[quote=“brans041”]The mills at NB in MN have an adjustment on them to allow for a finer crush. Perhaps adjusting them will be worth while (If available at the Milwaukee shop). Also I have heard of running the grain through the mill twice.
Someone else could pipe in on the setting to use, but I want to say its 1 mm, 0.039 in or something.[/quote]
Just run the grain through the mill twice.
I don’t regret buying a Thermapen, my cheap thermometers where always off.
The single biggest improvement i saw in my AG in the beginning was stirring. When I first started AG I barely stirred my mash (dough-in and batch sparge). Stir that sh*t up! Keep stirring. I’m serious.
[quote=“rellimkm”]
The single biggest improvement i saw in my AG in the beginning was stirring. [/quote]
+1 Thinking back, I experienced the same thing.
I’ve been there too man. I spent a year making terrible beer before I found out my local water was not from the river like downtown, but was very hard and from who knows where.
I have had to dump two or three batches in a row back in my old place before I realized how much wild yeast was in the air at certain points of the year.
I have only lately been getting it right every time. It will all be worth it when you eventually have several brew pub quality beers on tap that you can say are completely your own.
But no harm in going back and knocking off a few easy ones from extract to get you back in it.
I also find picking up a new brewing book always help me get my focus back.
[quote=“Brew On”][quote=“rellimkm”]
The single biggest improvement i saw in my AG in the beginning was stirring. [/quote]
+1 Thinking back, I experienced the same thing.[/quote]
Me too. I got 8-10% better mash efficiency once I started stirring the mash thoroughly- i stir until the temp is constant throughout the whole mash…takes 5 minutes or so.
[quote=“pb905”][quote=“Brew On”][quote=“rellimkm”]
The single biggest improvement i saw in my AG in the beginning was stirring. [/quote]
+1 Thinking back, I experienced the same thing.[/quote]
Me too. I got 8-10% better mash efficiency once I started stirring the mash thoroughly- i stir until the temp is constant throughout the whole mash…takes 5 minutes or so.[/quote]
that’s what I’ve been attributing to my mash being 2-4 degrees cooler than I planned. would also explain why my Dead Ringer ended up so low. not complaining, just need to refine my mash.
I’ve found my efficiency improved by:
doing double batch sparges (i.e. instead of one 7 gal sparge, use 2 sequential @ 3.5 gal each
for a 10 gal batch)
Asking my LHBS to use a finer crush (.030 vs their std .037)
as Denny suggested, having NB run the grain thru the mill twice should accomplish about the
same thing.
Previously, I was livin’ in the 60’s. Now I’m comfortably into the '70’s. I’m talking efficiency here…
[quote=“Brew On”][quote=“rellimkm”]
The single biggest improvement i saw in my AG in the beginning was stirring. [/quote]
+1 Thinking back, I experienced the same thing.[/quote]
Although once the mash is underway, I’ve never found any advantage to stirring any more. Just stir the water additions in well, then leave it alone.
[quote=“Hop-2-It”]I’ve found my efficiency improved by:
doing double batch sparges (i.e. instead of one 7 gal sparge, use 2 sequential @ 3.5 gal each
for a 10 gal batch)
Asking my LHBS to use a finer crush (.030 vs their std .037)
as Denny suggested, having NB run the grain thru the mill twice should accomplish about the
same thing.
Previously, I was livin’ in the 60’s. Now I’m comfortably into the '70’s. I’m talking efficiency here…[/quote]
I have found that my efficiency only increases by 1-2 points from doing a double batch sparge. Not worth the effort for me. I get about 83% from a single sparge and that’s good enough for me!
