manicmethod
Well-Known Member
So I've been getting bad efficiency. I already had one thread where the consensus was my LHBS crusher.
I got a corona and crushed 20 pounds of grain with a drill attached. Knowing that fast crushing causes problems I ziptied the trigger and let it go at a slow pace (maybe 100 rpm or so). It took about 15 minutes. The grains were well crushed, lots of flour and definitely no uncrushed grains.
I did a fullish volume BiaB, 11 gallons for the 20 pounds. My intention was a 10 gallon batch but the water went up to the top of the basket and I didn't want grains getting out of the basket. I didn't have much room to stir to make sure there were no dry pockets or anything but I poked through the grains with the spoon a few times and everything seemed fine.
The water outside the basket was 150F at this point. I covered the whole thing with a blanket (it was 80F outside) and went to work.
8 hours later it was 120F, I heated to 180 to mashout, pulled out the grains and needed to add some water to do a full boil so I had 2 more gallons at 190F that I poured through the grains (not a real sparge, I know, but I don't normally sparge at all).
As it turns out I needed more water than that, I ended the 60 minute boil with 8 gallons so when I topped it off my gravity (well stirred wort+water) was 1.040 in both fermenters. The target was 1.056.
*sigh*
I got a corona and crushed 20 pounds of grain with a drill attached. Knowing that fast crushing causes problems I ziptied the trigger and let it go at a slow pace (maybe 100 rpm or so). It took about 15 minutes. The grains were well crushed, lots of flour and definitely no uncrushed grains.
I did a fullish volume BiaB, 11 gallons for the 20 pounds. My intention was a 10 gallon batch but the water went up to the top of the basket and I didn't want grains getting out of the basket. I didn't have much room to stir to make sure there were no dry pockets or anything but I poked through the grains with the spoon a few times and everything seemed fine.
The water outside the basket was 150F at this point. I covered the whole thing with a blanket (it was 80F outside) and went to work.
8 hours later it was 120F, I heated to 180 to mashout, pulled out the grains and needed to add some water to do a full boil so I had 2 more gallons at 190F that I poured through the grains (not a real sparge, I know, but I don't normally sparge at all).
As it turns out I needed more water than that, I ended the 60 minute boil with 8 gallons so when I topped it off my gravity (well stirred wort+water) was 1.040 in both fermenters. The target was 1.056.
*sigh*