MyQul's Brewday

[MyQul]

OG 1.031 according to Brewers Friend! :lol: :lol: :lol:

PS

Even if I had added an extra kilo of grain it still didn't get to THAT OG! :thumb:

Flippin eck! :shock: I definetely think I need to start to mill my grain much finer

 

[Covrich]

I did the calculation to get my brew house efficiency fryesterdays brew and it only came out at 66% :-(

I think the reason was because when I was crushing my malt there was some grains that weren't crucshed at all (I beleive its because of @dutto's explanation for this, that the gap between the top of the milling surfaces is different from the gap at the bottom). At the time I didnt think that there was that many and they wouldn't make much of a difference but there must have been more uncrushed grain mixed in with the crushed than I thought and it did make a difference
I thought that I have crushed it fairly fine but next time I do an even finer crush and see what happens.

Overall though, I'm not particularly unhappy with 66% efficiency as I can just add more grain. The Irish Lager malt I buy from GEB is cheap and now I have the mill I plan on buying a 25kg bag so it makes it even cheaper. I also discovered yesterday my new 12L pot is actually 13.5L so I can get more grain and mash liqour in there. So for me these two things balance out a lower efficiency

I only base my efficiencies on what brewmate tells me tbh.

But I imagine once you grain is crush more consistently I reckon you can get over the 70 hurdle..

How do you find the full BIAB method??

You could upload a small (and I mean literally small) picture of your grain on here and I could say whether it looks like mine ??

 

[MyQul]

I only base my efficiencies on what brewmate tells me tbh.

But I imagine once you grain is crush more consistently I reckon you can get over the 70 hurdle..

How do you find the full BIAB method??

You could upload a small (and I mean literally small) picture of your grain on here and I could say whether it looks like mine ??

I wont be brewing till the weeked after next as I've got quite a bit of packaging to do this weekend, so wont be doing any milling just yet. I had a look at the piccy dutto uploaded of his crush and mine definately didnt look as fine

 

[Covrich]

I wont be brewing till the weeked after next as I've got quite a bit of packaging to do this weekend, so wont be doing any milling just yet. I had a look at the piccy dutto uploaded of his crush and mine definately didnt look as fine

If you dont mind me asking where is his crush piccy?

 

[Simonh82]

Deleted post, didn't see my question had already been answered.

 

[Dutto]

Flippin eck! :shock: I definetely think I need to start to mill my grain much finer

OR, they got it wrong ...

OR, it comes out really sweet because I have a lot of unfermentables in there! :thumb:

Don'tcha just love home-brewing? :thumb: :thumb: :thumb:

 

[MyQul]

If you dont mind me asking where is his crush piccy?

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=68019&highlight=setting+malt+mill&page=5

Post 50

 

[Dutto]

If you dont mind me asking where is his crush piccy?

Here. :lol:

Off-set on bottom photo disappeared during the milling. :thumb:

 

[cheapbrew]

I crush mine quite fine (much finer than crushed grain I've bought) and have definitely noticed an increase in efficiency, with my recent stouts I got 10 points higher gravity with 400g less base malt than the previous recipe. :party:

EDIT: looking at the pics mine was crushed finer, I had a bit more flour and the husks were broken into several bits.

 

[Covrich]

Mine is similar to that (maybe a touch finer even)

It certainly doesn't look like the precrushed grain you get sealed from HB shops..

 

[MyQul]

From what you guys are saying, and Duttos piccies, I'm crushing mine way to coursely. In duttos piccies there's loads of empty husks and the inner grain crushed into lots of peices. With mine a lot of the grain, while crushed a bit was basically just split and still in the husks. As mentioned I even had lots of uncrushed grain mixed in

 

[Dutto]

From what you guys are saying, and Duttos piccies, I'm crushing mine way to coursely. In duttos piccies there's loads of empty husks and the inner grain crushed into lots of peices. With mine a lot of the grain, while crushed a bit was basically just split and still in the husks. As mentioned I even had lots of uncrushed grain mixed in

HEY! Keep down the praise! :nono: :nono:

For me, a "Light at the end of the tunnel." normally means "A train coming my way!" :whistle: :whistle: :whistle:

 

[cheapbrew]

I just checked my notes and it was actually 350g less grain and it increased from 1042 to 1050

You can see how fine it is in the last few secs of my video.
http://www.wastevegoildacorum.co.uk/grainmill.AVI

 

[MyQul]

I just checked my notes and it was actually 350g less grain and it increased from 1042 to 1050

You can see how fine it is in the last few secs of my video.
http://www.wastevegoildacorum.co.uk/grainmill.AVI

Yes. It looks a lot finer than my milling efforts

 

[Redron]

Me too! :thumb:

I also sparged at the reduced (for me) rate of 1ltr per minute and at the end of the sparge I "squeezed" the grain using a plastic board and an old bench-top anvil to get the most liquid possible out of the mash.

