Missing Efficiency (lousy efficiency)

[Pyg]

My most recent brew seems to be like my last dozen and has missed the SG.
My recipe was a follows:

3.5 gallon batch
4 gallon boil

6# Marris Otter
.5 # roasted barley
.25# crystal 40
.25# crystal 80 (lhbs was out of crystal 60)

1 oz fuggles 60 min
WLP 028 Yeast

Mash 154f 60 min

SG 1.050

Brewers friend indicated my SG should have been 1.060
So my efficiency was only 67%

I mash with a BIAB, used 1.25 quart water per gallon. (2 gallon)

Now this time around I did not ask my lhbs to double mill my grain, as every previous time I have asked, they tell me double mill is their standard.

Is it the grain?
My mashing?
The volume of water in mashing?

 

[doug293cz]

My most recent brew seems to be like my last dozen and has missed the SG.
My recipe was a follows:

3.5 gallon batch
4 gallon boil

6# Marris Otter
.5 # roasted barley
.25# crystal 40
.25# crystal 80 (lhbs was out of crystal 60)

1 oz fuggles 60 min
WLP 028 Yeast

Mash 154f 60 min

SG 1.050

Brewers friend indicated my SG should have been 1.060
So my efficiency was only 67%
View attachment 546282

I mash with a BIAB, used 1.25 quart water per gallon. (2 gallon)

Now this time around I did not ask my lhbs to double mill my grain, as every previous time I have asked, they tell me double mill is their standard.

Is it the grain?
My mashing?
The volume of water in mashing?

Need to know more about your process. How did you sparge, and with how much water? What was your pre-boil volume and SG? What was your post-boil volume and SG? Accurate measurements are critical for accurate efficiency calculations.

Brew on

 

[RM-MN]

My most recent brew seems to be like my last dozen and has missed the SG.
My recipe was a follows:

3.5 gallon batch
4 gallon boil

6# Marris Otter
.5 # roasted barley
.25# crystal 40
.25# crystal 80 (lhbs was out of crystal 60)

1 oz fuggles 60 min
WLP 028 Yeast

Mash 154f 60 min

SG 1.050

Brewers friend indicated my SG should have been 1.060
So my efficiency was only 67%
View attachment 546282

I mash with a BIAB, used 1.25 quart water per gallon. (2 gallon)

Now this time around I did not ask my lhbs to double mill my grain, as every previous time I have asked, they tell me double mill is their standard.

Is it the grain?
My mashing?
The volume of water in mashing?

It's the quality of the milling of the grain. It almost always is. Start saving up for a mill of your own since that is the only way to control the quality of the milling. Mills for BIAB are pretty expensive so you may have to save for a long time. Here is an example of how expensive they have to be for BIAB. http://www.discounttommy.com/p-189-...=pla&catargetid=320011640000015183&cadevice=c

This is the mill I use and I expect my brewhouse efficiency to be above 85%.

 

[soccerdad]

I agree with RM-MN. The $25 mill is excellent for BIAB. I probably do not grind as fine as he does and I may mash a bit longer, but my mash efficiency always approaches 80%. You can power these mills if you wish, but I hand crank mine to limit the dust. Never takes longer that the time it takes for the water to come up to temp.

 

[PADave]

Like others have said, it's your crush. With BIAB finer is better. Before I bought my grain mill, my efficiencies were all over the place, depending on where I bought my grains. Once I started milling my own, every batch comes out consistent. You don't need to obsess over having a high efficiency, an extra pound of base malt can make up for that. But having consistency on your system for every brew is something to shoot for. Even a Cereal Killer 2 roller mill is only $100, well worth it.

 

[Pyg]

Need to know more about your process. How did you sparge, and with how much water? What was your pre-boil volume and SG? What was your post-boil volume and SG? Accurate measurements are critical for accurate efficiency calculations.

Brew on

I mashed with just over 2 gallons of water. I sparged with 1.25 gallon of 170F water. I then rinsed the grain with .75 water (room temp tap water) to get the boil volume up to 4 gallon.
I did not take a pre-boil gravity reading. I have taken readings in the past, but the temp usually throws off the gravity and then I have to look up conversions and it tends to through me into a tail spin of dumping malt extract and sugar to raise the abv.(take that with a slight grain of salt)

It's the quality of the milling of the grain. It almost always is. Start saving up for a mill of your own since that is the only way to control the quality of the milling. Mills for BIAB are pretty expensive so you may have to save for a long time. Here is an example of how expensive they have to be for BIAB. http://www.discounttommy.com/p-189-...=pla&catargetid=320011640000015183&cadevice=c

This is the mill I use and I expect my brewhouse efficiency to be above 85%.

