Home Brewing

For many of the people that enjoy beer brewing, this hobby has become an obsession. They have elaborate beer brewing equipment set ups and regularly brew either partial mash or all grain recipes. However, they had to start somewhere, and for many, it was a Mr. Beer brewing machine.

Unfortunately, many beer brewing snobs look down on the Mr. Beer brewing machine. However, you have to start somewhere, and Mr. Beer is a great way to get into this hobby. You can make better beer using beer brewing equipment and more elaborate brewing methods. However, you can also make some good beers with a Mr. Beer, and many brewers continue beer brewing using it. These beer brewing machines offer convenience and simplicity, and for people that are short on time or space, it allows them to enjoy a hobby that they may not otherwise get to try.

 Mr. Beer is also a great introduction to the world of beer brewing. It allows someone to get in cheap and see if this is a hobby that they will enjoy and stick with. If not, then you are not out too much money, and you don't have a lot of beer brewing equipment that you won't use lying around. If you get hooked into beer brewing, then you can take the plunge and buy more elaborate set ups. Either way, you can pass along your Mr. Beer to someone else and see if they enjoy beer brewing.

 While Mr. Beer has its limitations, you can actually make some very good brews with it. Here are some suggestions on ways to improve your results using a Mr. Beer brewing machine. The first recommendation is using better ingredients than what first come with the kit. The starter ingredients aren't the best quality, and aren't designed to make great beer. Rather, the point is to make something drinkable and teach you the very basics of beer brewing.

The website has refill mixes available at reasonable prices, and these are better products than the initial ingredients. However, to make even better beer, skip these refills and look for recipes for Mr. Beer. These are available at the website, as well as at many beer brewing forums. As opposed to using the booster that comes with the ingredient kits, try substituting un hopped extract. Using all extract (and no booster) for a batch of beer will produce better results.

Additionally, one of the knocks on Mr. Beer is that many of the beers made result in a cidery taste. The booster has a lot to do with this result. Ignore the instructions to use table sugar. DO NOT use table sugar! You can make good beer, but not with table sugar. Instead, substitute corn sugar, also known as dextrose. You can find this at the LHBS or online. You could also get more malt extract, or use two cans of extract and skip the sugar altogether. Generally speaking, more malt makes better beer.

 It seems much of the blame for negative reviews has more to do with the ingredients used as opposed to the Mr. Beer brewing machine itself. Remember the saying, quality in, quality out! Remember not to judge the Mr. Beer on the ingredients you get with it when you first purchase it. The first ingredient kit that comes with it will have pre hopped extract and the booster. Your first beer will hopefully be drinkable, but won't be a very good beer. Just keep in mind that you are first and foremost learning the process, so the first batch is the test run.

 After that, purchase some un hopped extract to replace the booster. This combined with another can of malt (hopped or un hopped) can make some very tasty beers. Another tip is to join their club onthe website, this will allow you to order ingredients and avoid the costs of shipping. Other suggestions for improving your beers is to find a dark place to ferment your beer, such as a closet. A great place is to use a cooler, and this can help to maintain the proper temperature as well.

The instructions included should also be taken with a grain of salt. Rather than following them to a t, it is better to follow good beer brewing advice. For instance, when it comes time to carbonate the beer, instead of adding sugar to each bottle, add up the total amount of sugar needed, then boil a cup of water and add all of the sugar to it and completely dissolve. Boil for 15 minutes. Let the sugar solution cool down for awhile, and then add to your Mr. Beer and stir gently, but thoroughly. Fill your sanitized bottles and cap.

No matter what the instructions say, bottle conditioning tales more than a week. For that matter, it will only make your beer better to let it ferment for an additional week or two. It doesn't take just two weeks to make decent beer. You can drink it in two weeks, but your beer will be so much better with the additional time. The two weeks is a clever marketing ploy. They know you want beer and you want it as soon as possible. If they told you it took 4-6 weeks to make beer, they wouldn't sell as many kits.  Don't drink your beer before the magic is finished, you will wind up drinking flat, cidery beer. Wait at least 2 weeks, and preferably 4, before cracking that first bottle. The beer only gets better the longer you let it mature in the bottles.

