Does anyone double crush grains at Midwest Supplies?

I haven't been, wondering if I should start. Been experiencing eff in the low 50's on my PMs. I know crush can be just 1 cause... just wondering if anyone else does this there.

No I haven't, but I've also experienced poor eff with their crush, but I can't be 100% sure that its not something im doing.

I re-crush any grain I accidentally get already crushed.

I've brewed two beers using Maris Otter and Optic malts I ordered crushed from them and the efficiency was the same as I get from the grain I buy crushed from my LHBS - 82-85%

That's good to know, I honestly don't think it's their crusher. I think it's my sparge temp. I'm dumping in 170-175 degree water which I don't think is raising my grain bed enough, I think i need to go closer to 185.

Does that sound like something that would attribute to lower eff?

Kia has sparged with room temp water and not noticed lower efficiency. I sparged with just warm water yesterday and still got over 85% BHE.

Frustrating. If it's not sparge temp... would it be strike temp? My cooler seems to be dropping about 3-4 degrees over the 60 minute rest. Yesterday I was shooting for a 153 mash temp, I added the grain when my water hit 164, the temp was 149-150 after the full rest.

I haven't checked PH, I have been using store bought filtered water.

I'd just adjust the mill gap to a tighter setting, but they may not be willing to let you do that. Double-crushing is the next best option. Ultimately, I would recommend crushing your grain at home with a Barley Crusher or other high-quality maltmill the morning of your brewday. That way you get exactly the crush that you want, and you have the freshest possible flavor and aroma over something that may have been sitting in a bag for several days to months.

One way you can diagnose it is to buy your grain from somewhere else and see if that changes anything.

That's a good idea, there is another LHBS near by... maybe I'll try that next.

wookiemofo said:

Frustrating. If it's not sparge temp... would it be strike temp? My cooler seems to be dropping about 3-4 degrees over the 60 minute rest. Yesterday I was shooting for a 153 mash temp, I added the grain when my water hit 164, the temp was 149-150 after the full rest.

I haven't checked PH, I have been using store bought filtered water.

Click to expand...

I wouldn't be concerned with losing only a few degrees over an hour during the mash. I'd check your mash pH next. One of the best things I ever did was download John Palmer's spreadsheet and start sculpting the water profile.

A mash at 149-150 for 60 min should be fine

Other factors to consider -

Are you weighing the grains accurately?
Are your thermometer and hydrometer accurate?
Are you measuring volumes accurately?
Have you checked the pH of the mash? - Not likely the cause of the problem, but it's worth checking.

What sparging method are you using? If you're fly sparging, you may be draining too fast. If you're batch sparging, are you collecting equal volumes in both drainings? Allowing enough time for the sugars to liquefy before doing the second draining?

Finally, are you miscalculating somehow? For example, since you're doing a partial mash, are you including the gravity points of the extract when you're trying to predict the SG of the mash? For example - mash SG contribution + Extract SG contribution = OG 1.0XX, but the SG of the mash alone is only going to a fraction of that predicted OG.

anyway, just some things to consider....

Weights should be accurate, they are taken at the LHBS on their digi.
Thermometer is a new handheld digital, hydro was tested in water a couple batches ago.
Volumes could be barely off but usually measured by adding it by the quart.
I have not messed with PH.

I'm doing a single infusion batch sparge. Equal volumes of water (1.25xlb) I'll mash for 60 minutes, sparge for 10.

I am calculating efficiency based on starting OG in comparison to what beersmith tells me. Typical scenario, I'll end up with under 4 gallons of finished wart... once cooled I will take my OG rating, and slowly add water until i hit the target OG. So instead of topping off at 5 then taking a reading and risk it being lower, I add water until I hit my OG. That typically happens at 4.5 gallons for a calculated 5 gallon batch. 4.5 gallons at an OG of 1.056 vs a calculated OG of 10.57 at 5 gallons gave me 56%.

So my batch size is falling short. Is there a better way to measure?

wookie,

you are right about midwest's grain mill. I always run a little through first and see how the crush is going. Their rollers are very worn. Last time I had to crank it almost all the way down with the gap setting to not get a lot of grains coming through uncrushed. I am planning on bringing in a set of feeler gauges next time to see what it actually is set at in relation to the dial. I do usually run through twice as I have found if I go right to the size that cracks all the grain, I end up with a lot of husk shredding.