As previously mentioned, I always ask my LHBS to double mill my grain. They always respond with "we do", making me feel like a schmuck!
However, I have a second LHBS which is an hour away from work, 1/2 hour away from home. At this LHBS I am able to mill my own grain. however it is just too difficult to get there on a regular basis.
I have never given consideration to milling my own grain, always thought it was expensive and labor intensive. However if they are that cheap, I may have to make that my next purchase.
That the means the next project is figuring out how to mount a mill in a 5 gallon bucket.

 

[RM-MN]

As previously mentioned, I always ask my LHBS to double mill my grain. They always respond with "we do", making me feel like a schmuck!
However, I have a second LHBS which is an hour away from work, 1/2 hour away from home. At this LHBS I am able to mill my own grain. however it is just too difficult to get there on a regular basis.
I have never given consideration to milling my own grain, always thought it was expensive and labor intensive. However if they are that cheap, I may have to make that my next purchase.
That the means the next project is figuring out how to mount a mill in a 5 gallon bucket.

You can run grain through a mill a dozen times without accomplishing much except for the exercise if the mill gap is too big. It's good for the LHBS as nobody gets a stuck sparge so there are no complaints and it only takes a few more pounds of grain (which the LHBS conveniently sells) to hit the predicted OG. It's not so good for you when you have a recipe built on a 75% efficiency and you can only hit 55%. Once you have your own mill and adjust it to get the efficiency you want, (suggestion, 100% isn't achievable nor desirable) you can make the mill pay for itself. Twice! Once in decreased amount of grain and the second time in saving money buying in bulk at a reduced price.

I don't mount the mill in a bucket, I fasten it to my cutting board and slip a gallon Ziplock bag over the grinder and hold it there with a couple clothes pins. One hopper full of grain is about the right amount for each bag. One hand holds the bag of grain and dumps it into the mash tun of water while the other hand uses the whisk to stir it in, breaking up any dough balls as fast as they form.

 

[mongoose33]

I always double-crush. The second time is fast, but there are always kernels that sneak through the first time, and the second crush gets most of them.

If you think that, in the long run, you'll brew more often and maybe head to 5-gallon batches, consider a mill like a Cereal Killer. It can be easily turned with a drill and unless you want to develop gorilla biceps, it's easier and faster.

You mount that on a board which sits on top of a bucket, into which falls the grist.

Here are a bunch of pics showing different ways people do this, including how they might mount a mill like RM-MN talks about above:

https://www.google.com/search?tbm=i....2.12.1558.0..0j0i8i30k1j0i24k1.0.jEbl2mgCgG0

 

[Pyg]

I guess now that I think back about my last few brews the grain has looked more “cracked” than “milled”.

I guess i can continue buying grain from the lhbs and only have to mill it once or twice myself.
Or I can buy in bulk.
For the record I usually make 5 gallon batches, but have been scaling back to try and hit Abv #s with more grain due to bad efficiency.

Here is a enlarged pic of one of my last “milled” grain from the lhbs

 

[mongoose33]

That doesn't look "milled" at all. Do not buy any more "milled" grain from that place.

Milled grain should look something like this:

 

[doug293cz]

I calculate your mash efficiency at about 70% (which is higher than BF because I adjust for grain moisture content, and BF does not.) Your lauter process is very good (about 90% efficiency), but your conversion efficiency is only about 78%, which is very low. You should be able to get at least 90% conversion, and 95%+ is possible. As others have said, too coarse a crush is probably your biggest issue. You might achieve some increase in conversion efficiency by going to longer mash times. You can actually measure conversion efficiency during the mash by using the method described here.

You could also just accept where your efficiency is, and adjust your grain bills upward a little to compensate for the lower efficiency.

Brew on

 

[PADave]

Wow, that's not even close to being milled enough. Should look like that pic moongoose posted. Found your problem, lol.

 

[ESBrewer]

I noticed the same thing in my first two batches. First time there were too many uncrushed grains + the mash temp settled a bit low. I got some 10% lower efficiency than expected. For the second batch I crushed the grains a little bit more and fixed the temperature -> much better efficiency. The pre-milled grain from brew shops is not always milled properly. Need to get my own malt mill ASAP (from another retailer though). That's probably why they under-mill - they're selling the mills as well...

 

[RM-MN]

The real reasons they under-mill is that nobody has to deal with a stuck mash/sparge and they can compensate for that low efficiency by buying more grain (which the LHBS sells). Selling mills is just an aside.

 

[wyowolf]

Ive been having the same horrible efficiency issues...
this is what I got last time around... doesnt look milled at all...

 

[doug293cz]

Ive been having the same horrible efficiency issues...
this is what I got last time around... doesnt look milled at all...

That is definitely not crushed fine enough.

Brew on