Ok, crush... troubleshoot me.

[mchrispen]

I guess I start over from the beginning again. Gone this weekend, so will have to tackle it next weekend.

These are the times I feel like a complete moron.

[narcout]

I'll throw this out there, in case it is helpful.

A few weeks ago when I tried the mini mash test, I embarrassingly added 10 times the recommended dose of SMB. I realized my mistake about halfway through the mash but decided to continue anyway. What I found was that the SMB batch barely converted at all (gravity on the non-SMB batch was a few points under 1.040, and the gravity on the SMB batch was a few points under 1.010).

It's just one data point, but it seems like maybe too much SMB can interfere with conversion. Is it possible your scale is off, and you are adding significantly more SMB than you think?

[Kit_B]

With the tiny dose required for the mini-mash, I could totally see that as a possibility.

[indevrede]

[mchrispen]

Yeah, and adjusted for a slight temperature elevation.

It's a good idea to go back and check all of my measurement tools for sure. I extremely anal about it - so usually do this several times a year. I just replaced the RTD on the Brew-Magic. It is dead onto my Thermopen and other digital thermo's.

[wobdee]

This may sound weird but with my Braumeister I actually have gotten better efficiency with a coarser crush. I seem to get a bit more efficiency and better consistency out of a .040 crush than a finer .030 crush. Maybe it has something to do with the circulation?

[mchrispen]

I never believed my contacts at Brew-Magic about the crush. I was stubborn to move away from a fairly fine crush (0.03") on my two roller. Once I FINALLY moved it out to .05", and performed a careful and slow fly lauter - my efficiency went way up. Amazing how reading instructions actually works. This included a 2-3 gallon per minute circulation speed.

Like I said - time to relearn the system with LODO in effect. I have a good handle on grain-in and lauter, just need to make sure it is replicated batch to batch. I think I swapped out too much on my reset - LODO + rethinking all of the techniques. Back to basics.

[lupulus]

You are conditioning, right? I do not know enough about it, except that it works when doing 2% RO water and mill 10-15 min after the application.
Maybe if you take longer grains becomes more pliable and you are not milling them all but enough to not make you notice...

[Bryan R]

My standard house crush, the crush I use with or without a bag.






Non conditioned






The difference a little water makes....

[Bilsch]

I've recently had a problem in my direct fire recirculated system that was directly related to crush and revealed itself as attenuation issues. I am fairly positive that too fine a grist was restricting circulation and the suction of the pump compressed the grain column and thus hindered flow even more. If the grain is packed together it makes sense there is less surface area in contact with enzymes. I expect that this same problem could present as efficiency issues just as easily. Since everyone's system is different especially regarding column diameter to height ratios and flow rates from their pumps it follows that there is a correct crush for each system. I also use a MM3 and increased the gap recently to .048" which has solved my problem. Increasing the size of your crush seems a logical thing to try being that you stated reducing your mill gap only made your problem worse.