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Grain mill Setting

 
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jimboh




Joined: 25 Mar 2017
Posts: 69
Location: Halifax NS


PostLink    Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2017 8:40 pm    Post subject: Grain mill Setting Reply with quote


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@Kal
I ran my first batch through my Electric Brewery around 14 days ago (London Pride) and have had a preliminary taste and I reckon its going to be great.

My question. I set my grain mill to .045", I have a very accurate set of feeler gauges that includes .045" so I didn't have to use two together. When I was loading grain (Marris Otter) into the hopper I noticed some where falling straight through. I also had some floating on top at the end of the mash.
Should I try out the grain in the mill before milling and reduce the gap if some where getting through?
Or just reduce the gap a little? Or just leave it at .045?

No good asking me about efficiency etc as I have not got into working how yet but my pre boil was 1.057 @ 68f and final was 1.041 @68f. I did make one mistake, I added too much strike water, not sure if that effects the efficiency. Otherwise I followed the recipe exactly and the instructions in 'brew day'.

One more thing. In brew day, you mention the mash temp following the hot liquor temp , I found it slower than I expected . Do you adjust the flow of the pump through the Herms or run fully open?
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kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 12 Dec 2010
Posts: 11116
Location: Ottawa, Canada

Drinking: Pub Ale, Electric Creamsicle, Mild, Pliny the Younger, Belgian Dark Strong, Weizen, Russian Imperial Stout, Black Butte Porter


PostLink    Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2017 8:56 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Strange. If grain is falling right through a .045" mill gap setting that must be some pretty small grain! I've never seen or heard that before. 0.045" is 1.1 mm. Pretty tiny. I've never seen or heard of grain that small. Are you sure you're setting the mill gap to 0.045" ?

What grain mill is it? Maybe the knurling is so large/deep that there are larger areas for grain to fall through?

Grain should not go through a mill unmilled. You want to crack those grains open. If only a few go through that's fine of course, but you wouldn't want any significant amount to go through without being cracked open.

jimboh wrote:
No good asking me about efficiency etc as I have not got into working how yet but my pre boil was 1.057 @ 68f and final was 1.041 @68f.

Your software will do that mash efficiency calculation for you.
Did you get those numbers backwards? Gravity goes up when you boil to remove water, not down.

Quote:
I did make one mistake, I added too much strike water, not sure if that effects the efficiency.

It makes the wort slightly more fermentable.
If there's a really low amount of water I suppose flow would be affected too.

Quote:
One more thing. In brew day, you mention the mash temp following the hot liquor temp , I found it slower than I expected . Do you adjust the flow of the pump through the Herms or run fully open?

When mashing I recirculate with both pumps 100% open.

Are you talking about how long it takes the mash temp to heat up to the same as the HLT temp when you increase the HLT temp? How long did it take and how long did you expect it to take?

On setups that use different parts than my recommended ones, the mash temperature may never quite reach the Hot Liquor Tank temperature due to heat loss in the Mash/Lauter Tun, hoses, and pumps. To compensate you may set the Hot Liquor Tank temperature a degree or two higher.

Kal

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jimboh




Joined: 25 Mar 2017
Posts: 69
Location: Halifax NS


PostLink    Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2017 9:36 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Darn. I set the gap when I bought it and then checked it before milling. Just checked it and its probably nearer 2mm. All I can think is the 2 locking screws were not tight enough, although they were tight. Its not the mill you recommend , I picked it up from my local brew store, but it is recommended my many of my club members.
When I use it next week I will check every few lbs make sure the gap isn't opening.

I'm not sure whats going on with the grav figures either. Obviously did something wrong. I took a sample of the wort going into the boil and let it cool. What should it have been? It wasn't stirred.

The grav of the wort going into the fermenter was 1041 and after fermentation the final was 1010 which sounds right according to your recipe. In another thread we discussed my issues with old wyeast and starters, I was assuming that because it went from 1041 - 1010 then all must have been good, Is that assumption reasonable?

I am not too fussed about efficiency or alcohol content for this brew, so long as it tastes good. It was more a practice run through my brewery (I must post a pic somewhere).

