Pale Malt Efficiency

I have just begun my AG adventure and had a question about pale malt. Both times I have used pale malt in my partial grain brews I have had low efficiency problems (50%-55%). The last batch I brewed (1st all grain attempt) used Maris Otter malt as a base and some specialty malts and I hit 75%. Any ideas on why the starch conversions seem to be more difficult with pale?

It is probably the mash (or lack there of) in your partial mash vs. your all grain attempt. I would focus on the method rather than the grain. If you hit 75% on your all grain I would say you're doing the right thing.

Shoppy said:

I have just begun my AG adventure and had a question about pale malt. Both times I have used pale malt in my partial grain brews I have had low efficiency problems (50%-55%). The last batch I brewed (1st all grain attempt) used crystal malt as a base and some specialty malts and I hit 75%. Any ideas on why the starch conversions seem to be more difficult with pale?

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Crystal malt as a base malt?

Yeah somethings not right here, crystal can't be used as the single base malt. Maybe he used crystal along with some speciality malts?

Sorry bout that. Maris Otter as a base along with some crystal and chocolate malt for an English Mild.

Thanks for the input. I did use the same equip/technique with both but being a newbie I opted to use extract with my first attempt with the mash tun just in case I did have efficiency problems. The only other thing that changed was the use of 5.2PH stabilizer. My other attempts using Death Brewers stove top mash also yielded similar results with pale malt.

So much to learn...guess I'll have to brew some more!

Did you get the malt from the same place? And more importantly, do you remember if the malt looked crushed to the same level each time? The difference between a bad crush and a good enough crush could easily bump you up from 55% to 75% (I went from 50% to 75%)