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smit6089

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Hello All,

I've made a few batches of wine and about 10 years ago I made 1 extract batch of beer with a friend (By I made with I mean I was in the house while it was boiling, that counts right?). Well I'm really hands on and a bit of an equipment nerd so I've gone all in and over the last few months built up equipment to handle 10 gal all grain batches.

firstbrewday.jpg


I chose BierMunchers Centennial Blonde, Located Here, as my first batch. I hit most of my numbers as far as my temps and times went. I hit my pre boil volume but SEVERELY missed my post boil. I had 2 gallons boil off when I was expecting 0.5 :mad: That was completely my fault as I didn't take the time to measure my boil off.

However I missed my Pre Boil OG.... By a lot. Expecting 1.039 with 72% efficency, and ended up with pre boil sg of 1.026. What gives? Had a 1 hour mash with a 150f mash temp, two equal batch sparges at 161f mash temp. At least with my massive boil off I still hit 1.039 OG

The only thing I can figure out is the mill on the grains wasn't fine enough. Maybe this is the problem or maybe I'm just looking for someone else to blame. I had my LHBS mill my grains for me and I thought it looked a little different than what I had seen before but I assumed it was fine.

firstbrew_cb_grains.jpg



In the end all is well as there will still be beer. She's bubbling away happily, just at 4 gallons..... and probably a little IBU heavy...

firstbrew_cb_fermenting.jpg


Any suggestions on what I missed will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks so much,

Smit
 
Hard to tell from the small pic, but that grain looks 90% uncrushed!

Mostly whole kernels with a few white bits in it. If that's so, I'd complain to your LHBS. Maybe someone "adjusted" the mill. Most LHBS mill rather coarsely, and are rarely willing to tighten the gap. Milling twice on a gap that's too wide isn't going to do it either.

Always check your wort coming out of the mash tun for gravity. If it's low, there's still something you can do about it.
 
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If you're serious about pursuing homebrewing and your supplier/LHBS gives you this, I'd look into buying a mill. A Corona (or knock off) can be had for $25.
 
Talk about going all in for your first batch! I think you did it right though investing in the equipment right away. Assuming that you like home brewing it will save you money and make better beer in the long run. I agree that grain doesn't look milled hardly at all.
 
Thanks everyone for the feedback, as I'm still new this is all really helpful. My LHBS has been really informative and are always nice. I'll speak to them next time I go in about the crush and I'll make sure it's better next time. I will probably eventually purchase a mill when the hobby fund builds back up.

As far as the mill goes I've heard Corona style Mills aren't that great for homebrewing. Something about crushing too fine? I've never used one so I'm not sure.

Thanks again for the info.
 
One thing I like about the "brew in a bag" method is that there's no worries about milling the grain too fine. Technically from an efficiency standpoint the finer you crush it the better, but if you crush it too fine you may have a stuck sparge unless you brew in a bag.
 
As far as the mill goes I've heard Corona style Mills aren't that great for homebrewing. Something about crushing too fine? I've never used one so I'm not sure.

I invested 25 bucks into a pasta roller. Takes sometime to rough up the rollers but it worked. I just beat the rollers with a 1/4" spade bit and chunked them up pretty good.
You really gotta give it a good beating to rough them up though. I tried scratching them with a drill bit and it didn't crush too well.
 
I've never considered a pasta roller conversion. Definitely something to consider. I thought about Brew in a bag , and then I decided why not just go balls deep, build a manifold and just go for it.
 
I will probably eventually purchase a mill when the hobby fund builds back up.

As far as the mill goes I've heard Corona style Mills aren't that great for homebrewing. Something about crushing too fine? I've never used one so I'm not sure.

you don't appear to be someone that goes halfassed into equipment. I just bought a mill after much research. I ended up with the kegco 3-roller mill for $139 including shipping. Almost got a schmiedling adjustable mill, which is about the same price. bumped up my efficiency in the first batch from 66% to 78%.
 
Thank you everyone for all of the help. Just a quick update, I ended up purchasing a cereal killer Grain Mill from Adventures in Homebrewing for $99 shipped. Tried it out for the first time yesterday and it made for a much more confidence-building Brew Day. Got a much better crush and ended up with 71% efficiency. Still room for improvement, but I missed my Mash temp by a couple of degrees and contribute some of the loss to that.

fs6cW9x.jpg


LAnOVrw.jpg


I hope this help someone else out that was having efficiency problems. Thank you all for the advice and information.


Happy Brewing.
 

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