What are you brewing?

[nzbrewer]

Since this is the most popular thread on the RealBeer.co.nz forum I thought I would start it here just to see what happens

[JoKing]

Id check your crush mate. Don't worry about measurements - you need to look at the grains once they are crushed. I posted a photo of one of my crushes that gave me a 90% efficiency. I can't remember where abouts in the forum the photo is - but if you have a hunt around you'll find it.

[James P]

For BIAB your crush can be a lot finer, thus providing for an increase.

[denimglen]

Also this is worth checking out if you're interested in nailing your eff. There's a page about your crush and a great efficiency spreadsheet that shows you where you're loosing points.

[Nick T]

Thanks guys for all the advice. I have a bit of reading to do and a mill to adjust!

[Reviled]

I think I have been sucked in by the propoganda on the AHB BIAB thread which claims that efficiencies are as high if not higher as for a 3 vessel setup!

They do talk it up a bit and some of it is bollocks, but you should easily be able to get 70%-75% with BIAB, check all of your equipment like your scales and your mill gap (mines a monster set at 0.045" etc

Take into account the trub you leave behind in the kettle, and ensure the correctly calibrated levels on your kettle...

Out of curiosity Nick, what was your OG post boil?

[Nick T]

I actually ended up cheating and adding extract to bring the preboil gravity up to the 'right' level, so got a post boil about 1.050. I think it might be the mill gap setting, it did look to me like I had a lot of uncracked torrefied wheat grain floating in the pot. I'm going to sift through the spent grain tonight to look at the base malt grains to confirm.

As an aside, the link from Denimglen suggests that 0.92mm is a 'loose' mill setting, 0.48mm is 'tight', whereas the standard setting for a monster mill and a malt mill is 0.045 inch = 1.14mm. hmmmm....

[denimglen]

Yeah, I think it depends on the mill though, I would say it has a bit to do with the speed the mill runs at, diameter of the rollers etc.

Like Jo said above - don't worry too much about the actual measurement but go by what the crushed grain looks like.

Personally I just kept adjusting mine tighter each batch until I felt my run off was slowing down too much, then went back to the previous gap and called it a day.

[Patrick]

Well I totally cocked up my volumes (thats what happens when you guess rather than measure) and ended up with 18L into the fermenter. "That's OK" I thought, "I can just put the hydrometer in the fermenter and add water till I reach a nice compromise between gravity and volume.

Went and got my hydrometer, and while dunking it in the bucket of sanitiser I noticed it felt lighter than usual. Looked in the test tube and noticed all the lead shot had fallen out of the bottom of the hydrometer! Gutted. Must have knocked it or something!

So I just diluted it to 23L and I have no idea what the gravity is. Will pick up a new meter from brewers coop after work tomorrow and test it tomorrow night I guess.

[denimglen]

Do you know what the gravity was at 18L?

[Patrick]

Um no, my hydrometer is broken so I have no idea. I did a sparge step and squeezed the bag a bit and my mash temp was good this time so I think my efficiency should be good. I will measure it tomorrow night, I know the yeast will have eaten some of the sugar but it will at least give me a ballpark figure.

[denimglen]

Ah yeah, haha, stupid question.

Will still be beer so that's good!

[Patrick]

Yeah, I got all pissed off about it and was ranting and raving, then I thought "hang on, did the belgian monks have hydrometers in the middle ages? NOPE!" Its still beer!