poor mashing results

[evanvine]

The slack malt will compliment their stale hops nicely.

Ooo, shock horror!
Never used them anyway.
Sponsors and the LHBS for quality and freshness. (LHBS could be iffy, but they are there when you need them)

 

[Talon_Ted]

aleman

it is interesting that you mention poorly crushed malt as i was surprised by the number of large grains in the bags. when comparing it to some crystal malt i had, the difference was marked!

when i was a pig farmer, and milling and mixing my own pig feed, this would have indicated a worn screen in the grinder. however as the malt is crushed not ground it may be an incorrect setting or wear on the wheel./ i have asked the hb shop to comment on this point and will post their reply.

TT

 

[pjbiker]

i have just re-started home brewing using my old equipment but have found that my mashing results have been way below expectation and past performance. i am using maris otter from a well known hb shop but my efficiency figures are around 75% as opposed to the high 80's seven years or so ago. i am working on 1kg malt supplying 30 degrees to 10 litres as the max figure. i have moved across the valley and the water i am using now is local water as opposed to severn trent mains in the past. any suggestions anyone?

mashing for 90 mins at 63 degrees. strike temp 74 deg, sparge 74 deg. 32 litre before boiling.
recipe: 3.5kg pale malt, 1 kg crystal malt.

thanks for any help you can give me.

mark

Hi Mark,
I reckon you could sparge slower and for longer and taper collection rate. I'm no master, with the best I've achieved from 10.4Kg of Marris Otter in my 30L plastic mash tun is 83% (total brewhouse efficiency) and that surprised me. It tends to vary between 75-80. I usually sparge for about 75min. I do taper the flow rate, ie. collecting quickly to start with then reduce flow and collection rate towards end when most of the sugar has been extracted. I have used both Muntons and Warminster malts. I think my best efficiencies have been with Munton's but my LHBS stocks Warminster at a good price and it's easy to pick up. Everything else I get from Hop and Grape.
My efficiencies would be higher if I cheated and quoted only what is collected in the copper rather than collected in the FVs. I think in general, longer brewlenghs give proportionally less loss to deadspace and hops.
eg. in the case below would be 87.9% efficiency if I cheated.

The stats from my most efficient brew.
Final Vol in FVs(L) 56 OG 46

Grain Kg Deg/Kg/L Max Deg. 75% eff
Marris Otter10.4 297 55.2 41.4

Actual Mash Efficiency (%)
TOTALS 10.4Kg 55.2 41.4 83.4

That didn't paste from Excel very well, 10.4Kg Malt, 56L of 46deg wort collected in FVs, 83.4% efficiency.