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Hey all:

Trying to nail down an efficiency problem I've been experiencing. It seems i started losing efficiency ever since a) I started milling my own grain b) started using a false bottom instead of a copper manifold.

I know there's a lot of other things that it could be but I figured I'll start with the 2 things I know have changed.

A false bottom should be better than the manifold as I understand so I'll focus on the crush first. I tightened the mill gap a little today to 0.042 inch. This wasn't a very big adjustment from what I had but the crush does seem a little finer. I'll be trying it out on this afternoons brew day.

How's it look to you?





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Crush looks good from here - FWIW, mine is 0.038, but I use a bag instead of my false bottom when I batch sparge.

Cool thanks. About to mash in. I'll see how it goes with that change.

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Gained 6 points with the crush adjustment using batch sparge method. However I was still 8 pts off (61%) my estimated target OG to be at 70% -- which sucks. Something is gone wonky. Better luck next time I guess!

Never used to be this off target. If I can't figure it out, I'll just have to start using a little more grain I suppose.

Just out of curiosity, what was your target OG?

I always run my grain through the mill twice on the same setting. Every time I haven't my efficiency suffers a bit.

LeafMan66_67 wrote:Just out of curiosity, what was your target OG?

Looking at my percentages from the earlier post, I think I may have put Brewhouse efficiency -- not mash. And, I'm pretty sure that I need to do more research on them both, particularly on how brewhouse efficiency affects OG.

That being said, my target gravity was 1.068. I did the same recipe last week and I hit 1.054 Yesterday I hit 1.060. So changing the crush did help some.

The recipe in beersmith has brewhouse efficiency at 70%.

Am I just and worrying about nothing??? Should I be able to hit the target or should I just chaulk it up to my system and use more grain?

What is your deadspace like? How many litres are you leaving behind in the mash tun or the brew kettle?

What kind of mashing are you doing (no sparge, batch, fly)? Also are you ensuring your mash ph is within the right range? what is your mash to water ratio?