dukes7779

Recipes 

Have been doing my own milling for about 6 months and my efficiency has been anywhere from 70-85%........what gives?? Have made no adjustments to mill and have verified that my gap has not changed. Hitting temps also. What else could it be??

tre9er

Recipes 

bulk grain or buy each time? Do you check your crush as you mill? Particle size of kernels could change from batch to batch and cause fewer/more cracked grains.

Has anything in your process changed, ie. stirring techniques during, before, after mash/sparge? There has to be some subtle nuance.

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dukes7779

Recipes 

Buy in bulk, maybe different stirring during mash/sparge. Anything else I should be aware of??

JakeFegely

Recipes 

There is a good sticky at the top of this section about maximizing efficiency when batch sparging. The sparge /lauter process can have a big impact on efficiency.

The mash process can also affect it. Whenever I use pilsner grain, I need to step mash or I lose efficiency.

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tre9er

Recipes 

pretty much your crush, avoiding dough-balls and stirring well before and after the mash and each sparge addition are the keys.

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BrewThruYou

Recipes 

Is it the same recipe? If not, efficiency generally suffers with larger grainbills. When I'm doing higher gravity beers, I adjust my efficiency in Beersmith down.

arnoldk2

Recipes 

I had a pretty low efficiency when starting out. I was averaging 60%. I changed the rate of draining my mash tun from as fast as I can to taking 20-30 minutes to drain my mash tun and another 20 minutes to drain my sparge water. This increased my efficiency to 75%. I guess the moral of the story is even the smallest tweak you do whether you realize you are doing it or not can make a big difference in your efficiency. Just be consistent with your process and the efficiency should stabilize.

Coohang

Recipes 

How fast do you mill? If I rip thru the grain fast w my drill - then I get 90%. If I slow it down around 200 rpms, then I get 75%...just what I notice...

kh54s10

Recipes 

Really? I read another thread where the consensus, with corona mills, was that milling as slow as possible would increase efficiency.

carlisle_bob

Recipes 

Hi

Do you measure the input by weight or volume? If by weight, the moisture content may be varying (can be a 10% item - yikes!).

Anything that results in a finer crush will likely increase efficiency. Packing grain into the mill, running faster / slower (depending on the mill). Gap setting drifting with time. All will mess things up.

Lots of variables.

Bob