Bad efficiency with chocolate?

[JJack887]

I brewed a mild with 8oz. cocoa powder and only got 60% efficiency compared to my usual 76%. This may also be due to the homebrew shop crushing my grains when I specifically asked them not to, but my pre-boil was 1.025, and the OG was 1.032. A seven point increase doesn't seem feasible, as I've had low pre-boil numbers hit my anticipated OG right on the money with past beers. Is there a chance the powder might be interfering with the readings? They were thoroughly stirred and temperature corrected.

 

[day_trippr]

I keep a big time chocolate stout on tap year 'round and it uses 8 ounces of low fat cocoa powder in the last few minutes of the boil. I have noticed it messes up my hydrometer, adding around ~8-9 points to the OG when my refract is dead-nuts on per the recipe.

So, no, I don't think the cocoa powder caused a low hydro reading.
Sounds like your lhbs needs to tune their mill...

Cheers!

 

[JJack887]

I think you're right. The crush was COARSE. Ugh. It's only a mild and I happen to have some DME I could add to the bucket.