Hmmm lots of things to consider.
At the moment I:
1. mill at 0.4mm (no stuck sparge) should I increase this?
2. Add water to my grain, not grain to water, should I be changing this?
3. Mash for 60 mins, then mash out. Should I mash for longer?
3. My herms is almost ready, need a couple of parts of CB that are on back order and im sorted (this should increase my efficiency by a couple of points)
Can you explain the triple decoction further?
thanks heaps for the info guys, and keep it coming.
1. Depends on your mill. What does the crush tell you? Do you have a considerable amount of flour in the crush and are the husks torn into many small pieces? =gap may be too small. Ideally you'd want the husks relatively complete, not torn into bits. The grain component within the husks only need to be split instead of milled to flour. I find too much flower leads to more precipitate in the wort/boil and a much greater volume of trub.
2. Under letting may not be for everybody. I find that I have to either (1) dump a heap of hot water into the keg mash tun to pre-warm it and then drain it or (2) add grain to most of the water that is in the tun, stir and add then rest of the water and stir again. Why? I have problems hitting the strike temperature unless the tun is pre-warmed. The other option is to go 10-15oC above 'predicted' water temp but I am not sure about this because it means the grain is getting hit with water that can be high in the high 80's-low90's temp (i.e. if I want a mash at 68oC, Beersmith would say add water at 78oC to grain but in reality I have to add it at 88oC). I've tried that and it gave me the heebee geebees.
3. Most well modified modern malts... blah blah blah
4. Yes I believe herms and in particular the recirculation will improve your efficiency. Recirc through the grainbed (for a longer period than you would normally do so) will clean up the wort considerably too.
Triple decoction:
some say it's a myth and not worth the effort and some swear by it. Generally associated with a step mash regime and I guess the inference is that this would be more efficient than a single step mash? There are a number of ways to do it but it is relatively easy to do. Mash in, remove some of the wet grain (with a small amount of wort) into a separate pot. Bring grain to boil, stirring vigorously to stop burning, add back to main mash at predetermined time to raise main mash temp to a desired level. Remove more wet grain from the mash, repeat process. Third decoction is often pulling some liquid from the mash (not wet grain this time) and boiling it until it reduces and adding back to the mash to increase colour and melanoidins and/or to hit your mash out temps. At any rate it will darken the wort and may not be suitable for lighter coloured beers.
How much wet grain you remove, how long you boil it for and when you put it back into the mash are not random numbers - you're best with some form of calculations or brewing software to inform you of these values. You will require a particular amount at a particular temp to raise X Litres of mash to Y Temp. I have done it a few times and thought it was a bit of fun but certainly wouldn't do it often.