Also be careful not to overtighten the lid of your Mr. Beer brewing machine. The lis has to allow gasses produced to escape. This is especially true for beers with higher alcohol levels. If you overtighten, you could wind up with spilled beer and a ruined keg. Another good tip is to purchase the sugar measure they offer if you will be using the 12oz, 22oz, or 1 liter bottles. The sugar measure is very easy to use and provides the correct, exact measurement.

Finally, the best tip is to do a Google search. There are numerous beer brewing forums out there in cyberland that have entire threads dedicated to the world of Mr. Beer. You can learn some more great tips, as well as recipes, to really enhance your beer brewing experience and the resulting beers using a Mr Beer brewing machine.

As you research and learn about beer brewing, one of the most important lessons you will see repeated is to keep oxygen away from your beer. You do not want to expose your beer to possible contamination from airborne germs, bacteria and wild yeasts. However, at one point in the beer brewing process, not only do you want to introduce oxygen to your beer, but it is an important part of the process to do so.

After the boil, once your wort has cooled, you will need to oxygenate your beer just before pitching the yeast. Once you have completed the boil, it is critical to quickly cool your wort down to 80F degrees. Between 80F and 165F degrees is the "danger zone" that bacteria live and thrive in, so it is best that you do not stay in this temperature range for too long. Once you have the wort cooled to the proper temperature, then you need to re-introduce oxygen to it. Oxygen was boiled off, however, the yeast you will pitch needs oxygen in order to feed and start the process of fermentation. This is the only time in the beer brewing process that you will want to expose your beer to oxygen.

There are several ways you can do this, and it does not require you to purchase any additional or specialized equipment. There are some specialized pieces of equipment you can buy, but there are plenty of manual methods that work just as well, ones that many experienced home brewers use themselves. If you are extract brewing and are doing partial boils, then the top off water you add will take care of oxygenating your wort. The water will have oxygen in it, but you could also take a few of the steps described below and use them as well.

 For one, you could simply spray water from the hose on your kitchen sink for additional aerating (assuming your tap water doesn't have too much chlorine). You can use a large whisk or spoon. Just make sure that they are sanitized first. You can also use a paddle. Be sure to stir for several minutes, stir like crazy until your arm hurts.

When you pour your wort into the fermenter, pour from a high angle so that the wort splashes on the sides and gets agitated and aerated--do not pour like this at any other time by the way. You can also seal the fermenter and shake it vigorously, which has the added bonus of giving you a good workout.

Another method is pouring the wort through a sanitized strainer to aerate. If you have two plastic buckets for fermenters (or one plastic bucket fermenter and a bottling bucket) then you can pour the wort back and forth between the two. Some home brewers even attach long stirring rods to their power drill and use that to stir to save time and effort.

 If you want to make this task easier, some home brewers will attach vinyl tubing to an aquarium pump and pump air in this way to save trouble. You can also purchase aerating stones. However, chances are one of the manual methods will work just fine for aerating purposes. No matter how you aerate in your beer brewing, it is important to get oxygen in your beer so the yeast can do their job--make your wort into delicious home brew!

Partial mash beer brewing, also called mini mash, is the bridge between extract brewing and all grain brewing. Partial mash beer brewing is the next step beyond steeping grains. What makes partial mashing the next step past steeping and just short of full mashing are two things.

 It goes beyond steeping because you are adding mashable grains to the steep. If you add base malts and specialty grains together, you must mash them, you cannot (or don't want to at least) steep them together. Keep in mind, specialty grains are perfect for steeping because they have been mashed (the fermentable sugars have already been extracted). Base malts have not had their sugars extracted yet, and mashing is the process to accomplish this.

