[denny]

Have you tried adding a half hour to your mash time? It will tell you right away if its your crush. And it's the easiest thing to do -which is nothing- for 30 minutes.

used my barley crusher for the first time yesterday, and the crush looked pretty damn fine.  I'll give the mash today an extra half hour, see if that helps.

Or tighten the gap on your mill.

[melferburque]

Or tighten the gap on your mill.

the grist looks more pulverized than I've ever had from a HBS mill.  factory default 0.039.  does this picture show anything?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/melferburque/6904159555/in/photostream

[tygo]

How much water are you losing to dead space and grain absorption in the mash tun?

[melferburque]

How much water are you losing to dead space and grain absorption in the mash tun?

how do I calculate that?  I'm using a ten gallon round igloo cooler with a 12" false bottom.

[weithman5]

total water in - water out is what is left in the grain absorption/dead space

[Hokerer]

the grist looks more pulverized than I've ever had from a HBS mill.  factory default 0.039.  does this picture show anything?

If you want the pic to show here, you need to link to the pic itself and not the flickr page.  Like so...

[melferburque]

total water in - water out is what is left in the grain absorption/dead space

is that mash only or mash+sparge? does it matter?

[denny]

Or tighten the gap on your mill.

the grist looks more pulverized than I've ever had from a HBS mill.  factory default 0.039.  does this picture show anything?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/melferburque/6904159555/in/photostream

My crush is a lot finer than that.

[melferburque]

My crush is a lot finer than that.

what is your gap set at?

[tygo]

total water in - water out is what is left in the grain absorption/dead space

is that mash only or mash+sparge? does it matter?

Give us total water including both mash and sparge.  You're batch sparging correct?

[tubercle]

Have you calibrated the thermometer?

[melferburque]

all of my measurements went out the window.  eight gallons to 16.25 pounds (only 3/4 lbs wheat added last twenty minutes) resulted in a concrete block of a mash.  thinking 0.039" gap is more than sufficient.  I had to dump the whole tun into my kettle and filter it off through the bazooka.  I added the sparge to the kettle too, I have no idea how much I lost.

edit: best i can tell I lost about 2.5 gallons. I had an eight gallon mash (should have been seven, ended up way too hot) and a three gallon sparge. I'm now sitting about 8.5 gallons in my kettle.

[melferburque]

Have you calibrated the thermometer?

32 F in an ice bath. do I need to use the 212 F method instead?

[melferburque]

Have you calibrated the thermometer?

32 F in an ice bath. do I need to use the 212 F method instead?

kettle thermometer was 208 F at rolling boil, which explains why my mash was hot today.  but I always use the thermometer that was calibrated correctly to set my mash before I put the lid on.  I'll have to wait until next time to measure my losses. 

[tygo]

You might want to try conditioning your malt with a little water before grinding.  Check out Kai's article here:  http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Malt_Conditioning.  That may help with your lautering problems.