For you locals who use the mill in the store – what kind of efficiency are you getting? Before they locked down the settings, I was at 75-80 pretty consistently, now I’m lucky to hit 70. Trying to figure out if it’s the crush, or something I’m doing wrong…
Are you running your grain through twice?
I have had similar experiences using that mill. I was hitting about 70% four to six months ago when I was doing partial mash. Since I have gone to all grain, I have been hitting about 65%. I ran my grain through the mill twice last time I brewed and got 68%. I am going to try milling it once next time and pay more attention to some of the things mentioned in the batch sparging nuances thread to see if I can get it to go up at all. I definitely wouldn’t mind getting my efficiency up, but I am not as obsessed as some people seem to be. Saving a few bucks per batch would be nice, but it is still only a few bucks.
NB St. Paul changed the mill setting about two months back. Previously it was locked at 0.040" and it is now set at 0.045".
I know that when they locked the mill setting, I bought my own mill.
BTW the reason they locked the mill setting was due to the mill becoming inaccurate, due to the amount of adjustments people were making, and if someone forgot to reset the mill after crushing, the next person may get to fine of a crush. I know the latter was a large problem as many people in the ethnic community buy whole grains from NB St. Paul and would constantly tighten the mill as far as they could so they could turn the grain into flour for cooking. If they forgot to set it back and you didn’t notice, you would end up with your grain crushed at 0.010", which is not very good for brewing.
I just brewed a batch that was ran through that mill and got 84 %.
the two times i’ve used the mill since they locked it down i was getting around 65-70% as well. i since bought my own mill. not because i was too worked up about that efficiency issue and more because i could buy bulk grain.
Sounds like I’m in good company. I do run it through twice, which seems to help a little. Thanks for the replies!
I’d recommend just buying your own mill. Then you can pick up grains in bulk and you’ll end up paying for the mill in savings. 
That is why I bought mine.
Can’t beat $32 for 50lbs of 2-row at the store.
To buy it by the Lb at the store would cost ~$63
are you rockin’ some sort of discount gregg?
MN Home Brewer or AHA membership will get you a 10% in store discount on everything.
and with that i am the newest member of the mn homebrewers.
$15 a year, its a great deal. You will easily pay for your membership with the instore discount.
- you can go to all the club meetings and try all sorts of beer from other brewers.
no question i will make up for the 15 bones in short order.
dude, what was the og on your 13.2 strong ale? i just brewed one last week.
OG 1.109
FG 1.013
- priming sugar
Drinking it reminds me of drinking fine whiskey at a 3 parts water, 1 part whiskey ratio. Definetaly a sipping beer.
BTW, I originally brewed it on 12/27/2010, primary for 34 days, secondary for 6 months and Bottled on 7/22/2011.