Partial mash is not all grain simply because you are still using malt extract. When you introduce base malts to steeping, you will need to make sure you adjust your process so that you will be mashing and not steeping. If not, the starches will not be converted to sugars, and this will affect your beer's clarity. You will also have wasted the fermentable sugars in your base malts, and that will lower your efficiency. Assuming that you adjust the process accordingly, and you mash instead of steep, you will have added fermentable sugars to your brew in addition to the added flavor and colors of the specialty malt(s).

 This will also give you a taste of all grain brewing, and the only difference is that with all grain, all of the fermentable sugars are obtained from the grains, none come from extract. With partial mash, you will get your fermentable sugars partially from the grains and the rest comes from the malt extract. Partial mashes are preferable to steeping simply because they open up more options as far as ingredients you can use, as well as recipes.

There are a wider variety of malts (and adjuncts) available which gives the home brewer more flexibility as far as types of beers one can brew, and also allows the brewer to have more control over the flavor profile of the final beer. Partial mash can also be more cost efficient by replacing some of the malt extract required.

 One other thing that makes partial mashing attractive to extract brewers is that it does not require any additional equipment to buy. You get more choices as far as available ingredients that can be used, and this opens up much more possibilities as far as recipes you can try, and styles of beer you can produce. Also, because you are using less malt extract, you can also reduce the costs of beer brewing. Although you still have to buy grains, you can purchase them in bulk to save money. Partial mash/mini mash also allows you to further explore the world of beer brewing, and it can help progress you towards the world of all grain beer brewing.

Efficiency is a term you will see in beer brewing, especially when you start to get into all grain beer brewing. Efficiency is the measurement of how much sugar you got out of the grain. As someone new to beer brewing, you probably do not need to worry about efficiency just yet. This is something that is concerned in the world of all grain beer brewing. However, you will see it come up on beer brewing forums, and as you may one day decide to give all grain a try, here is a quick overview to help you better understand.

The efficiency expresses the ratio of the amount of sugars you actually obtain from the grains versus the theoretical maximum amount of sugars available. With extract brewing, you will get a consistent amount of sugars per pound of malt extract. A pound of Liquid Malt Extract in a gallon of water will produce 37 points of specific gravity, while a pound of Dry Malt Extract yields 45 points of specific gravity. Extract brewers are therefore not typically concerned with efficiency. This is more the concern for all grain beer brewing.

For mashing, there are many variables that affect the efficiency. Different types of malt yield various amounts of sugars. The brewers pocesses of mashing and sparging will also have an affect on efficiency. With some practice you can hone in your mashing and sparging processes and become more consistent and efficient. Over time, you will be able to predict how much sugar you can extract from the malt, provided that you know what your efficiency is.

Most home brewers will fall into the 60% to 80% range, some can actually exceed 80%. To determine efficiency requires some math, and a hydrometer. First, you have to determine what the theoretical maximum yield of your malt is. This is expressed in points per pound of malt per gallon of wort. Then divide that amount by the amount of wort you are brewing, which is expressed in specific gravity. Compare that number by the actual specific gravity to see the efficiency. Make sense?

Probably not at first reading, so here is an example to better illustrate it. Let's say the theoretical yield for a malt is 37 points per pound of malt, per gallon of wort. So, with perfect efficiency (100%), mashing 8 lbs of malt to produce 5 gallons of wort would give you (8 X 37)/5 which equals 59.2 points, which on a hydrometer is expressed as 1.059 (1.059 specific gravity). If the actual specific gravity of your wort is 1.041, then 41/59 gives you an efficiency of .69, or 69%.

This is a simple example using only onbe type of malt. In the real world of all grain beer brewing, recipes usually involve using multiple types of grains in differing amounts. But this formula remains the same, but you will have to adjust for the types of malts you are using and if you are not using full pounds of them. This will require conversions to decimals, such as a half pound of 38 point malt would be 38 X .5 = 19. You then add the total points of all the malts and still divide by the amount of wort you are brewing. Don't worry, there are online calculators to help you with this.

