Testing grain potential gravity

[patchedboard]

I'm sure this has been covered a thousand times, but how exactly do you test the potential of your grain for your formulas.

I know it's something like a pound of grain in a gallon of water for an hour or something like that. But what temp water?

Thanks!

 

[pricelessbrewing]

I just go by the malster information.

Theoretically you could test this by milling super super fine, measuring out a small amount of grain, using a high mash ratio, then sparging with a high water ratio, and mashing in at a good mash temp like 148-154 which favors both beta and alpha, and mashing for 90-120 minutes in a thermos. It's important to use a lot of water for a grain potential test, as the water ratio will cause lauter efficiency to approach 95%, which will give the conversion and grain potential a higher influence.

Then calculate the gravity per pound per gallon.

 

[patchedboard]

Well I have been using the info from the maltster but it is a local craft maltster and the numbers they gave me aren't working out in my formulations. I've been coming up consistently about 8 pts og short since I started to use their malt. I adjusted the numbers they gave me down from the 1.037 they gave me to 1.025 and every recipe I've made comes out to the gravities I've been getting. I just want to verify with some of the malt so i want to know the actual process.