What do you think? Should I make it more fine? I mash in a bag in a cooler.
View attachment 1462504843258.jpg
View attachment 1462504843258.jpg
Test run with new corona style mill
- Thread starter urg8rb8
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radio2
Active Member
Looks good, try it and check your efficiency and go from there. I just did my first batch using a corona mill and got 75% efficiency
The bag will allow you to use a finer milling and with that comes higher efficiency and faster conversion. The higher efficiency is a plus, the faster conversion.....well it can make it challenging to control the maltiness of the beer as both alpha and beta amylase enzymes work together and you won't have the time to denature the beta amylase before all the conversion is done so your beer may be lacking in the unfermentables.
Looks good- let us know how the beer turns out!
BroomVikin
Well-Known Member
Unless you have some truly terrible quality water to start off with you'll be just fine.
I used RO water from the supermarket. Same answer?
BroomVikin
Well-Known Member
That's usually what I use. Seems to work just fine for me.
thunderwagn
Well-Known Member
I know it's not on topic :fro: but, does it make any difference to mash at a higher temp and mash for longer, or are you at the mercy of the crush? I was under the impression that converting the enzymes was more mash temp related?
imasickboy
Drinkasaurus extraordinarius
@urg8rb8 : Use milk crates to carry carboys, not propane tanks. 
@urg8rb8 : Use milk crates to carry carboys, not propane tanks.
Hahahahha... The milk crates are perfect for keeping those propane tanks from tipping
From what I've seen and think about, when you crush coarse it takes longer for the grain starches to gelatinize and then convert. During this time, some of the enzymes get denatured with beta amylase being first. That allows you to adjust the fermentability by changing the mash temp as you can cause the beta amylase to last longer with a cooler mash or denature quicker by the higher temperature mash. If you mash long enough both alpha and beta amylase will denature.
When I experimented with short mash times I found that with very fine milling, the grain particles were small enough that gelatinization happened very quickly and conversion was done in less than 10 minutes. That allowed both alpha and beta amylase to work in concert with little time for denaturing either enzyme. I intended to explore higher temperature mashes this past winter but I didn't get time to do as many as would be needed. I won't be brewing again until late fall and may take up this mash temp experimenting again then.
60 mins. I sparged as well. 70 isn't bad. But do you think it would have been higher if I remembered to put the brewing salts before the mash?
70% efficiency isn't bad. There are several ways to increase that but whether it makes as good of beer is up for debate. Unless your water is far from ideal the brewing salts probably wouldn't have too much effect on efficiency. The usual way to increase it is a finer crush (for better conversion/extraction of sugars) and getting all of the wort into the boil kettle. The next best way to increase efficiency is accurate measurement of volumes because as efficiency is measured, small discrepancies in volume measurements can lead to erroneous results.:rockin:
Maybe I'm calculating something wrong. I got a gravity reading of 1.075 in exactly fine gallons for the following:
14# of pale 2 row
12 oz of C60
Are you also getting around 70%?
Let's say I was able to get a higher efficiency... That means I'd have more sugars in five gallons... Which means my ABV would go up. The extra ABV might ruin the beer style by thinning it out. I could then top off with more water after the boil to get the gravity down... But not sure if that would dilute the C60s contribution.
Terek
"Did I just drop down a rabbit hole?"
i use a corona mill always. they work great. Your crush looks perfect, but i even go finer. i have a 3/4" copper tube manifold i made, and it NEVER gets stuck. did an ipa 2 days ago were i ran a test. crushed to powder, with the corona, and ended up getting 83% brew house eff. thats the best i have gotten, by far.
So now that you're getting higher efficiency, so you use less grain to get the beer you want?
Terek
"Did I just drop down a rabbit hole?"
yes, after getting it consistent, i set beersmith to 80% and its always a bit high, but not much. it bounces around from 78%-85% depending on how full my tun gets. when i do my wookie jack clone, it typically get 77-78% but i can barely get the lid closed. when i do a 4% ipa, that is when i get 85% as the tun is only 1/3 full
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