BIAB Crush?

[Jhedrick83]

I just got a corona mill and got it set up in a bucket. How does this crush look to you guys? Too loose or too tight?

 

[Jhedrick83]

I tightened it down a bit more. How’s this one?

 

[odie]

more if you are BIAB.

 

[RM-MN]

Tighten it down. Your grain particles are 2 to 3 times the size I get.

 

[RM-MN]

This is what mine looks like:Grain.

 

[Jhedrick83]

This is what mine looks like:Grain.

I'll tighten it down more for sure when I get home and do another test. Thanks guys.

 

[Jhedrick83]

Well, 82.4% Efficiency. I'll take that all day espeically for what I paid on Amazon and set up in 20 minutes. Looks like a Corona Mill Convert

 

[Jhedrick83]

Question for you guys regarding efficiency. This was my first time using Beersmith as well. I got a refractometer and measured my Preboil gravity and got 1.044 which is just off of the 1.045 Beersmith estimated. Then I got a post boil gravity of 1.059 for a total volume of 3 gallons (including solids at the bottom). Looks like Beersmith says my mash efficiency was estimated at 82.5 % and then I also get a measured efficiency of 92.1 %. Which one should I believe?

I assume neither is my brew house efficiency. Best way to calculate that?

 

[CascadesBrewer]

The "Meas Efficiency" is the same as overall/brewhouse efficiency. Your Brewhouse Efficiency will always be lower than (or equal to) your Mash Efficiency, so one is off. The first place I would look are volumes. Did you accurately record the volume post-mash? Did you get exactly 3.0 gallons into the fermenter (which is the value entered into BeerSmith)? How do you measure your fermenter volume? A 92% overall efficiency is fairly hard to achieve, so I would be suspect of that number.

Edit: Note that both efficiency values at the top are "estimated". With BeerSmith you enter your Overall Efficiency, and losses. It uses these two number to calculate a Mash Efficiency. These numbers seem quite far off in your case. In my profile, my Overall Efficiency is 73% and my Mash Efficiency is calculated at 76%. With my simple setup, I only have a little trub loss between the two numbers. I use the BeerSmith Mobile and there is a Brewing Session Data page where values like Post Mash Gravity and Pre-Boil Volume are entered.

 

[Jhedrick83]

I had exactly 3 gallons in the kettle post boil, leaving Trub behind, I got about 2.5 gallons (which was the target for the recipe) into the fermenter.

Thanks for the help with it being my first BIAB and All Grain I’m trying to work on dialing in my efficiencies for proper recipe scaling/building.

 

[CascadesBrewer]

I had exactly 3 gallons in the kettle post boil, leaving Trub behind, I got about 2.5 gallons (which was the target for the recipe) into the fermenter.

With BeerSmith, the "Meas Batch Size" is the volume into the fermenter. If you update that value to 2.5, you will probably get a value closer to your estimated.

You might look closer at your profile values as well. I found that after a few batches of double checking values like kettle loss and boil off rate, then updating my estimated efficiency to match my measured efficiency, I can usually hit my target OG and volume near dead on.

 

[Jhedrick83]

Ok, I went back to my How To Brew and found the mash efficiency. Let me make sure this is right:

4 Gallons of water that was mashed, 1.044 gravity at the end of mash.

4*44=176 Points

Grain Bill was 5.12 Lbs

176/ 5.12= 34.375 ppg

34.375 ppg/37= .929 so 92.9 % Mash Efficiency

I updated the volume in Beersmith to 2.5 gallons and got 72.8 % Measured Efficiency, so thats my BH efficiency.

Right?

 

[bracconiere]

here's mine, for a bazooka tube....

 

[CascadesBrewer]

Right?

That seems like a reasonable Brewhouse Efficiency. I have only used BeerSmith desktop off and on, but I think there is a Brew Session page where you can enter various stats and it will calculate the Mash Efficiency. You are using your mash volume where you would need to use your post-mash (aka pre-boil) volume. I think you said that was 3 gallons.

In any case, it looks like you nailed your planned gravity and volume, which is what really matters.

 

[k-daddy]

This is what mine looks like:Grain.

Do you recirculate the mash with that fine a crush?

 

[RM-MN]

No I don't recirculate with that fine crush. I don't need to. Conversion is over so quickly and completely that recirculation would be a waste of time.

 

[AZ Maverick]

Here's mine.
I have my Hullwrecker set to .028" and I do a single pass crush.
I do not recirculate my BIAB either.

This is a combination of German Pilsner and Munich Malt single pass crush at .028"