Wort - Getting the most out of the mash

Hello all.  New here and glad to be in the presence of so many other home brewers.

I've brewed three all grain batches (all 5 gallon).  First was a disaster :'(, second was better, and third I patched by adding some sugar to the fermenter.

Question:  Do you experienced homebrewers have some advice for a novice to all grain brewing to get the maximum gravity out of the wort?

Thanks for any thoughts.

Crush is very important.  I have gap of my rollers set to .039 inches.

Mark

Follow the directions.  Make sure you choose "Adjust for equipment temperature" correctly.

I too am relatively new to AG and through many questions I have found that the quality of the crush, ph of the water, mash temp and duration of mash all play integral parts in achieving the desired OG.  It is important to really dial in your system so you know exactly how it is working, maintaining temps and using the correct water volumes(I batch sparge). Once you figure out all your actual calculations the software does a great job of giving you what you need. Also be sure that your equipment profile is accurate as all calculations will be off if not.

When all else fails I have found that having several pounds of DME on hand is always a great idea so if the pre-boil gravity is off you can adjust it during the boil

I made my 1st all grain batch about 3 months ago and I too ended up with a low gravity wort. I had realized why pretty quickly though. Instead of sparging for 45 minutes or so the sparge was done in about 15 minutes! I didn't give the wort time to be washed from the grain bed. Now that I've slowed down the sparge I get great efficiency from my mash.

Thanks for the replies.  I never considered the crush as I have the supplier crush the grains.  And I learned the hard way that the slower sparge is needed to get the max gravity from the grain.  Cheers all.

In my experience mashing out makes a world of a difference.
What I do is remove a third or so of my mash into a pot once starch conversion is complete (confirmed by an iodine test), and bring it to a full boil on the stove. I try to get more liquid than grain. Then I add it back and mix well, hopefully raising the temperature to 165 or so.  The idea is that sugar is stickier at lower temperatures, so by raising the temp of the mash the sugars wash off more easily during the sparge.

That said, today I mashed 12lbs pale and finished with 6g (I always start with six to get a final volume of 5) at 1.050.
Two weeks ago I mashed 9lbs pale, 1lb crystal, and finished with the same gravity and volume.

I thought today's batch would have ended with 1.055 or more, but I was wrong. I guess I'm not the model of consistency and there's a reason this is my hobby and not by profession.

As far as crush goes, I use a Corona mill so my crush is inconsistent and unreliable. I know I should upgrade but I'm happy with my brews so I haven't bothered.

Agree with other suggestions, and personally now always 'condition' the grain the night before.  Recently covered in BYO and Zymurgy. 

Fancy jargon for spraying with distilled water.  Slightly moistening the grain husk prior to crushing makes them more pliable, so they twist off rather than disintegrate. 

Allowed me to tighten crush down to 0.033 or so, and got big EE% jump and better filtering bed.