Confusion... Mash and Sparge

Have you considered crushing your grain finer?

 

Clearly thats too simple/logical of a solution to consider, or for that matter, acknowledge.

 

If the OP does not own a malt mill then changing the crush may not be an option for him.

Cheers!

 

I was guessing that making a change in milling the grain was an option for you so I tried to offer other suggestions to you.

Cheers!

 

Here are some data on variables that don't and do affect mash efficiency in my system. I fly sparge and always heat my mash to ~168 before sparging. For practically all of my beers (1.050 to 1.075 OG) I use 10 gallons of water, split fairly evenly between mash and sparge water.

No or small effect:
(1) Mash thickness between 1.3 and 1.6 quarts/lb
(2) Mash time between 1.0 and 1.5 hours
Significant effect
(1) Grain crush: milled at LHBS: 65% to ~70%, milled with my own mill: 80 to 86% (with a strong dependence on exact the gap setting. I use a Monster Mill, typically set to just under 0.035 (0.035 feeler gauge is a fairly snug fit).
(2) Proper mash pH (~5.4, calculated): approximately another 5% increase in efficiency.

 

Consistency is better than high efficiency. Of course, consistently high efficiency is the best.

 

Maybe. But I intentionally keep my mash efficiency under 75% by not crushing too finely. (I also generally do No Sparge...i.e. I single lauter, after mashing out.) I believe I make better beer (cleaner malt flavors and less astringent) when I don't shred the husks. I have not directly A/B compared though.

 

Thank you!

Of course it's vague.
Yo water ain't like my wudder.

The proper addition of commonly used brewing salts and minerals can up your eff.
At least it did for me.

Maybe your experience has been different.
In any event, good to see you posting again.

 

I'd try mashing around 1.3-1.5 so you sparge with more volume but additionally you should look at your sparging process. If the final runnings are coming out at 1.030 then that suggests you are not getting good extraction. Try stirring the mash after dropping a batch of sparge water for 5-10 minutes and then opening the valve halfway or less to collect runnings.

The floating braid isn't your problem. The braid acts as a filter on the opening on the ball valve where runnings are leaving the tun. The end of the braid isn't doing anything other than holding the end of the braid shut. Your only concern is that the braid is creating a filter to keep grain bits out of the kettle. If it's floating then you might not be getting a good filter but it isn't going to affect your efficiency.

But below are two other issues that may be simultaneously affecting your efficiency:

How are you measuring temperature for your strike water? I have two analog probe thermometers plus a floating thermometer. They are each widely off. Even attempting to calibrate the analog probe thermometers yields poor results. You may be hitting substantially lower than expected mash temperatures. If you think you are mashing at 153F but actually mashing at 143F that will make a big difference in your yield, unless you are mashing for much longer than an hour.

I would also take a look at ph but if you look at your water chemistry you'll tackle ph as an issue along the way.

 

I'll give him that, especially if he buys online.. But if you go to a LHBS, they can adjust the crush for you, if you ask.

 

The LHBS that I went to in the past had a set malt mill; no option for having them readjust the mill. It may be that @TastyAdventure has that issue as well but I really don't know.

Cheers!

 

Possible.. Obviously the fix for milling is to get your own mill.

My LHBS has monster mills, and can/will change them if you ask. I regularly get mid-high 70's with their "stock" setting, so I've never messed with my efficiency, or felt the need to change what isn't broke!

 

I think most LHBS set their mills on the wider side to prevent stuck sparges at the risk of efficiency - knowing that if you have to purchase an extra pound or so of grain to make up for the lack of efficiency...

I'm pretty sure that's how mine does it anyway. Buying a mill was one of the best investments to my setup.

 

I used to let my LHBS crush my grain. After he started charging for it, I bought a mill. Aside from being able to dial in one's efficiency, an upside to having one's own mill is buying grain in bulk and then crushing right before brewing.

 

My $0.02.
Procedure can't be ignored.
Do you know that the temp is correct? Thermometers are accurate?
Do you make sure there are no dough balls and the mash is stirred?
Do you mash long enough?
Do you check conversion efficiency of the mash? should be above 90%, I get around 96 to 98%.
If fly sparging, are you going slow?
Do you know your system and what it takes to get all of the wort out?

Variables that you need to look at.
Crush is very important.
Temperature, once again.
Mash pH is important. %.2 to 5.6 is good. If you get over 5.8 the conversion suffers.
Are the weights and volumes for the brew really accurate?
Do you check the points into the kettle? That way you know what you get out of the mash, and if you have gone over or under.

There are some I have to be forgetting. Just saying there are things you can check along the way to see if all is going to plan.

 

Wow, what a load of bull. Sells you the grain, but wants to charge you to mill it?

I know they've got to re-coup cost of the mill, but I would think it's a necessary thing to have as a B&M store selling grain locally.

I'm just happy I'm lucky that my LHBS has a fantastic mill, and it's all self help with massive amounts of different grain.

 

For the OP: Don't confuse Conversion Efficiency with Mash Efficiency. Conversion efficiency is a measure of how much of the starches are being converted to sugars/dextrins. Mash efficiency is always lower than Conversion efficiency and is a measure of how much of the starches were not only converted, but also made it to the boil kettle.