I’m still playing with efficiency somewhat. My experiments thus far are really not conclusive, and I’m beginning to think maybe high efficiency is not such a terrible thing after all. But, odds remain 50/50 either way. I no longer have very strong opinions of high vs. low efficiency. Bottom line is that consistency is far more important than whatever the average efficiency number is. Getting 60% efficiency consistently? Great. 90%? Well aren’t you special. Somewhere in between? No worries. As long as it’s consistent. If not consistent… try to find out why, and then fix it.
I’ve read commercial brewers get 90 or better. Some of them make good beer. I’m getting mid 80 consistently by crushing .025 and doing Biab. With my tun I crushed no tighter that .030 and got mid 70. I’ve made the same beers both ways scaled for efficiency and I can’t tell the difference. But I’m not a trained tasted either. Like @dmtaylo2 says it’s consistency that maters. I guess it I were brewing kits I would have to change something since I think kits are assuming 65% I’ve heard
Well I’m glad I read this post. Brewing on the weekend and I just set my mill to .040. I don’t want to pulverize my grain but a few of you are set at .025. Maybe I will try .030.
Brent
Good. Must start at 0.030. Or less if you’re brave enough. Nobody does 0.040, that’s way too wide.
If you already crushed it at .040 you can crush it again at the lower setting shouldn’t hurt anything
I haven’t crushed anything yet. I will set it tonight. Thanks
For reference, NB kits are factored for 70% efficiency. I get around 75% on my system, but have never made any adjustments to the grain bill to accommodate for that. Once I got my mill set to where I hit 75%, I haven’t touched it since. Typically my OG is slightly higher than the target from the recipe but I’m not too bothered by that. I don’t have a gauge or anything to check the gap but I use the captain Crush and the top roller is set to the third mark from smallest and the bottom roller is set at the second from the smallest.
Rad
Did start a small batch at 0.030. And later on a 0 025. Batch. For my wit bier. Did crush pilsner at 0 030. My wheat rye at 0.025. Seems to work