What brewhouse efficiency do You get?

[agentgonzo]

used to be 63% when I sparged no matter how long I took. A few months ago I decided to switch to double mashing just to save a bit of time and my mash efficiency has lept to 73%.

Russell.

What's double mashing?

I've been getting 75-80% normally, though the last sack of pale malt I got was from Tucker's (direct) rather than Warminster (via farnborough LHBS). The crush didn't look as ... well, crushed and my efficiency has dropped to around 70%. Seriously contemplating getting a mill. They're just so expensive (especially when it's ~£150 for us and $130 for the yanks)

[subsub]

My best is 87% fly sparging and 92% batch sparging, generally I get about 86%

[Aleman]

Seriously contemplating getting a mill. They're just so expensive (especially when it's ~£150 for us and $130 for the yanks)

Buy one from the states then Thats what I did when the exchange rate was so much more in our favour. Beertech sell The Barleycrusher, but you can buy it online from Barleycrusher Inc.

[gr_baker]

Double mashing...there are other names for it I think What I do is a normal mash for 90 minutes at 66C. Then completely drain the mash tun. I then close the tap, add more treated water to keep the the temperature at 75C or so, close the lid and leave to mash again for 15-20 minutes. Drain that and possibly even repeat if the boiler is still not full. That may be what other poeple mean by batch sparging but I'm not sure. That's what I get 70-73% efficiency from.

What I used to do was a normal mash, drain the mash tun and then do a slow sparge at 80C or so using a little sparge arm turning very slowly. That took about 45 minutes and gave me 63% efficiency consistently.

[Buzz]

I hit 80% on one brew - not sure how as every other brew comes out around 65%. I batch sparge and get great tasting beer (at least to my uneducated palate). I always need to add a bit more malt than most people's recipes but I'm not too worried.

I'll be using my new twin element boiler for my next brew. Be interesting to see if my efficiency goes up as I should be able to get a much stronger rolling boil (my Bruheat boiler has been cutting out of late, giving me real problems).

[Dennis King]

75-85% and I`m a fly sparger.

[lordnoise]

Hello All - new member here.
Just thought I'd put my two penneth in about grain mills seeing as though they do seem to be expensive from the States.
I recently bought one for £39.99 from Leyland Homebrew and although a little - err - basic (probably designed and made in Soviet Russia ) it seems to do the job well enough.
There are no dials or buttons to adjust just a couple of large screw thingys. However I was able to grind my whole Pale Malt to a state that matched the bag of crushed I had left over, ie. small granules of endosperm, a fair amount of powder and large pieces of husk to form the grain bed.
Just done a brew and got just about the same efficiency (79% - fly sparging) that I used to get with crushed.
Very happy .

[macleanb]

Our first 2 brews were all >80% - I think my manifold is the slowest in the world therefore sparging is very slow, but quite effecient.

My most recent brew #3 - I dunno - couldnt/cant find me bleedin hydrometer

[PMH0810]

Thanks for the link DaaB - it's all becoming clear!