My pumps are different (chuggers) but I think everything else is near identical. It is the back to back so 4.5kw elements.
It was only around 53F here in NS in my brewery so that may have made a difference.

I didn't log times but will next time. If I recall it took maybe 15mins to get back to mash temp. Seemed like a long time to me.
I did turn the hot liquor up to 152 (target 148) after a while to speed it up.

I am used to doing 5G in a Grainfather with its 1600w element, I thought things would be no slower with 10G and 4500w.
The whole brew day took maybe 1 1/2 to 2 hours longer than I expected. I was concentrating on making sure everything was done right (and it wasn't!), next time I will log everything, my old memory is not so good.
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kal
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Joined: 12 Dec 2010
Posts: 11116
Location: Ottawa, Canada

Drinking: Pub Ale, Electric Creamsicle, Mild, Pliny the Younger, Belgian Dark Strong, Weizen, Russian Imperial Stout, Black Butte Porter


PostLink    Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2017 10:30 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

jimboh wrote:
When I use it next week I will check every few lbs make sure the gap isn't opening.

Check it every once and while if you like, but you shouldn't have to check it every few pounds. If it's changing every few pounds something is wrong with the locking screws.

Quote:
I'm not sure whats going on with the grav figures either. Obviously did something wrong. I took a sample of the wort going into the boil and let it cool. What should it have been? It wasn't stirred.

Gravity will change with temp. Maybe you didn't take the samples at 68F? Is your hydrometer calibrated to take measurements at 68F? You can take measurements at any temp, you just need to convert them to whatever your hydrometer is calibrated to. More info: http://www.theelectricbrewery.com/parts-list-using?page=7

I don't know what your pre-boil gravity should have been. That depends on your boil off rate so it's not something others can answer for you I'm afraid.

Quote:
The grav of the wort going into the fermenter was 1041 and after fermentation the final was 1010 which sounds right according to your recipe. In another thread we discussed my issues with old wyeast and starters, I was assuming that because it went from 1041 - 1010 then all must have been good, Is that assumption reasonable?

If you went from the expected starting to ending gravity then sounds like it fermented out.

Like you said, as long as it takes good you're good to go!

Kal

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jimboh




Joined: 25 Mar 2017
Posts: 69
Location: Halifax NS


PostLink    Posted: Wed Jun 07, 2017 10:39 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks Kal.
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McGruber




Joined: 12 Aug 2014
Posts: 237
Location: Idaho


PostLink    Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 4:37 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

jimboh wrote:
I'm not sure whats going on with the grav figures either. Obviously did something wrong. I took a sample of the wort going into the boil and let it cool. What should it have been? It wasn't stirred.

If you sampled the wort as you started transferring to the boil kettle, and didn't check it again later, then that is why your number is so high. The first runnings are super concentrated sugar. As you sparge you dilute those sugars with HLT water. At the end of sparging and transferring into the boil kettle it's not uncommon to pull 1.002 - 1.008 from the stream, and the measurement of the entire batch will be between the beginning and ending running gravities. Next time stir your entire boil kettle and take a sample from the whole batch before you begin boiling to get your actual pre-boil gravity.
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jimboh




Joined: 25 Mar 2017
Posts: 69
Location: Halifax NS


PostLink    Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 4:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Thanks McGruber, I think that may be the issue,
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kal
Forum Administrator



Joined: 12 Dec 2010
Posts: 11116
Location: Ottawa, Canada

Drinking: Pub Ale, Electric Creamsicle, Mild, Pliny the Younger, Belgian Dark Strong, Weizen, Russian Imperial Stout, Black Butte Porter


PostLink    Posted: Thu Jun 08, 2017 5:28 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Ah! I missed that. That was definitely the issue if that's what was done.

Kal

_________________
Our new shop with over 150 new products: shop.TheElectricBrewery.com
We ship worldwide and support our products and customers for life.
Purchasing through our affiliate links helps support our site at no extra cost to you. We thank you!
My basement/bar/brewery build 2.0
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