Net result? The photo below! :thumb: :lol: :thumb: :lol:

Wow !
I'll have a pint of what you're brewing !!!
Think it's time for a grain mill.....

 

[Simonh82]

You want to be crushing the grain pretty much as fine as you can get. I have a roller mill and set it so that I can't even get a credit card between the rollers.

My best description of the resulting crushed grain is pulverised. There are a few husks which are recognisable but the inside has been turned to corse flour. The chunks of grain innards are maybe 1-2mm in size.

On my last brew I got 89% efficiency. Although I partly put that down to a smaller grain bill which allowed me to squeeze the bag more easily.

I also dunk sparge which I think helps with efficiency.

The ability to crush finely is one of the benefits of BIAB. I think even if I ever move to a 3 vessel system I will stick with grain bags for mashing.

 

[MyQul]

You want to be crushing the grain pretty much as fine as you can get. I have a roller mill and set it so that I can't even get a credit card between the rollers.

My best description of the resulting crushed grain is pulverised. There are a few husks which are recognisable but the inside has been turned to corse flour. The chunks of grain innards are maybe 1-2mm in size.

On my last brew I got 89% efficiency. Although I partly put that down to a smaller grain bill which allowed me to squeeze the bag more easily.

I also dunk sparge which I think helps with efficiency.

The ability to crush finely is one of the benefits of BIAB. I think even if I ever move to a 3 vessel system I will stick with grain bags for mashing.

I was under the impression you need to just crack the inside of the grain. But from what the rest of you guys have said, my next lot of grain is gonna get absolutely pulversed as fine as I can get it. For my maxi-biab brewing I also squeeze the bag and do a dunk sparge too

 

[Dutto]

Hmmm!

Not so sure that turning the malt into a flour is the way ahead; mainly because (as far as I am aware) they DON'T do it in ANY of the breweries OR distilleries (where they also mash malted grain) that I have visited.

There must be a reason for this, it's just that I don't know what it is ... :lol: :lol:

... so come on Forum; why don't the pro's turn the grain into flour?

 

[Razor]

I don't have a grain mill yet or the time/space to do many AG brews but if the really fine grind is giving such a high efficiency without detriment to the taste or body of the brew then why not do it each time? Also if it works so well why don't the big breweries do it? Surely it would save them money on grain for the price of recalibrating their mills.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Dutto]

I think I've found the answer to my question with this extract:

"The first rule of milling is to not pulverize the grain. Pulverizing your grains can lead
to stuck mashes. When you pulverize the grain, you destroy the embryo and the husk.
This leaves you without a filter. You also end up with a bunch of flour that will turn to
paste and collect on the bottom of the mash tun, and block the flow of sparge water.

The second rule is to barely crush specialty malts, taking care only to crack open the
grains. These are roasted at higher temperatures, so they'll tend to pulverise during
milling if you aren't careful. Keep your mill settings wide enough to just break them
open. Also, it's best to add them to the mash toward the end of the mash-in to keep
them on the top of the mash."
​

The above came from this article ...

http://byo.com/hops/item/1158-milling-grain-tips-from-the-pros

I think I'll keep my mill at the same settings as before because I use a Mash Tun! :thumb:

However, I can see "flour" clumping together within a BIAB bag and reducing the effects of mashing so it would probably be a "no-no" with BIAB as well. :thumb:

When I make Clootie Dumpling for Christmas I sprinkle flour on the wetted muslin sheet before adding the dumpling mixture.

The muslin is then gathered together around the mixture and tied at the top with string before being boiled in water for three hours. The flour forms an impenetrable skin on contact with water so the inside of the Clootie Dumpling stays dry.

You definitely do not want anything similar to happen with BIAB. :nono: :nono: