Efficiency has become the bane of my existence. I am at least trying to be consistent but I can't even do that.
I haven't changed my process since I started brewing a few months ago. I mash in a cylindrical cooler at 152 for 60 minutes. Then I heat up the mash to about 160ish. Then I fly sparge with water that's around 172ish. I drain slowly. It takes at least on hour to collect the wort. If anything, I should be getting better efficiency as I gain understanding of the process. But I've been hitting around 65%.
Here's what I'm trying to figure out, on a couple of beers I reached 78% for my efficiency, which is a number I'm quite pleased with. I'd like to repeat this on each of my beers. The only thing that was different on these instances where I got higher efficiency was the person that measured and milled my grain at the brew store. When one person in particular measures and mills my grains, my efficiency is always below 70%. When anyone else measures and mills my grains it's higher than 70%.
I understand that milling makes a significant difference in efficiency but the brew store I frequent has a very nice electric mill. I'm not sure how anyone could mill any differently than the next. Am I right? I'm going to start weighing my grains when I get home to see if he's shorting me, but I wanted to see if milling was a possibility at all. I've never milled before so I maybe my assumption that it's all the same with a big fancy mill is wrong.
Any feedback would be most helpful!
I haven't changed my process since I started brewing a few months ago. I mash in a cylindrical cooler at 152 for 60 minutes. Then I heat up the mash to about 160ish. Then I fly sparge with water that's around 172ish. I drain slowly. It takes at least on hour to collect the wort. If anything, I should be getting better efficiency as I gain understanding of the process. But I've been hitting around 65%.
Here's what I'm trying to figure out, on a couple of beers I reached 78% for my efficiency, which is a number I'm quite pleased with. I'd like to repeat this on each of my beers. The only thing that was different on these instances where I got higher efficiency was the person that measured and milled my grain at the brew store. When one person in particular measures and mills my grains, my efficiency is always below 70%. When anyone else measures and mills my grains it's higher than 70%.
I understand that milling makes a significant difference in efficiency but the brew store I frequent has a very nice electric mill. I'm not sure how anyone could mill any differently than the next. Am I right? I'm going to start weighing my grains when I get home to see if he's shorting me, but I wanted to see if milling was a possibility at all. I've never milled before so I maybe my assumption that it's all the same with a big fancy mill is wrong.
Any feedback would be most helpful!