Just bought the 15lb Barley Crusher

What can I expect? After hitting an efficiency of 42% on my last batch (with pre-crushed), I decided I want finer crushes (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=46921)

How's the factory crush setting? I'm excited to have more control over the crush...

I'm with you! I was so sick of the HBS's gentle massaging of my grain; I think their mill is a "Barely-Crusher"

I've only used the new BarleyCrusher a couple of times, but the crush I got out of the factory setting was textbook. I may tweak it a little going forward, but I'd start with the factory setting before playing around with it.

Welcome to the club, the 15# Hopper Barley Crusher Club!

My settings are at about 1 O'Clock on each side. I get over 80% and am a happy camper.

the_bird said:

I'm with you! I was so sick of the HBS's gentle massaging of my grain; I think their mill is a "Barely-Crusher"

I've only used the new BarleyCrusher a couple of times, but the crush I got out of the factory setting was textbook. I may tweak it a little going forward, but I'd start with the factory setting before playing around with it.

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That's what I like to hear. I figure the factory setting will still be an improvement. The worst part is the grain I use is the same the local brewpub uses. They must be getting mediocre efficiency. What a waste!

I recently got the 7# crusher. The defaults look pretty good to me. I went from 60-65% to 80% with the Barley Crusher.
If you are going to play with the gap settings get some feeler gages so you can accurately measure the gap.
Craig

I've been using mine for awhile and routinely get 80%+ efficiency with the factory setting. I've also never had a stuck sparge, and I don't want to tempt fate by trying a finer crush...80%+ is fine with me!

I love mine. Seems that the setting on each end need to be turned in opposite directions. I have mine set at 1:00 on the right side and 11:00 on the left side.

I’m reaching for 75% efficiency but the crush is great. I’m thinking it’s doing large 20+ pound grain bills in my round Rubbermaid. I think I need to switch to a larger rectangular unit to thin the bed out a bit.

Now you need to break out the high tech automated grinding unit to save your palms from blistering with that crank handle. (I’m sure you’d prefer to blister you palms doing your second favorite pastime.)

Nice! This is my next purchase. AHS does pretty well with their crush, but I'm getting low 70's and I'd like to be closer to 80%. That and the idea of having grain in bulk is very appealing to me.

How much do you have to hold the drill steady? I'd replace that mounting board so that you can clamp the drill onto it. That's whe I've done with my c&s mill so that I can even clamp the drill button "on" and let the milling happen on its own.

Thanks guys, 80% is a dream to me at this point. I'm going to use the hand crank until I get my new drill (Christmas). I'll just wear some batting gloves to avoid the blisters

I don't really have to hold it steady too much if there are grains in the hopper. If not, I just put something under the drill and rotate it to sit on that. Not worth messing with the mount.

Bobby_M said:

How much do you have to hold the drill steady? I'd replace that mounting board so that you can clamp the drill onto it. That's whe I've done with my c&s mill so that I can even clamp the drill button "on" and let the milling happen on its own.

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I have the same setup, and it's really not a problem (maybe if you were doing a 15 gallon batch). You can run the drill pretty fast, so you don't have to hold it very long. I only have the 7# hopper, so I have to stop and re-fill halfway through, and it's not that big a deal - not so much torque on the drill that you can't hold it in one hand while holding down the base on the bucket with the other.

Now, I have an old, BM-style drill that I use with my BC (not my everyday drill); if I was hooking up my normal, everyday drill to the mill, seems like it would be more of a PITA to clamp it down, then have to unclamp it again.

Go to an auto parts place and buy a cheap set of feeler gauges, if you don't have any yet. Cost me $1.99 and I think they're very useful.

I checked the factory gap on my BC, people say it's 0.039, but on mine it was a bit tighter than that at one end, and way wider than that at the other. The rollers were visibly non-parallel. I don't know if that is how they were supposed to be, or if they didn't carefully set it before shipping it, or what, but I set it to 0.039 at both ends using the feeler gauges. The little markings on each of the knobs don't seem to tell me anything, I have to have them in different positions at each end to have a parallel gap. Again, not sure if this is intentional or if there's something weird about mine.


In its defense, my efficiency was fine (around 70%+) on the one batch I did with the rollers at their non-parallel factory setting. I've been tweaking the gap a little bit since then, but I haven't done enough batches to find the 'sweet spot' yet. I tried it at 0.035, let's just say you probably shouldn't try that unless you really trust your manifold to avoid a stuck sparge

Soulive21 said:

Thanks guys, 80% is a dream to me at this point. I'm going to use the hand crank until I get my new drill (Christmas). I'll just wear some batting gloves to avoid the blisters

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I just use the handcrank on my BC. It really doesn't take that long and its not hard work. My kids have fun pushing the handle around and "helping daddy brew".

I'd definately use a drill if I were doing 10-gal batches, though.

Funkenjaeger said:

Go to an auto parts place and buy a cheap set of feeler gauges, if you don't have any yet. Cost me $1.99 and I think they're very useful.

I checked the factory gap on my BC, people say it's 0.039, but on mine it was a bit tighter than that at one end, and way wider than that at the other. The rollers were visibly non-parallel. I don't know if that is how they were supposed to be, or if they didn't carefully set it before shipping it, or what, but I set it to 0.039 at both ends using the feeler gauges. The little markings on each of the knobs don't seem to tell me anything, I have to have them in different positions at each end to have a parallel gap. Again, not sure if this is intentional or if there's something weird about mine.


In its defense, my efficiency was fine (around 70%+) on the one batch I did with the rollers at their non-parallel factory setting.

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I plan on buying the feeler gauges. What are they usually intended for?

Soulive21 said:

I plan on buying the feeler gauges. What are they usually intended for?

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They are used to check the gap on spark plugs and other items.