Read your kit instructions for adding yeast. More than likely it will be a dry yeast that needs to be rehydrated in warm water before pitching. Make sure that you take a hydrometer reading to determine your Original Gravity (OG). This is important to help you determine later in the process when the fermentation has completed. Make sure you seal the fermenter and insert the airlock or blow off tube.

At this point you sit back and wait, and let the yeast go to work turning your wort into beer. Your package of yeast should tell you waht the ideal temperature range is for fermentation. It is critical that you keep the beer within this range at a steady, constant temperature.

The fermentation process takes about 10 days to complete, but the only definite way to know it is done is to check with your hydrometer. If you take readings on consecutive days and get the same reading, and that number is within 5 points of your target Final Gravity, then fermentation is complete. The instructions in your kit should give you your target FG.

You can then decide if you want to transfer your beer to a secondary fermenter, or just leave it in the primary for a couple more weeks. Fermentation does not actually happen in secondary fermentation. You only rack to a secondary once the process of fermentation has completed.

The secondary fermentation is done to calrify and condition your beer. Not all brewers secondary ferment, and for many types of beers, it isn't necessary. You can research online into this a little further to see why you would and woulod not want to secondary ferment. From there, you can decide what way works best for you. It doesn't hurt the beer to leave it in the primary for a few more weeks as opposed to racking to the secondary after fermentation is complete. In fact, it will actually make your beer better.

Many kit instructions will tell you that your beer only needs to ferment for a week, and then soon after it will be ready to drink. Ignore these instructions. Leaving your beer in the fermenter for 3-4 weeks, whether you seconsary ferment or just leave it in the primary, will make much better beer. It may be tough to wait that long, but it will be worth it.

Once you have completed fermentation, you are now ready to bottle.

First, make sure that the bottles have been sanitized, as well as all the beer brewing equipment you will use for the bottling process--siphon, tubing, bottling wand, caps, and bottling bucket. Your kit may tell you to add sugar to each bottle, but a better way to do it is to take the total amount of sugar called for and thoroughly dissolve it in some boiling water. Let that mixture cool to 70F, and then add that to your bottling bucket. Then, rack your beer into the bottling bucket and take care not to let the beer splash. You can use a siphon to transfer the beer. Here is where it helps to have an auto siphon. If you do not have one, do not use your mouth to start a siphon because your mouth has bacteria and germs that can get into your beer.

Let your beer age in the bottles for a few weeks. You need to allow it time to carbonate fully. You could drink it sooner, but allowing your beer to fully prime and bottle condition a couple extra weeks will pay off with better beer. While you are waiting for your first batch of brew, make sure to clean and sanitize all of your beer brewing equipment and go ahead and start your next batch.

Here is a two part look at the basic process of extract beer brewing. The most important thing in all beer brewing is making sure all of the equipment that will come into contact with your beer is sanitized first. It is not a bad idea to keep a spray bottle of sanitizer and water nearby, as often in the beer brewing process it is necessary to re-sanitize something. Alternatively, you could keep a bucket with sanitizer nearby as well. You could use a bottling bucket, or a secondary bucket that comes with many starter kits.

Next, you need to have your water ready. You can use tap water, or bottled water. If you use tap water, you want to make sure to boil it for 15 minutes to boil off the chlorine before using it for your beer.

Next, you will want to make sure you have all of your beer ingredients in place. If you are brewing with an ingredient kit, then you will only have a few items. Some more advanced kits will include specialty grains that come with mesh bags. If the grains haven't been crushed, you will need to crush them yourself before placing them in the bag and steeping them. You can use a rolling pin for this. Then, simply follow the kit instructions.

Bring your water to a boil, and remove from the stove. Stir in the malt extract and stir thoroughly so that the extract doesn't sink to the bottom and become scorched. Then put the pot back onto the heat for however long the instructions call for. Keep a watch on the pot to avoid messy boilovers. You may want to keep a spray bottle of water nearby to help prevent a boilover. Simply spray down the foam. One note--this spray bottle should only contain water, do not mix it up with the spray bottle of sanitized water!) During the boil, you can add hops accordingly. Bittering hops are added early in the boil and boiled the longest, while aromatic and flavoring hops are added closer to the end.

