My effeciency is disappointing and the next time I go to the LHBS, I’m going to have them run my grains through the mill twice. I aleady have a kit from them and am going to brew tonight.
My question is: Would it help my current situation to dough in with a paint stirrer in my power drill? I aerate my wort this way and thought maybe it would help insure that there are no dough balls and might even crush some of the kernels.
Even if you don’t think it would help, would it hurt?
I don’t think it will help, but I dob’t think it will hurt, either.
Thanks Denny! I don’t think it will do anything, but if it doesn’t hurt then why not try.
If it wasn’t accross town, I would take the grains in for a recrush tonight. But it’s hard enough to start brewing @ 5:30 and get to bed at a decent hour as it is.
It might breakup dough balls, but I doubt there’d be any grain-breaking. :cheers:
I don’t think it’d move the whole mash, just the little bit that was right in the vicinity of the blades. Are you seeing lots of dough balls? I don’t have that much trouble with them myself.
My thought was to mix with the drill, but manually stir as well. I don’t think I have trouble with dough balls, but anything I can do to eliminate the potential makes sense to me.
I’m going to give it a shot and see if my efficiency improves any.
[quote=“Sooner49er”]My thought was to mix with the drill, but manually stir as well.[/quote]If hot side aeration actually exists, I imagine that mixing the mash with a drill is a great way to make it happen! 
As an update, the batch did come out closer to the OG than previous batches. I had typically been off by 10 points, but last night I was only off by 2-3. Can’t say for sure if it had anything to do with the paint stirring or not.
I’m trying to get the grain bill from my LHBS so that I can calculate my effeciency. I’ll post those results when I get them.
In short, it may have helped!
My thought was to mix with the drill, but manually stir as well. I don’t think I have trouble with dough balls, but anything I can do to eliminate the potential makes sense to me.
I’m going to give it a shot and see if my efficiency improves any.[/quote]
Worrying about a problem you may not have is like paying interest on a debt you may not owe. If you’re not having a problem with dough balls, why deal with the extra complexity? If you were actually having a problem it would be different.
According to my calculation, I got 76% effeciency. Not great but better than the 69% from the last batch.
2 each his own
[quote=“Sooner49er”]According to my calculation, I got 76% effeciency. Not great but better than the 69% from the last batch.
2 each his own[/quote]
76% is solid. Even 69% isn’t terrible. I think a better crush would easily make up that difference.
[quote=“Sooner49er”]As an update, the batch did come out closer to the OG than previous batches. I had typically been off by 10 points, but last night I was only off by 2-3. Can’t say for sure if it had anything to do with the paint stirring or not.
I’m trying to get the grain bill from my LHBS so that I can calculate my effeciency. I’ll post those results when I get them.
In short, it may have helped![/quote]
Was everything else exactly the same? Same recipe, same bags of grain? otherwise you can’t really compare accurately.
I like the way you think Shade, I was going to interject this but I am taking flak lately so I left it be until somebody else came in first this time. Because runoffs or other hot side procedure etc…may not be showing HSA’s dreaded effects(had to drop doom and gloom for effect sake!)The picture of a guy mad whipping air into the mash makes you curious anyway as I remember many reference to limit large amounts of air intake when mashing, but now that its all dis-proven we can all embrace mad,mad mash mixing. Obviously I am kidding about the proof or not, but for today’s operation I will just picture and recognize the fact that the OP was “calmly” mixing on slow and a “gentle” fold was employed so therefore I know he is golden anyway irregardless of theory. :mrgreen:
Was everything else exactly the same? Same recipe, same bags of grain? otherwise you can’t really compare accurately.
No, everything was different and I understand that they can’t be compared accurately. I’m not trying to reinvent the beer making process and set the standard for how all beer is made from now on.
It was an idea, like we all have, to improve my brewing process. I didn’t go crazy with the speed of the drill either. I’ll probably do it again and keep testing the results.
[quote=“dobe12”][quote=“Sooner49er”]According to my calculation, I got 76% effeciency. Not great but better than the 69% from the last batch.
2 each his own[/quote]
76% is solid. Even 69% isn’t terrible. I think a better crush would easily make up that difference.[/quote]
I gotta say it again- Don’t sweat lower efficiency if you can get consistent efficiency. If its all over the place, you can’t really predict your OG, which makes brewing more difficult. Once you have it consistent, you can make up any shortfalls due to the assumed efficiency of any recipe (or kit) by tweaking your grain bill slightly.
