Missed target gravity by quite a bit, what happened?

Hey Guys,

So I just got a barley crusher and I took my recipe to my LHBS and picked up my grain (uncrushed). My target on this particular batch was 1.070. I hit a very disappointing 1.048 or 1.050 (hard to tell). My mash temperature ended up being slightly higher than the target (about 156-157F, target being 154), however I noticed after 10 minutes and even after 30 minutes that the temperature was uneven. I attempted to correct it a couple times by stirring it. Regardless, my mash never hit below 154 the whole time.

I used a power drill to crush my grain... this was my first time crushing. Did I crush too fast? I held it about quarter way (I know this varies drill to drill, but it wasn't blazing fast or anything) the whole time. I think it was faster than I could have done by hand.

I really don't know how I could have missed my target that much. I'm fairly certain I didn't add too much water as well.

Large rant, I know, just trying to give all the details. This might just end up being a problem with my crush and efficiency but I'd like to know!

that Temp won't effect efficency (it'll effect FG tho) what is the space of your crush (most people try to get 0.040) how did you sparge, how long did you sparge, how long was mash? I know its a lot of questions but those are the major questions when refering to efficiency

I'm assuming that you aren't a first time AG, and that you did everything else as you normally would. Therefore, the crush is the new element that's changed in your process. When I first bought a mill, I didn't get the crush right, as I thought it was crushed, but the grains weren't getting fully cracked inside the husks. When you finished the mash, could you see a bunch of white pieces in your mash? If so, that was the pieces of grain that weren't crushed, and therefore couldn't get converted into the mash liquid.

I've always had a bit of a problem hitting my target, but nowadays it's typically .002 below or something, but this is a huge difference. I do recall seeing a lot of white bits, so I guess the crush isn't fine enough? Perhaps I crushed too fast? Apparently it's set for .039

A fine crush, for me, resulted in lower efficiency and stuck sparges. I set my BC to a little more than factory default and things got much better. The other thing I did - and it made a giant huge difference - was to get a big stainless paddle and really eliminate dough balls and mixed the mash up well. FWIW and YMMV - a finer crush (paradoxically) is not really the answer to low efficiency.

Steve da sleeve

Sometimes those white bits are growth from the malting process, but sometimes they're from grain not breaking into pieces. Check for that next time, you'll be able to tell the difference.`