Improving Effiency

[KHB]

I have always got 67-68% effiency. I batch sparge at 75 degrees and try to keep it slow. I use a braided stainless steel line for my mash tun.


How do you improve your effiency??

 

[drsmurto]

Latest issue of BYO mag has a good article on it

The conclusion was that the crush plays the biggest role on the homebrewing scale.

IIRC you crush as fine as possible to still allow a decent runoff rate.

 

[newguy]

A recirculating system (RIMS or HERMS) also yields high efficiencies. I got 70% before the HERMS, 85% after.

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

Agree with Dr S, that's why I am getting a Monster Mill and retiring the PhilMill

C&B
TDA

 

[KHB]

I am using a barley crusher and have it on the original settings which seems a pretty fine crush

 

[kabooby]

When batch sparging it is important to give the mash a good stir and a 10 min rest after adding the sparge water. That way you rinse the grain better and get most of the sugars out.

I rushed this one day and gave it a quick stir and then ran off and my efficiency dropped by about 10%

Kabooby

 

[KHB]

i stir it and recurculate it back onto itself for 2 mins before sparging

 

[crozdog]

I am using a barley crusher and have it on the original settings which seems a pretty fine crush

I too use a barley crusher, but got a 10% increase when I closed the gap from the factory setting. From memory I use about 0.7mm now.

 

[drsmurto]

Yup, the BYO article did suggest 0.7mm was the optimum gap. I should get myself a set of feeler gauges to check mine.

I get a constant 70% so am happy with that at the moment, I'm trying to focus on improving my beers rather than save a few $ on grain.

 

[Cortez The Killer]

Sheesh...

I though running mine at 0.8mm was fine

0.7mm here I come!

It's monster mill time!

 

[geoffi]

I get 80-85% with batch sparging on most brews.

Previously it was 75-80% (still not bad).

My efficiency improved with finer crush (a few handfuls rice hulls in the mash to keep it flowin').

Also, adding gypsum and a little citric acid to lower PH. Not much, as my water is very soft anyway, but I was told that helps with extraction.

Anyway, it works well for me.

 

[RobW]

I used to consistently get about 65% using grain crushed at the HBS and batch sparging.
First crush with the new Monster mill improved that to 82%.

 

[warrenlw63]

I used to consistently get about 65% using grain crushed at the HBS and batch sparging.
First crush with the new Monster mill improved that to 82%.

+1

I'm getting similar figures to Rob.

FWIW My MM2 is gapped to 1.1mm... You 0.7 & 0.8mm guys are scarin' me.

Warren -

 

[KHB]

I too use a barley crusher, but got a 10% increase when I closed the gap from the factory setting. From memory I use about 0.7mm now.

I will borrow some feeler gauges and test this out!

 

[lou]

Efficiency will be effected by your equipment, your crush, your technique and even the maths you use to calculate it. I used to batch sparge and with my system this was inefficient. I use SS braid - I had a small length of it in the mash tun and then upgraded to 1.5 metres looped. This upped my efficiency. Also I worked out how to put the numbers into promash properly and this upped my effiency. My crush is pretty good as I have a barley crusher but I found you can crush much finer with better lautering and mashing equipment - now I can crush finer without getting a stuck sparge. My efficiency is now around 85%+ but I have switched to flood and on the fly sparging. Is it all worth it? Money wise and time wise probably not but I understand what is happening in my mash tun now and how to adjust things

lou

 

[AndrewQLD]

+1

I'm getting similar figures to Rob.

FWIW My MM2 is gapped to 1.1mm... You 0.7 & 0.8mm guys are scarin' me.

Warren -

I'm with Warren on this, although I'm not as big a sook as he is , mines gapped to 1.0mm, my efficiency is 82%.
I've found with the HERMS continuously recirculating the wort the crush doesn't need to be so fine, I get very little flour in my crush either.

Andrew

 

[KHB]

I also feel when i upgrade to my SS mash tun with a SS false bottom and bottom drainage that my efficiency will improve as i didnt do the best job drilling the hole in my esky



I also find i get a decent amount of flour in my crush

 

[warrenlw63]

I'm with Warren on this, although I'm not as big a sook as he is , mines gapped to 1.0mm, my efficiency is 82%.

I live for conservatism Andrew... I even drive a Camry. :lol:

Warren -

 

[Steve Lacey]

With my Crankandstein (much like a MonsterMill) I was noticing that while all grains were getting cracked, a lot of them stayed whole. So last brew I ran the whole grist through twice (hand cranked I might add!). The quality of the crush was visibly much better after the second pass and the efficiency picked up from 70% to 77-78%. My batch sparge technique may have been better as well, but I think the crush was the main contributior to the better yield. A pump sure would be nice ...

 

[devo]

can someone remind me of the basic equation for working out efficiency again?