After you have completed the boil, you need to quickly cool your wort to below 80 degrees. This is easily done with an ice bath in the kitchen sink or bathtub. You can also buy an immersion chiller to speed up the process. Once the wort has cooled, you are ready to transfer it to the fermenter.

If you splash your wort during the transfer, this is ok to do. You do not want to splash or agitate your beer at any other time during the beer brewing process because this will allow air into your beer, and air contains germs, bacteria and wild yeasts, all of which will infect your beer.

However, at this point in the beer brewing process it is ok to allow in oxygen because your wort now needs oxygen for the yeast that you are about to add. Again, this is the only time you want to aerate your beer. Otherwise, keep air out!

Since you are extract brewing, then you will likely be doing what is called a partial boil. You will not be actually brewing 5 gallons of wort. This means you will be using top off water--adding water to the wort in the fermenter to make a full 5 gallon batch. The fact that you are using top off water means you do not have to take any additional steps to aerate the wort. The top off water will provide plenty of oxygen for the yeast.

In beer brewing, the process of fermentation begins with the pitching of the yeast. Pitching is a fancy brew term that basically means adding the yeast to the cooled wort. Depending on what type of yeast you use, there may be some preliminary steps necessary to have the yeast ready to pitch. It is important that the wort has cooled to below 80F and has also been aerated before pitching. If it is too hot, it will kill the yeast, and the yeast need oxygen for feeding.

It is also highly recommended that you take a specific gravity reading prior to pitching the yeast. Those new to beer brewing will usually start with the dry yeast that is included with most kits. This can be added directly to the wort. There is also liquid yeast available; if you use this you must first make a starter for the yeast before pitching. For partial mash and all grain full boils, pitching requires a couple additional steps to happen before you can add the yeast.

First, you must strain off the boil of hot break materials, spent grains and hops. There are a couple ways to do this, and a mash/lauter tun helps to cool and strain the wort. 5 gallons or more of wort takes some time to cool, and this leaves the wort at risk of oxygen and contaminates. You need to cool your wort quickly, as you do not want to leave it in the danger temperature range (about 80F to 165F) for infection and bacteria.

Once you have your wort cooled and in the fermenter, you will need to aerate the wort. This may sound contradictory. Up until now you have been told that oxygen is bad for your beer. Now, you are being told to add oxygen. However, at this point it is not only ok to let oxygen into your wort, it is necessary. Introduce oxygen too early to your wort and you risk contamination. But after the boil, it is necessary that you re-introduce oxygen because your yaest will need it. During the boil, oxygen was boiled off.

Once you have aerated, then pitch the yeast and then seal up the fermenter. So, what are effective ways to aerate? There are many options. Fortunately, there are many ways to do this that does not require any specialized equipment. You may decide to buy something for this, and there are many do it yourself options as well, but there are plenty of manual methods that work just fine.

 If you are doing a partial boil, you will aerate the wort simply by the addition of top off water. This water will already have oxygen in it. When you pour the wort in the fermenter, allow it to splash, this will agitate it and oxidize it. After racking the wort and sealing it, you can shake the fermenter vigorously for a few minutes. You can also use a large spoon or paddle to stir the wort continuously. Each of these methods may not be enough, so you can try them together to make sure.

Your LHBS will have aeration kits for sale, or you can find them online. Some brewers will connect some tubing to an aquarium pump and use that to blow air into the wort. Search You Tube and you can find videos of people that added a sanitized stirring rod to an electric drill for and easy and quick aerator.

Hops are used in beer brewing for a variety of reasons. Hops are dried flowers that flavor beer and are also utilized for their ability to act as a preservative. Prior to hops, brewers used a variety of flowers and herbs, but once it was discovered that beer made with hops were less prone to spoiling, the herbs and flowers were abandoned in favor of hops.

