Crushing my first grain

I thought that was debunked

Iā€™m not saying Iā€™m right but I would welcome a reputed result.

They did an experiment at Brulosophy I will try to post the link here if allowed: http://brulosophy.com/2017/01/09/mind-the-gap-pt-2-the-impact-of-grain-crush-size-on-a-moderate-og-ale-exbeeriment-results/

They tried a gap of .030 and then another as fine as the crusher would allow. Did not seem to make a difference.

But that was with a medium ale grain biil. Not sure if itā€™s the same with all the other beer / grain types.

I will prob just leave my crusher at the .030. I think I got about 82% and seemed to hit the beersmith predictions within .001 or so.

The beer has been bubbling away for two days now with the high temp tropical IPA yeastā€¦

Consistency is whatā€™s important really

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80% or there about is what I base all my grain bills onā€¦ I have switched up my mash schedule to change efficiency, which also changed brew timeā€¦ Sneezles61

We just got a mill and crushed our first batch. I set the mill at the width of a credit card. (I read somewhere that this is approximately.030ā€) hereā€™s a pic of the crush. Hopefully we donā€™t get stuck.

looks about what I get from a crush. I started using a BIAB bag in the mash tun and never have to worry about a stuck sparge. Plus it really saves me some time when cleaning up.

Thanks Tom. Son and I have been thinking about the BIAB ourselves. No stuck sparge today so I think our crush is good. Weā€™ll see how our gravity ends up.

I donā€™t do the BIAB (have done it a couple of times) but I take the bag and line my mash tun with it. When I am done mashing and fly sparging, I just lift the bag out and toss the grain in the woods. I use a SS Brewtech 10 gal stainless mashtun (insulated) and that baby is heavy when empty. So being able to take the bag and all the spend grain out makes it easier on me. Plus I will never have a stuck sparge and I donā€™t have to vorlouf to get clear wort, it comes out ready to go.

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Sorry Tom but thatā€™s BIAB with a fly sparge.

really? I dont have the bag in the kettle, its in the mash tun. put my water in first, then pour the grain in while stirring, the bag is actually stretched around the outside of my mash tun so I open the lid every 15 min or so and stir the mash with my paddle and put the lid back on. Then at the end, do my fly sparge into the kettle.

maybe its a mash in a bag. def not biab.

You can call it MIAB I guess. But your skipping the vorlauf . When I learned from a friend didnā€™t even use a screen just recirculated until clear then the fly sparge. Next I got a screen and did batch sparge. Then I got a bag put it in my tun and did a dunk sparge in the kettle. But a full volume single pot BIAB never done that. I still call it BIAB though. The reason traditionalsts say BIAB is inferior (itā€™s not IMO) is because the bag makes to tight of a sieve they believe the free flow makes a difference. I canā€™t tell though but apparently some can.

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Ya I am not sure. I donā€™t need a vorlauf, but have never seen a loss of gravity points on the OG (I actually have come out a bit higher in most cases). My grain is loose in the bagā€¦ the bag is spread out lining the bottom and sides of the mash tun, not compressing the grain (its not suspended, just sits on the bottom of the tun). I took the idea from the Brulosophy guy who I believe also tested against not using the bag (testing OG, FG, and triangle taste tests etc.) I have not found a reason not to use the bag as a strainer so far, so until I do or brulosoophy determines a detectable negative difference, it will be my SOP. I tend to fly sparge pretty slowly as well.

Not to be a pia Tom but what do you think you gain from a fly sparge. The reason I did it was thatā€™s what I was told when I started. Havenā€™t done it in ages though

I have no ideaā€¦ :slight_smile: just learned it as a first method of all grain and I tend to just like the process for some reason. I have done batch sparge as well but never really compared the same recipe using both methods to see if there was any difference. I may have read someone saying they had to add a bit more grain for the batch sparge ā€¦ but I may have misunderstood. I have only been at this for about a year so I tend to stick with something that works for me. I am definitely not against simplifying the processā€¦I just have to learn more about the different methods. And as I think more about it I may have mistakenly been thinking vorlaufing was done mainly to get the grain particles out of the wort before transferring to the kettle, but I may be missing something else by not doing it. So maybe the next batch I will vorlauf for a while even though the bag is filtering out the larger particles.

Brulosophy did an exbeeriment on batch verses fly sparging a while backā€¦

http://brulosophy.com/2016/01/11/mash-methods-fly-sparge-vs-batch-sparge-exbeeriment-results/

Not totally conclusive, maybe a little higher efficiency with the fly sparge at least in this batch.

Kind of what I did worked my way through all the techniques until I found my system.

Ditch the mash-tunā€¦ Just use the BK and call it a dayā€¦ Even simpler yet! Less equipmentā€¦ Same resultsā€¦ Since Iā€™ve got to this pointā€¦ I wonā€™t go back, and in fact all the newbies I show this styleā€¦ and donā€™t like to confuse them with extra kettles and processesā€¦ And all those different words! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye: Sneezles61

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Something to be said for familiarize oneself with the different processes.

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So reporting back on our first crush. Apparently milling our own took our efficiency up to 70%. Well, that or the acidulated malt in the grist. Actually hit our numbers today. pH meter on the way too.