Double Milling

[brewmeisterintng]

I read a post on running your grain through the mill twice to get a better grist on another forum so in my last brew I gave it a try. I am using a Phils Mill single roller. I did add two handfuls of rice hulls to ward off a stuck mash and to my suprize I ended up 10 points over my expected OG calculated utilizing BeerTools. No stuck mash. I did add about a quart of water in the fermetor after the reading to thin it down abit. I am just wondering if anyone else has tried it. I told my buddy who also tried it and he is convinced that double milling is the way to go. Both of our brews are in the primarys so I can't tell you how it affected the finish but both are brews we have made before. Just food for thought.

[brewmeisterintng]

I now double mill all my grains separately the night before to ensure that I have a quality grist. It probably isn't a big deal for those who have double rollers but I think that without starting with a good grist you most likely won't get the OG you were expecting. Some will point to the mash tun and carburetor as the reason for a poor conversion/ efficiency but is all starts with properly cracked grains. I still throw in a couple of handfuls of rice hulls now on every batch because they are cheep and can only help.

[slothrob]

I've done double milling and got efficiencies in the 90%+ range. I used this to confirm that I'd benefit from a finer grind before adjusting my mill. I did get a minor stuck sparge that was relieved by a quick stir and vorlauf onj one batch.

I ultimately just adjusted my mill down until I was getting in the 80's.

When people are getting low efficiencies, I recommend double milling as a way to check to see if crush is their problem. It usually is.

[brewmeisterintng]

Or am I to assume that you get tannins and other assorted off flavors at higher converson rates?
Can you explain further?

[slothrob]

Some people believe that you get a maltier beer with lower efficiency, but that's not why I stuck with a single crush. Mostly I was worrried that I'd get tannins from shredded husks from the 2 passes, though the beers I made with double crushing showed no signs of this, and were quite malty.

I guess the other 2 factors were the stuck sparge, indicating that I may have been pushing the limit of my system, so should back off a little, and a desire not to have to put the grain through twice.

I think I can still close my gap slighly and increase my efficiency some more, but I'm quite happy with the 82% that I'm currently averaging so I haven't bothered with trying yet.