In addition to the preservative nature of hops, hops are used in beer brewing because they add bitterness, flavor and aroma. The bitterness of hops helps balance the sweetness of the malt. As is the case with grapes, where hops are grown affects the characteristics of the hops. How much of each quality hops contribute to the beer depends on how long the hop is in the boil, as well as which variety of hops is used.

 Hops are classified as either bittering hops or aroma hops. The contributing ingredients in hops are the oils and resins. The oils are what contribute aroma and flavor, and the resins contribute bitterness. The resins contain alpha and or beta acids, which impart the bitterness. The oils boil off faster, the resins take longer. The more time the hops spend in the brewing kettle, the more bitterness they will contribute. But, they will give less aroma and flavor.

In general terms, bittering hops will need to be boiled for at least 15 minutes, and usually longer--up to an hour and even longer than that. On the other hand, flavoring hops are boiled for no more than 15 minutes, and aromatic hops for no more than 5 minutes. You can also opt to add aromatic hops after the boil in the fermenter, a common practice that is known as "dry hopping".

The amount of bitterness within a hop is measured in IBUs (International Bitterness Units) which basically measures the amount of alpha acid in a hop variety. The preservative quality in hops also affected the development of certain beer styles. For instance, India Pale Ale as well as many other styles of beer that was intended for export had higher hop bitterness to help preserve the beer during transport. These beer styles often had higher alcohol levels to balance the beers flavor.

 For the longest time hops have been produced in Europe. However, today hops are grown worldwide. The variety of hops are named for the specific city or region in which they were first grown. Some well known varieties include Hallertau from Germany, Williamette Valley and Yakima Valley form Washington State and Oregon, and Kent and Worcestershire from England. Germany still has more hop growing area than any other country.

Four varieties of hops are classified as The Noble Hops: Hallertau, Tettnanger, Spalt and Saaz. These varieties contain a large amount of hop oil, and very little alpha or beta acids. This means that they are aromatic hops that impart little bitterness. These hops provide the characterisitic aroma and flavor of classic European lager beer styles that include Pilsener, Dunkel, and Oktoberfest.

Hops for home brewing come in a variety of different styles. You can buy them in 3 different kinds of forms. First, there are whole, dried hops, which is the preferred type for dry hopping. Second, there are hops pellets, which are compressed into pellet shape. These have a better shelf life and also absorb less wort than whole hops. Finally, there are hop plugs, which are also compressed hops into standard sizes and weights.

Hops are native to most parts of the world and are easy to grow. Many home brewers decide to grow their own hops for their beer brewing. It is important to remember that hops are perishable, so any extra hops you do not use immediately for beer brewing should be refrigerated.

One of the most exciting moments in the beer brewing process is when your beer has completed fermentation. At this point, it's ready to drink right? Actually, at this point you still have a ways to go, so you need to resist temptation to drink it. Besides, it isn't ready yet and probably won't taste good anyway. At this point, your beer is flat. You must first carbonate and bottle it, then let it bottle age and fully carbonate. Once you have done this, then you can enjoy some of your hard work.

The carbonation part of the beer brewing process is rather easy. Bottling can be a little tricky, but here is a quick run through the after fermentation part of the beer brewing process. If you are brewing with a kit, it probably came with some priming sugar. If not, you will need to purchase some separately. Do not substitute table sugar for this.

The instructions that came with the kit may instruct you to add sugar to each bottle individually, but there is a better way to do this. Instead, calculate the total amount of sugar required in the entire recipe, and dissolve that into a quart of water and boil. Make sure the sugar gets completely dissolved. Then, let the mixture cool to 70F, and add it to your bottling bucket before you rack your beer into it. This is known as Bulk Priming.

It is important to also remember that before you add anything to the bottling bucket that all equipment, including the bucket be sanitized first. When it comes to the actual bottling, you will need a bottling bucket, siphon tubing, a racking cane, a bottling wand, bottles (at least 50 12 oz bottles), bottle caps and a capper. You don't necessarily need all of these items to bottle, such as the auto siphon or the wand, but these additional items make the process much easier.

