Why is my efficiency so low?

[bairdo]

Yeah awesome - would love to see your crush. Thanks in advance.

I'll use .045 this weekend then clamp it a bit for the next one. Cheers again


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[CA_Mouse]

Again, I pre-wet my grains and allow them to sit for about an hour before I mill them. My mill gap is set at 0.039".

Here is the first pass through my Barley Crusher and then the second pass.

 

[bairdo]

Again, I pre-wet my grains and allow them to sit for about an hour before I mill them. My mill gap is set at 0.039".

Here is the first pass through my Barley Crusher and then the second pass.

Does look pretty good (i'm no expert though). Are you batch or fly sparging? and no issues with stuck sparges?

 

[bairdo]

Finally got a brew down using the MM2 mill set to 0.045 (factory gap). My efficiency is up to 72% - an improvement of 20%. Happy with that.. finally some progress!

It might not be down to the crush alone (although certainly appears to be the main culprit) but I have improved a lot of things since I reported a crappy 50 odd % efficiency. Either way I'm hitting the numbers now

Things I'm now doing (most I have learnt from this thread)
- Crushing grain with own mill
- Increased sparge water temp to 80deg
- Slowed the fly sparge/lauter down to 45min-ish (last brew was for 36L)
- Using a refractometer during lauter (soooo much easier)
- Boil with the lid OFF (can't believe I didn't know that)

An interesting thing I was told (by a commercial brewer) is that once the fly sparge is well under way (I think he said half way through or more) make some groove lines across the grain bed to encourage the sparge water to go through rather than channeling around the edges. So I did that too - can't report on whether it made any difference because I was doing things so shoddily before..

Anyway there you go - from 50 odd% to 70+%

 

[CA_Mouse]

Does look pretty good (i'm no expert though). Are you batch or fly sparging? and no issues with stuck sparges?

I use a 52-Quart rectangular cooler and batch sparge. Those pics were from today's brew. I bought a new 16 gallon kettle and ended up over sparging trying to compensate for the new kettle's boil off. Still got 87% mash efficiency, so I can't really complain. I only had a stuck sparge very early on with a Belgian Pilsner base and no rice hulls. Today's grain bill was 12# of 2-row, .50# of C120 and .25# of carapils, so rarely ever have a stuck sparge from this grist.

 

[CA_Mouse]

Anyway there you go - from 50 odd% to 70+%

Congrats! My first couple of all grain batches I was in the mid to upper 60's. Now I average between 82% and 85%. Even though I did hit 87% on today's brew!

 

[bairdo]

Yes. You want to denature the enzymes, as it takes like an hour to sparge and you want to preserve your malt profile from the mash.

I now understand and will do a mash out next brew. Takes a while but gradually absorbing it all. I have found it very useful to refresh my memory by going back and reading every reply in this thread. Btw. I've now read the bru'n water guide but I need to read it a again (and again) then have a play with the spreadsheet before I know enough to ask meaningful questions.. Again thanks for contributing to my brew days

 

[bairdo]

Congrats! My first couple of all grain batches I was in the mid to upper 60's. Now I average between 82% and 85%. Even though I did hit 87% on today's brew!

Hey, cheers very much for sharing your wisdom :rockin:
Looking forward to the day when I pour one of my own beers and know it's as good as, or at least close-ish to anything out there. That's my motivation!