Improving My Efficiancy

[warra48]

Alright so I think I understand the mashing process a bit better now. The starch in the grain is converted to sugars which sits in the liquid held by the grain during mashing. No extra sugar is absorbed into solution through the sparging process. Sparging is a process of dilution of the liquid held by the grain after the first run out, and the temperature wont cause any more sugar to be absorbed. So the best option is to run the mash out at what ever temp it is and then wash the grain with two equal amounts to make up pre boil volume. The goal to reach best efficiency is to have the remaining liquid as dillute as possible.

I'm guessing that milling grain finer will mean that less liquid is held by the grain and you can get more of the more concentrated sugars out.

Thanks for all your imput.

The idea of milling grain is to allow the liquid to get at the starch in the grains, and allow the enzymes convert the starches to sugar. The finer it is milled, theoretically the more it can gain access.
However, this is a process of dimishing returns, as eventually you'll end up with a flour cake, and no way to run-off or lauter it, that is a stuck mash.
A stuck mash is not fun. Prevailing wisdom seems to be to mill as fine as you can, while still avoiding a stuck mash.
I don't quite subscribe to the "fine as you can" idea. My mill is set at 1.1 mm gap, and that works just fine for me. No need for me to go finer, and really no need for me to try and improve on my usual 90% plus mash extraction.

 

[cdbrown]

Paxxy - I recommend increasing the mash time to 75mins. For me that extra time has helped increase efficiency by about 5%. Also, when you drain your mash, start off just letting it trickle out slowly increasing the flow. This well help the grain bed in without encouraging tunnelling (which leaves a lot of the fermentables behind).

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Paxxy - I recommend increasing the mash time to 75mins. For me that extra time has helped increase efficiency by about 5%. Also, when you drain your mash, start off just letting it trickle out slowly increasing the flow. This well help the grain bed in without encouraging tunnelling (which leaves a lot of the fermentables behind).

Especially with the "older" style grains. The newer grains generally convert better, as they have been bred/modified to get that result, but the more traditional grains do need the extra time.

I mash 90 minutes, and whilst there are some that will argue it doesn't add that much, I tend to get better efficiency, and my runnings tend to be better in the first instance and I need less sparging to hit a decent efficiency.

But that is my experience, everyone's will be different. Work out a system that suits you.

Goomba

 

[black_labb]

I dont know if it has been mentioned but I recently got a big difference in efficiency between 2 brews, the second was much lower efficiency which I put partially down to forgetting to add calcium sulfate. Sydney water is pretty soft in some areas and some supplies are lacking a bit of calcium which does help with efficiency.

 

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Also I don't usually touch the mash except the big stir at the start. Wil a 30 min mash stir help to expose more starch?

I got 75% on sat which is a big improvement, but i was letting a friend use my equipment for their own brew so I wasn't in complete control of the variables. He crushed the grain on his own mill so I couldn't control that. Did a decoction which I thought was pretty easy, and it gave the mash an extra 15 mins while the 5l or so boiled. Only sparged once though because the final volume was limited to 15l to fit in his takeaway container. Next brew I'll go for the whole shebang and see if I can hit the 80's