How is this crush? Mashing questions

Here is a bag of milled grains from my LHBS. I asked them what they had their mill set to and the guy had no idea, we measured it and it was at about 39.5. I asked him to reset it to 38 (based solely on a post I vaguely remember reading on here). Anyway, how is this crush? It's 5# German 2-Row and 1# German Wheat (half batches, apartment living is rough).



After 2 all-grain batches with pathetic efficiencies (like 60% and 55%) I wanted to really get this problem dealt with. I plan to really focus on hitting my proper mashing and sparging temps, and have now had my LHBS adjust their mill for me. I've also picked up beersmith which will calculate the dead space in my mash tun, etc. Is there anything else I can do?

Cheers!

The crush looks fine from what I can see. .038-.040 is usually the sweet spot, but that also has to do with the type of mill and the speed its running at.

I'd work on your process to improve you eff.

Bull

Hard to tell from the picture, but likely you are fine. Are there any whole pieces of grain that are unfractured such that the mash water cannot easily conver and rinse the converted sugars?

wilserbrewer said:

Hard to tell from the picture, but likely you are fine. Are there any whole pieces of grain that are unfractured such that the mash water cannot easily conver and rinse the converted sugars?

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No, they seem to all be crushed pretty well and the husks are mostly intact. Really I never doubted the crush from my LHBS and figured the problem lies mostly with my own techniques. I just wanted to get a second opinion on the crush so I could rule that out as a factor in my efficiency problems.

I guess this will just take some practice.

What equipment are you using?

Ryush806 said:

What equipment are you using?

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5 gallon rubbermaid cooler with a stainless braid, 22 quart s/s pot on my stove.

It seems to be a pretty common setup and I see people claiming they are getting upwards of 80%, even 85% efficiency with these so it must be possible.

when you get beersmith set your efficiency to 50-60% and it will sort the whole mess out for you. i do no sparge brewing so i set my efficiency to 58% and i always hit my numbers exactly the way the program predicts. uses a bit more grain but you're talking about a buck or two worth of grain.

if you condition your malt before you mill it you should be able to set the mill tighter and get even better efficiency.

Worry less about getting higher efficiency and worry about being consistent with your brewing. I only get 65% (+/-2%) but I get it almost all the time. You don't want to plan on a 1.050 OG beer and end up with a 1.030 or 1.070 OG beer. Once you get your process nailed down and you are consistent then you can start looking into ways to improve your efficiency.

Sithdad said:

Worry less about getting higher efficiency and worry about being consistent with your brewing. I only get 65% (+/-2%) but I get it almost all the time. You don't want to plan on a 1.050 OG beer and end up with a 1.030 or 1.070 OG beer. Once you get your process nailed down and you are consistent then you can start looking into ways to improve your efficiency.

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exactly.

Sithdad said:

Worry less about getting higher efficiency and worry about being consistent with your brewing. I only get 65% (+/-2%) but I get it almost all the time. You don't want to plan on a 1.050 OG beer and end up with a 1.030 or 1.070 OG beer. Once you get your process nailed down and you are consistent then you can start looking into ways to improve your efficiency.

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good advice. thanks.