Once you add the sugar water to the bottling bucket, then carefully add your beer from the fermenter. Be careful that you do not splash or agitate the beer, this will introduce oxygen and possibly contaminate your beer. Attach some tubing to the spigot, and attach the bottling wand to the end of the tubing. Then, simply press down on the wand onto the bottom of the bottle and fill.

 As an advantage, the bottle wand will leave the perfect amount of headspace in your beer due to displacement. By pressing the tip to the bottom of the bottle you also avoid splashing and aeration. The wand makes the process easier because you control the flow of beer--you can turn the flow on and off simply by pressing and releasing the wand.

If you are filling bottles without a wand, you will still want to make sure you are leaving enough headspace in the bottle. Failing to do so can lead to bottle bombs. You are creating CO2 (carbonation) and that pressure has to have somewhere to go if you do not leave some space. Then, simply cap each bottle and store in a cool dark place. Ideally, you will want to store your beer at temperatures between 65F and 75F degrees.

It will take about 3 weeks for your beer to become fully carbonated. Make sure to keep your beer away from light, and keep the temperature at a constant. Once it is fully carbonated, the beer is finally ready to put in the fridge and enjoy.

The obvious point of beer brewing is to make good beer. A key component of that goal is to get good efficiency when you brew. The better your efficiency, the better the beer you make. Efficiency is the amount of sugars you extract from the grains. It is important to note that you will not get 100% efficiency because this would mean that you not only extracted all of the sugars, but that you will have also extracted undesirable tannins.

In home beer brewing, anything over 75% efficiency is good, and most home brewers shoot for efficiencies in the 75% to 90% range. Not only does better efficiency improve the quality of your beer, but you will also maximize the money spent on the grains. There are several factors that influence efficiency, here is a quick look at them.

First, the crush of the grain is important. You can buy the grains crushed, by having your LHBS crush them when you purchase them, or, if bought online, having them crushed prior to shipping. Some brewers opt to purchase or make their own grain mill in order to crush at home an additional time before using,

You can ask your grain provider to crush them an additional time, or at a finer crush, although they could charge for this. If the grains aren't crushed enough, then you won't get the full conversion of starch to sugar in the mash or the sparge, which will leave behind valuable sugars and hurt your efficiency. You can lose efficiency when mashing as well, and this is often attributed to the crush.

Keep in mind you do not want to crush the grains too fine, as this can lead to a stuck sparge. Speaking of sparging, you can lose efficiency in this step as well. Generally speaking, batch sparging is not as efficient as fly sparging. Home brewers choose to batch sparge because it is quicker, easier and doesn't depend upon the mash/lauter tun design. With a little practice and research, you can still get great efficiency using batch sparging, so do not outright dismiss it as being inferior to fly sparging. Whichever process you choose, if you perfect your technique, you can accomplish good efficiencies.

The design of your tun also affects efficiency. The design is more important to fly sparging, so it is possible that you use the wrong equipment for the chosen technique. It is important to avoid dead space in your tun, places where the wort can become trapped. The design factors that can impact efficiency are the shape of the tun, the size, the thermal capacity, as well as whether you use a false bottom, mesh screen or manifold.

The temperature you sparge at also is key. Sugars are more soluble at higher temperatures. Think of honey--if you heat it up, it becomes easier to pour. That's because you are making the sugars more soluble. Temperatures of 165F to 170F are ideal to maximize the extraction of sugars. However, you do not want to exceed 170F because then you will start to extract tannins.

The amount of water used for sparging is also important. More water will extract more sugars, but then you could dilute the wort too much, which will decrease your efficiency. Finally, target gravity of the beer also plays a factor. As the target gravity increases, so does the ratio of sparge water needed. This will result in a drop of efficiency. However, as you gain experience and get better at the process of beer brewing, you will be able to better predict this and account for it.