Bisco_Ben

Recipes 

So I recently picked up a 55 lber of the Canada Malting Co pale malt as a cheap base malt. Since I have started using this malt, I have noticed that recipes which ranged from 74-80% efficiency are now coming in at around 68-70%. Is my barley crusher starting to slip or could this possibly be due to the change from US 2-row from my LHBS (breiss?) to this canadian malt?

thisoneguy

Recipes 

You know, I've been wondering the same thing. I bought a couple sacks of this grain and my eff has dropped down to about 73% from the 82-85% that I got w/ the Briess 2-Row. I think I'm going to try something different (MO maybe) when what i have is gone, but it might be a while since brew days have been few and far between lately. I have pretty much a whole bag left, but I'm curious about what will happen when I switch base grains again.

Tsouke

Recipes 

I use that same grain and the batch I brewed this weekend came in at 77%.

thisoneguy

Recipes 

Have you brewed the "same" recipe w/ a different base malt? I wonder if there is a difference.

Bisco_Ben

Recipes 

Tsouke, what is your normal efficiency range and do you always use canada malting? My hypothesis is that the malt is what is causing the lower efficiency but I am also going to wait until I finish off the bag before I use my usual Briess 2-row again. Looking forward to testing my theory.

RM-MN

Recipes 

When growing grains there can be quite a difference in the size of the kernels. It may be that the kernel size is smaller this year and thus they aren't getting crushed as well as last year's crop.

lurker18

Recipes 

Also it could be crop year. This years malt barley is far from the best. Are you comparing a new bag of Canada malt to old bags of Briess? Chances are, if you got two maltsters from the same year, they may both have dropped in efficiency.

Tsouke

Recipes 

Sorry for the delay responding, don't check in here much. Yes, I usually use Canada Malting for my base malt. Always been happy with the efficiency (15 years of brewing with a variety of different grain supplies). I am usually in the high 70's to sometimes low 80's when I get lucky. Not sure what to say about your low efficiency, guess I am not much help troubleshooting for you besides saying my experience with them.

william_shakes_beer

Recipes 

Are you usinbg your expected extract from the "Average" extract published in tools such as Mr Malty, or the analysis that was published for this grain?

logdrum

Recipes 

FWIW I've noticed a drop off in my efficiency since my last bulk buy (late Sept) I'm using Great Western, though.