was at gapped at .034 Eff was about 72 - 75.

Tightened gap down to .029 eff went up to about 85% (Into boiler). (Mash in a cooler with a Hot water heater braided line in a loop for a manifold). No problems with a stuck mash.

SavageSteve

Recipes 

I tightened mine to .035, based on the recommendation of a post here on HBT. I had to adjust it anyway, since the rollers weren't quite parallel when I got it, so I figured I'd tighten it up.

I think it gives a very good crush, but I've never actually tested different settings. I've only used it on two brews so far, both a partial mash with double-batch sparging. Didn't get stuck, and I got ~80% efficiency.

-Steve

__________________
On Deck: Jamil's Vanilla Robust Porter
Fermenting: Orange Blossom Mead
Kegs: Element 56 Pale Ale, Ron's Belgian Blonde, Summer'n Saison, Furloughktoberfest '09, Grateful Pale Ale, Sam Adams Cream Stout Clone, EdWort's Apfelwein
Planning: n/a

BeerPressure

Recipes 

I think this has been done before, but .036

cubbies

Recipes 

.037 pretty consistent 75% efficiency.

mmb

Recipes 

I'm at .030 (checked with feelers) and get around 78% with a double batch sparge at 180°F. If I stir a few times during the mash (60 min) I've found I can get up to 83% efficiency, but I'm lazy.

__________________
White Dog Aleworks and Drafthouse

wildwest450

Recipes 

Factory default and 80%+ on every batch.

__________________
Just because you're offended, that doesn't make me wrong.

SpanishCastleAle

Recipes 

I'm just a tiny bit tighter than factory so about .036".

I think that it's a worthwhile test (or series of tests) to measure your conversion efficiency and keep tightening the gap until you get >98% conversion efficiency (before you even start lautering/sparging). Once you're converting everything close to 100% there is no need to go any tighter imo. You'll still lose a bunch of efficiency points in the lauter/sparge but at least now you know exactly where you're losing efficiency because the mash was near 100% converted.

FWIW, @ .036" gap I get ~99% conversion efficiency. I don't get anywhere near that into-the-fermenter though. I lose efficiency in the lauter/sparge, in reserved wort that doesn't go into the kettle, whole hops, etc.

__________________
Early brewers were primarily women, mostly because it was deemed a woman's job. Mesopotamian men, of some 3,800 years ago, were obviously complete assclowns and had yet to realize the pleasure of brewing beer.- Beer Advocate

enderwig

Recipes 

Same here....

__________________
Read the
Homebrewtalk Wiki!