I am on my 7th batch ever, started with AG and each batch has improved thus far! Why not jump in with both feet?!
I am trying to shake out my efficiency issues as I only got about 55% efficiency on my last AG batch. At 70%, OG should have been 1.102, but only hit 1.080, 20 Brix, confirmed with my hydrometer.
I've improved my equipment to a 70 quart mash tun cooler, 40Q pot with burner, spot check Wort Brix with my calibrated refractometer and use the batch sparge method. I have proven the ability to use calculators to determine strke temps, mashing volume, sparge amount & temp and have been able to hit preboil volumes and other parameters.
I can never seem to hit my OG for 70% efficiency... what I'm thinking the problem is the grind I'm getting from my local shop is not fine enough. Of course, the 2 employees I've asked can't tell me what spacing their machine is set to, so my question is this --- If I run the crushed grains through the mill again, will it break up the larger pieces further? While the majority of what I spot checked appeared to be broken up, I was looking at the spent grain again while cleaning up my tun and noticed that quite a few pieces were cracked open but some were largely intact.
Thoughts and any other advice??
I am trying to shake out my efficiency issues as I only got about 55% efficiency on my last AG batch. At 70%, OG should have been 1.102, but only hit 1.080, 20 Brix, confirmed with my hydrometer.
I've improved my equipment to a 70 quart mash tun cooler, 40Q pot with burner, spot check Wort Brix with my calibrated refractometer and use the batch sparge method. I have proven the ability to use calculators to determine strke temps, mashing volume, sparge amount & temp and have been able to hit preboil volumes and other parameters.
I can never seem to hit my OG for 70% efficiency... what I'm thinking the problem is the grind I'm getting from my local shop is not fine enough. Of course, the 2 employees I've asked can't tell me what spacing their machine is set to, so my question is this --- If I run the crushed grains through the mill again, will it break up the larger pieces further? While the majority of what I spot checked appeared to be broken up, I was looking at the spent grain again while cleaning up my tun and noticed that quite a few pieces were cracked open but some were largely intact.
Thoughts and any other advice??