I know this might sound incredibly stupid but I think there might possibly be a difference. As a result of the hurricane I was without power for a full week, just got power this morning. I brewed a Weizenbock on Saturday and had to hand mill the grains. The wheat was incredibly tiring to mill!!! It's sooo hard. The barley was easy. Anyhow, I've read many say a drill does the milling so fast that it really tears the grains apart. Ever since getting my mill over a year ago nearly all my batches are dead on 81% efficiency, even the hefeweizens I've made. I had tightened the gap on my barely crusher a bit tighter than factory so it crushes wheat better and just always left it set that way. The weizenbock I did this weekend I got only 70% efficiency. Not complaining of course, the beer is still well within all guidelines for a Weizenbock, but it got me curious if the slow tedious hand milling might have been part of the lowered efficiency. The only thing else that I did different from every wheat I've ever done is this time I didn't do a protein rest, I usually give all my wheats a 122 rest for 20 minutes. With all the stress from the week I figured I'd just make it easier and do a single infusion mash - could this have an affect on efficiency as well?
All that aside, man milling grains by hand is NOT easy, not at all. Glad I kept the handle to my mill though lol. This whole storm has been a nightmare, though luckily none of my family or friends were hurt and all the property is intact, so outside of the no power and having to heat the house with the stove for a week I certainly am thankful it wasn't worse... and we still had gas and hot water.
Rev.
All that aside, man milling grains by hand is NOT easy, not at all. Glad I kept the handle to my mill though lol. This whole storm has been a nightmare, though luckily none of my family or friends were hurt and all the property is intact, so outside of the no power and having to heat the house with the stove for a week I certainly am thankful it wasn't worse... and we still had gas and hot water.
Rev.