anyone else noticed any changes

[ColinKeb]

recently my efficiency has dropped off from previously being excellent to being quite poor, after scratching my head for quite a few days I can pinpoint this to the local flooding in gloucestershire. since the floods my efficiency has dropped.
ive just ordered some PH stabiliser from H&G but I just wondered a) if the PH of the local water could have changed as a result of the floods or flushing agents etc afterwards and b) if anyone else has noticed a difference following local flooding ?

I can remember what the PH was before so i cant compare to the water companies reports now unfourtunately

maybe im just clutching at straws here but at least the stabiliser should do the trick.

[johnmac]

Is your malt 2007 crop?

[ColinKeb]

Is your malt 2007 crop?

no i doubt it , I bought it at the begining of the year

the change in water supply was what i suspected Daab , maybe theyve rerouted our supply after the floods exposed a problem in how it was done previously . we had it cut off for a few weeks at the time so maybe theyve found a better plan of supply

[Madbrewer]

My efficiency had been shocking! I don't think it was mash PH to blame though. Funnily enough last brew (yesterday) it was back to within a litre of what I normally get. I had put it down underestimating how much sparge liqor would be needed & getting overly cautious about over sparging rather than specific crops though.

[ColinKeb]

Time to order in some PH strips and CRS Col'

its all on order

water companies have particular routes of supply to areas and I know the main problem with the gloucester floods was the heavy dependance on one reservoir which was then flooded. to get our supply back on they had to reroute water from other areas so maybe theyve learnt their lesson and kept it like that. they could have done this across the country as well in order to avoid the same problems elsewhere in the future. Im only guessing all this but I will try to find out if its true tomorow as it could have implications for others around the country.

thank god for chemicals thats what i say

[delboy]

I had noticed a big drop off in efficency with my latest bags of MO, i was putting it down to my maltmill and was going to tweak the crush but i wonder is it the grains themselves down in carbohydrate content because of the poor summer

That would be a double kick in the clinkers, high grain prices and poor yields from the grains.

[Orkney_Rob]

I hope not - I get pretty woeful efficiency anyway, and have just taken delivery of a 25kg sack of malt to set me off when we get back from holiday.... though the Rainy Day Bitter from Saturday was looking pretty respectable with around a 70% efficiency (my best yet!). Rather took me by suprise since I was expecting to wind up with a 3.8 - 4.0 % brew not the 5% I have wound up with... probably!

[Dan]

do other cereals give you a better yeild on average. eg wheat malt? that might point a finger at your barley

I can see flaked adjucts and other malted grains gaining popularity in brewshops. they should still be the same price as usual.

[johnmac]

A maltster at a well known maltings has been heard to say that barley which would normally go for animal food is now finding its way into the breweries

[steve_flack]

I can see flaked adjucts and other malted grains gaining popularity in brewshops. they should still be the same price as usual.

The reason for the barley price rise is that in order to get farmers to grow it it has to give them as good or better return as other crops they could grow. At the moment, there's a good return on biofuel crops so the price of barley has to rise to match them. The same price pressure applies to other crops so they might go up as well - wheat I know for sure already has.

Basically you can blame the eco-lefties that your beer will cost more.

A maltster at a well known maltings has been heard to say that barley which would normally go for animal food is now finding its way into the breweries

I don't think anyone would grow MO as a feed crop. There are other varieties that are better yielding etc. You can be fairly sure that if someone's grown MO that it was intended for brewing. Whether or not the protein levels are higher in the resulting crop is another matter and I don't have any info on that.

[Jim]

I wonder if that explains my Black Sheep clone fiasco.

[johnmac]

I don't think anyone would grow MO as a feed crop.

Maybe not, but perhaps the maltings rejected the less suitable stuff in the past and don't have that luxury this year. The information came from a reliable source and the advice was to mash cooler and for longer, to avoid the likely haze problems.

Basically you can blame the eco-lefties that your beer will cost more.

Pity the eco lefties haven't realised that biodiesel uses more energy in its production than it eventually yeilds

[Bryggmester]

It's quite strange but using the latest sack of M.O. which came from Muntons via my local micro I have found that my mash efficiency has deteriorated, despite the fact that I have been using 5.2 PH blocker. Nothing too drastic but nevertheless noticeable over a number of brews.

[ColinKeb]

Ive asked severn trent for any ideas , will post if they reply

[spearmint-wino]

As I mentioned elsewhere, I had an efficiency yesterday of around 63%, the lowest I've had by far - I'm normally 15-20% higher than that. Whether its a one off or not I don't know but certainly unexpected. I've got a few back to back brewdays scheduled in for new year so will keep an eye on those.