Mikelush78
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- May 30, 2013
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I have just completed my 3rd all grain batch and got an efficiency of 66%. I know that is low for most but that is my highest so far! Want to get that better so I will explain what I did and you can point out the errors in my way!
I bought a new Barley Crusher and set the gap to .030 (had issues with the crusher at the store near me so bought my own)
The crush looked good to me (mind you I am still new)
The Mash is where I think I have some room to go. I put 3.5 gallons of 175 degree water in my cooler and let it warm the cooler for 10 min.
Opened the cooler and waited till the water got to 166 and then poured my grains in slowly while stirring so as to not get clumps.
Reached my target of 153 degrees and held it there for almost the entire 60 min, went down to 152 for the last 5 min or so.
Added 1.25 gallons of 175 degree water to the mash and stirred is in to raise temp for sugars to exit easier.
I then had my run off in a pitcher a few times to get the Wort clear.
This is where my error was I believe, I drained the cooler fast (opened up the valve all the way)
I have read conflicting things here where this does not affect the mash and some say you need to drain the mash slowly .?????
Then I added 2.75 gallons of 175 degree water to the mash tun, stirred it up and then drained it after getting Wort clear from pitcher again
I used 10.75 #s of grain and got a total of 1.050 after the boil.
Another dumb question is:
After the mash is there a way to figure out Efficiency then? Or do you have to check after the Boil? Just seems like if you knew after the Mash you can adjust things to help fix for problems better if you knew before the boil
I bought a new Barley Crusher and set the gap to .030 (had issues with the crusher at the store near me so bought my own)
The crush looked good to me (mind you I am still new)
The Mash is where I think I have some room to go. I put 3.5 gallons of 175 degree water in my cooler and let it warm the cooler for 10 min.
Opened the cooler and waited till the water got to 166 and then poured my grains in slowly while stirring so as to not get clumps.
Reached my target of 153 degrees and held it there for almost the entire 60 min, went down to 152 for the last 5 min or so.
Added 1.25 gallons of 175 degree water to the mash and stirred is in to raise temp for sugars to exit easier.
I then had my run off in a pitcher a few times to get the Wort clear.
This is where my error was I believe, I drained the cooler fast (opened up the valve all the way)
I have read conflicting things here where this does not affect the mash and some say you need to drain the mash slowly .?????
Then I added 2.75 gallons of 175 degree water to the mash tun, stirred it up and then drained it after getting Wort clear from pitcher again
I used 10.75 #s of grain and got a total of 1.050 after the boil.
Another dumb question is:
After the mash is there a way to figure out Efficiency then? Or do you have to check after the Boil? Just seems like if you knew after the Mash you can adjust things to help fix for problems better if you knew before the boil