Establishing Efficiency With Crushing Grains

[macca05]

Hey all,
I recently bought a crankenstein and have it all setup and have been really keen to get it crushing. What has put me off is the that I may end up wasting a lot of grain to work out what my efficiency is. Could potentially take 9 brew days as the Crankenstein has 9 thickness settings.
So I came up with a little experiment while I should of been studying today.
USED BAIRDS MARIS OTTER

As the Crankenstein has 9 settings. I used Wide, 2 clicks in, centre, two clicks out, two clicks small
So lets call these 1,2,3,4,5

I used these settings and tried to set my drill to one speed and then crushed 1 cup of grain on each setting.

Put each it into 5 glasses

Boiled the kettle and poured into a jug. Checked temp and when it was around 70C i topped up all glasses, gave a stir, topped up again.

Once I was happy I covered with alfoil and a blanket. Timed 15min

15min - Checked Temp and as it was at 54C I topped with hot water again and stirred
30min - After 15min checked again. 56.5C. Topped with hot water again and stirred
45min - 54.5C so I just stirred it
60min - 51.8C Stirred, strained into jug, cleaned glass poured back in


My Results
Grain--------First Measure-------15min again

1 1053 1053
2 1057 1061
3 1064 1066
4 1063 1063
5 1067 1071

So have I just wasted the afternoon with this experiment or do you think it will work. From my calculations it looks like the smallest setting for my Crankenstein 2D is the best.

Feedback greatly appreciated

Thanks
Macca

 

[tcc]

Hi Macca

Cool experiment.

As for what crush width you should use, it all depends how you sparge. The fine crush will create problems if you are using a traditional sparge, I hear it is not such a big problem if you BIAB though.

I guess you have to find a good middle ground.

 

[Not For Horses]

Interesting experiment but I would say not very conclusive for a couple of reasons.
Firstly is that you only have one result for each test. 5 of each would be a great start.
Secondly is the method of measurement. A cup of grain is less than 150 grams. A 5% move either way here is only 7 grams. 5% change in grain means a 5% difference in your efficiency result.
It also sounds like you didn't accurately measure the strike and sparge water. Again, an increase or decrease in the amount of water here will affect your final volume and therefore gravity reading.
I'd have to agree with tcc and say start with a crush that will be suited to your process.
This sort of experiment on a small scale will probably be too difficult to do accurately and give you the results you need.

 

[macca05]

Hey Tommo,
After posting this I was thinking about it a bit more and thought it may be better to just have it centred as it puts less stress on the drill being used and the it is not that much of a difference. I also recirculate through a herm it system too and have a 3v system

 

[macca05]

OK cool thats exactly what I wanted to know. Do you mean I should of tested each glass 5 times as I only tested them twice. I did also wait 15min before testing again.

But next time if I can be bothered I will try weigh the grains instead. And make sure the water is at temp. I knew the water temp would have an affect but unless i used my brew controller to control temp i kinda couldnt be bothered. just wanted to see what would happen. Writing an essay sucks and this was my way of taking my mind off it

 

[browndog]

Macca05 you are thinking it through too much, set your mill mid way and crush the grain, then make beer. If you have great brewing technique and your efficiency is up the shit, knock it back a notch or two.

Your experiment is moot because on your brew day you are not brewing with a kettle in a glass.

 

[macca05]

Haha, Im not thinking too much I was trying not to think too much. My essay was doing my head in so I needed to pass the time by doing something and not think about writing.
Thanks for the input though.
Next brew day for me will hopefully be this wknd and I will just do it. The reason why I did this was cuz It'll be my first time crushing grains, as I was getting it done at LBS

Cheers for the responses though

 

[Not For Horses]

Thinking is a good thing. It's not ok to just know what to do, you need to know why you are doing it.
If you were to do it again, do 5 samples of each crush. 25 in total. The absolute water temp isn't as important as long as they are all the same and the volumes used for strike and sparge are measured and equal.

Whenever I had an assignment due,my flatmates ate very well. Cooking was much more interesting than study.

 

[GalBrew]

Why bother repeating it at all? A finer crush will always result in a higher extract gravity, but the question is can you lauter a superfine crush on your system? You need to work out what the best crush is for your setup, balancing extract efficiency against lautering efficiency. BIABers have ground their grain in a coffee grinder to powder with no problems, but you would no doubt get a stuck mash if you tried that with a 3v system.

 

[macca05]

Ok so next step is to brew this wknd hopefully and see what happens. NFH that just sounds like too much hard work. Im happy with what I achieved so when i go to brew this wknd I will give either number 3 or 4 setting a go and go. Cant wait till I finish for the yr this week and Ill have more time to do actual brewing