First time crushing grains.Missed OG by 6 points

[gotbags-10]

Made a batch yesterday and my predicted OG was 1.066 according to beersmith. Came in at 1.060. I just got a cereal killer grain mill. Up until now I've had my LHBS crush for me and have always hit my OG. If anything I figured I would overshoot my gravity. I just used the factory setting on the mill which I believe is .32 The crush looked great. I batch sparge. The only other thing is my mash temp dipped down to 145 by the end. I couldn't hit my mash temp to save my life. Even after boiling water additions. That is one thing beersmith is deff wrong on. Any thoughts

 

[stpug]

Sounds like:
a) you need to adjust your gap on your mill; try a credit card gap
b) you need to work on dialing in your equipment profile in beersmith to better estimate mash/step/infusion steps

 

[govner1]

^^^^This

 

[GreenSpyder]

Might be an issue with your temps, not your crush.

I've had problems "keeping it up", and found wrapping a folded blanket around and over the tun and securing with bungee cords helps, as well as cutting up a cheap styrofoam cooler lid to make a floating false top. I lose about 1F/hr with my 10 gallon Igloo this way.

 

[gotbags-10]

Interesting idea with the lid. I have a 10g cooler as well. I do 5g batches so I typically have about 4g of headroom in there

 

[azscoob]

I have an igloo ice cube square cooler, I drilled and filled the hollow lid with expanding foam, that combined with preheating the cooler with scalding hot tap water before doughing in works great for me, I drop 1degree in an hour during the winter here in Chicago in my garage.