Lager Malt Efficiency?

[The Baron]

Hi I have been using Irish Minch Lager Malt and the efficiency seems to be lower than it should. I use the Minch Pale and that is ok but just wondered if anybody has the same issue or is it just a batch that is not up to standard?. I do mash for 45 mins with all my mashes but so I do not know if that really affects it that much it just seems to be the Lager malt unless it is the microwave rice ( I have to input it as flaked rice in Brewers Friend so it could that ) which may not be as eff as the Flaked rice anybody had similar and if so what is the best cheap alternative to use. I do nearly always add the Micro Rice to all my Lager recipes recently as it gives it a light colour nd thinner taste like the Macro lagers which is what I am trying to imitate, I know but I have to cater for all tastes

 

[BeerCat]

I get the same efficiency as usual with it. Cannot comment on the microwave rice as i use the flaked stuff which is pre gelatinised. I got 85% efficiency last time i used it but it had been accidentally ground to flour. I always mash for at least 90 minutes. Perhaps you could try doing a conversion test.

 

[The Baron]

Yes I will do a test next time I do not usually bother as I do not generally have a problem, The Micro Rice is pre-gelatinised too as it is already cooked and you really just warm it up in the Micro. Maybe I should do a slightly longer mash on the Lager Malt next time and do a test at 45 mins to see if it has fully converted at 45mins then carry on with a 6o min mash just to see if there is a improvement

 

[An Ankoù]

My experience is that both Pilsner malt and Extra Pale malt give a slightly smaller yield and I put this down to the fact that it is not as hot or as long and this leaves a greater percentage of water in the grain. I found this across the board, although I haven't used Minch lager malt yet.

 

[The Baron]

I think I do need to do some checks with the conversion and maybe if necessary mash longer with the lager malt. I have always found it to be slightly lower on eff on a same mash time as pale malt but this time it was down probably 7 % from what I expected. I think I will try a different Lager malt on my next order to see if it is similar

 

[Zephyr259]

I've got the same Minch lager malt and the efficiency on my mate's pils seemed ok, I've had better efficiencies but it was still in the range of normal for me.

 

[The Baron]

There's something wrong as I do the same process with all my beers and never get below 70% Eff. So the next time I use Lager malt I will be doing a conversion test, I do wonder if I have somehow made a boll%$£& of weighing the ingredients and mis-calculated which may answer it but until the next Lager/Kolsch I will not know. Sometimes problems have the easiest answers

 

[foxbat]

I'd be looking suspiciously at the adjuncts before the base malt. Did you make the rice yourself or did you get it from a supplier? If you delete it from the recipe does the changed OG reflect what you actually got?

 

[The Baron]

Well I questioned that Foxbat but I have used it before many times and the OG has always been there or there abouts but I know since I have last done it Brewers Friend has had a update and that is why i asked could it be that I have entered my rice as Flaked rice which is what I have always done as ordinary rice is not in the drop down box. The rice I have used is Micro pre-cooked so it has been gelatonised. BF says the rice is adding 4.4 to the OG , if I take the rice out of the recipe the EFF is more or less where it should be but that would mean the rice added absolutely nothing to the OG?. It is a mystery at the moment but I will not find out until I brew with it again and the Lager Malt and do all the conversion tests etc. As I said maybe I have weighed the lager malt wrong such a easy thing to do as I use a jug and weigh each jug to a max of a kilo then place it in the grain bucket.Anyway it will not affect the beer as I just made up the OG with a small sugar water addition and as I am trying to mimic a macro lager it will not go amiss it is just the head scratching of why?

 

[foxbat]

Well I questioned that Foxbat but I have used it before many times and the OG has always been there or there abouts but I know since I have last done it Brewers Friend has had a update and that is why i asked could it be that I have entered my rice as Flaked rice which is what I have always done as ordinary rice is not in the drop down box. The rice I have used is Micro pre-cooked so it has been gelatonised. BF says the rice is adding 4.4 to the OG , if I take the rice out of the recipe the EFF is more or less where it should be but that would mean the rice added absolutely nothing to the OG?. It is a mystery at the moment but I will not find out until I brew with it again and the Lager Malt and do all the conversion tests etc. As I said maybe I have weighed the lager malt wrong such a easy thing to do as I use a jug and weigh each jug to a max of a kilo then place it in the grain bucket.Anyway it will not affect the beer as I just made up the OG with a small sugar water addition and as I am trying to mimic a macro lager it will not go amiss it is just the head scratching of why?

I had a quick look at BF and it's saying that flaked rice has a PPG of 40 which seems a bit optimistic to me. For example Beersmith has 32 for the same ingredient. Maybe they changed the extract potential in the update. Of course it's still possible that the base malt or the crush was off this time.

 

[The Baron]

I did notice it was showing 40 and thought that was rather high but I will never know until I reproduce the recipe and do the conversion checks and make sure I did not weigh something wrong

 

[matt76]

I use various base malts, including "Lager malt" from the Home Brew Shop. I don't notice any difference between them.

However, what I have recently realised is that an addition of 5-10% flaked barley drags my efficiency down from about 72% to 66%. I've also found in the past that flaked oats for something similar, but can be helped somewhat by doing a mash rest around 50-55degC.

Based on that I reckon it's probably the rice that's doing it.

If you take a BG reading, one thing you could do is double check your conversion efficiency which should be over 90% IIRC.

 

[The Baron]

Yep a conversion test on the next one and if it is not fully converted a slightly longer mash is in order or I may try the mash rest first as it did have porridge oats in as well (I use them in every brew)as the rice so may have compounded the issue. Barring all that if I can not get to the bottom of that particular recipe I will just add more Lager malt to compensate as long as I do not find out I weighed it wrong in the first place