First Brew in 2 years, 10% increase in efficiency!

[OliH]

Hello all, its been a while, but I found this website so useful a few years back when I was trying all grain brewing, thought I had to post with my new findings.

I just do a 19l BIAB pot on the stove so I find a 4kg grain bill is just about max, can do 5kg for maxi BIAB but it becomes pretty awkward.

Anyway I put an order in with Malt Miller and they offer a "fine" grain crush so I went with this. My mash efficiency has increased by nearly 10%. I use brew father so was basing my most recent recipe on one that I used a couple of years ago and, yeah I'm up by nearly 10%.

The brew day was really smooth, I remember having a few nightmare days and its one reason I haven't bothered in while! But today was great.

I bought a really small immersion chiller, but had only used it for one brew before today. Its a total game changer, it saves so much time and hassle. The chiller gets the wort to pitching temp in about 15 - 20 minutes. Before I was having to add ice or put the pot in the bath with ice etc. It took hours!

At the end of the day, because of the increased efficiency I had to liquor back so have ended up with 20l in the fermentor, its in the fridge set at 18C, safale us-05.

Now, I was intending to quite heavily dry hop, and I have Citra and Amarillo BBC hops from Malt Miller. My question is how much? I've not used the BBC hops before and are they much different make T90? I was planning a 100g of each....

Any input is most welcomed from you knowledgeable lot! TIA. Oli

 

[crowcrow]

I normally dry hop with 100g total of citra and cascade in my 'go to APA' - but I could easily double that. 100g for me is a good balance of flavour and cost - I don't think you'll over do it.

Interesting on the efficiency, again a balance as being 'too efficient' can lead to drawing other flavours from the Malt. Looking forward to hearing how this goes, imagine it will be a great beer!

 

[Rwilts]

Hello all, its been a while, but I found this website so useful a few years back when I was trying all grain brewing, thought I had to post with my new findings.

I just do a 19l BIAB pot on the stove so I find a 4kg grain bill is just about max, can do 5kg for maxi BIAB but it becomes pretty awkward.

Anyway I put an order in with Malt Miller and they offer a "fine" grain crush so I went with this. My mash efficiency has increased by nearly 10%. I use brew father so was basing my most recent recipe on one that I used a couple of years ago and, yeah I'm up by nearly 10%.

The brew day was really smooth, I remember having a few nightmare days and its one reason I haven't bothered in while! But today was great.

I bought a really small immersion chiller, but had only used it for one brew before today. Its a total game changer, it saves so much time and hassle. The chiller gets the wort to pitching temp in about 15 - 20 minutes. Before I was having to add ice or put the pot in the bath with ice etc. It took hours!

At the end of the day, because of the increased efficiency I had to liquor back so have ended up with 20l in the fermentor, its in the fridge set at 18C, safale us-05.

Now, I was intending to quite heavily dry hop, and I have Citra and Amarillo BBC hops from Malt Miller. My question is how much? I've not used the BBC hops before and are they much different make T90? I was planning a 100g of each....

Any input is most welcomed from you knowledgeable lot! TIA. Oli

When I was BIAB I always ordered fine crush from TMM as I read there was no concerns regarding stuck mash and no sparge to be concerned about. Since moving to my AIO two years ago I order Crushed only as again I have read there is a risk if using too fine a crush with such all in one machines . Would be interested if anyone has tried fine crush and what the outcome was (a bit more efficiently would always be welcome ).

 

[Agentgonzo]

When I was BIAB I always ordered fine crush from TMM as I read there was no concerns regarding stuck mash and no sparge to be concerned about. Since moving to my AIO two years ago I order Crushed only as again I have read there is a risk if using too fine a crush with such all in one machines . Would be interested if anyone has tried fine crush and what the outcome was (a bit more efficiently would always be welcome ).

I've tweaked the grain crush on my mill a few times over the last year. It you crush to fine, you'll get recirculation problems. I did on my grainfather.