TWilson said:

They are used to check the gap on spark plugs and other items.

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Ok thanks, I'm on it...

Soulive21 said:

I plan on buying the feeler gauges. What are they usually intended for?

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Measuring small distances between pieces of metal, e.g., ignition points. I've used mine also to measure spark plug gap, but the tool for that is really a wire type gauge.

Since modern cars don't have ignition points, feelers might get hard to find eventually.

TWilson said:

They are used to check the gap on spark plugs and other items.

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Yep.
They look like this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:FeelerGauges.jpg
The auto parts store I got them at had two versions, the $2 one with only about 9 "blades" ranging from .002 to .025, and one with about 20+ blades which had some more fractional sizes, but cost about 3 times as much. The cheaper version can handle from 0.002 to close to 0.100, in every increment of 0.001 (using the right combinations of blades), so it's more than sufficient for setting the mill gap.

The one I got has a thumbscrew so you can take out the blades and put back in just the ones you need for your target gap.

Bobby_M said:

How much do you have to hold the drill steady? I'd replace that mounting board so that you can clamp the drill onto it. That's whe I've done with my c&s mill so that I can even clamp the drill button "on" and let the milling happen on its own.

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THat old drill is just on or off. It's pretty h igh speed and it has a trigger lock.

I just lock it on...hold it steady and it takes about 2 minutes to crush the full (11-12#) bin. Once the drill is on, the speed is high enough that there really is no torque on the drill. The crusher has rubber feet on the bottom that are spaced perfectly to fit snugly inside the five-gallon pale so there really is no need to clamp it down. In fact, I don’t need to have a hand on it at all once the drill gets started.

Oh, I meant I clamp the drill down to the board to keep it from moving and then clamp the button on cuz I don't have a lock on my cordless. I think it takes me 5 minutes to crush 20lbs on the 300 rpm setting so I wasn't about to sit there.

I have the 7# model on the way, I figured I'd like the smaller one to take up less space, it isn't hard to pour more grain in the hopper.

Also, for those of you grinding inside....I might suggest moving outside. Grains have a lot of nasties in them, I wouldn't want to be launching all that crap into the air. Owner of my HBS (not at all 'L') knew a guy who ground grain near his HVAC system...basically destroyed his house with mold and other airborne nasties, and all his beer that he fermented in the same room got contaminated. He makes great sour beers now from what I hear.

Okay, you jokers have just about talked me into buying myself a nice, shiny, new birthday/Christmas present.


TL

It's a great little mill, Tex. It was my birthday present to myself last month.

Bobby, sounds like you grind a lot slower than either BM or myself. Maybe that's why you get your damn 90% efficiency, and I almost wet myself when I hit 75%! Still, the grind looked spot-on to what I've been taught to look for, so I'll take it.

TexLaw said:

Okay, you jokers have just about talked me into buying myself a nice, shiny, new birthday/Christmas present.

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You'll be Happy! I got mine for Christmas last year. I love my SWMBO!



This year, she's making me build my brew hut.

you guys make me jealous.
i am still using my corona knock-off from princess auto.
30 minutes to grind 10 lbs with the hand crank.
tried hooking up my drill last time - seemed ok until i saw smoke coming out of my drill.
i guess lots more load than with a barley crusher

It's not about the machine you use to crush with, It's about the beer it makes.

If you make fine beer with a corona knockoff then why should you be jealous? Look at the muscles you're growing by hand cranking, lol.

Mine's under the tree with a bow on it. The 08-08-08 brew day on New Year's will be it's maiden voyage. Can't wait to see what difference it makes.

EdWort said:

You'll be Happy! I got mine for Christmas last year. I love my SWMBO!

This year, she's making me build my brew hut.

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Damn man that things bigger than I thought. I'll be able to fit my whole grain bill in there...

Soulive21 said:

Damn man that things bigger than I thought. I'll be able to fit my whole grain bill in there...

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That's part of the idea with the fifteen pounder, at least for five gallon batches. Of course, I say that after walking out of the LHBS yesterday evening with 15.5 pounds of grain for this weekend's rauchbockish thing.


TL

I actually went with the 7# hopper to save a little coin. If I need/want a bigger hopper in the future, it would be easy to toss together some scrap pine and make an extension that would fit right on top nicely (just dado along one edge so that it sets in place).

EDIT: Did you say "rauchbock"? Recipe, PLEASE?

the_bird said:

I actually went with the 7# hopper to save a little coin. If I need/want a bigger hopper in the future, it would be easy to toss together some scrap pine and make an extension that would fit right on top nicely (just dado along one edge so that it sets in place).

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We don't all possess the skills of Norm Abram

I don't either - but I've got to justify the money I spent on the table saw!

the_bird said:

I don't either - but I've got to justify the money I spent on the table saw!

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Haha, I'll be justifying my new drill with it! More torque baby :rockin:

Ordered my 15lb Barley crusher yesterday! My Christmas present early! I'm pretty stoked to get mine too. Now I just have to find a good deal on 55lb sacks of two row here in Central Ohio.

You guys are making it REALLY hard to stay at work today.

Two presents I'm getting this year as joint graduation/Christmas presents are a 15lb. BC and an immersion chiller. I ordered them from NB a couple days ago and they just showed up. I had them shipped to work since my wife's not around the house today and I got the call from our mailroom about 30 minutes ago. The two are sitting in the trunk of my car right now and I'm fighting a losing battle to stay here at work and not run home to "play" with my new toys. Luckily I don't have my burner yet or my stands built or I wouldn't be here.

the_bird said:

Did you say "rauchbock"? Recipe, PLEASE?

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Actually, I said "rauchbockish thing," since I don't quite know how to classify it. In fact, as I was checking out at the LHBS last night, the good BJCP Grand Master Birdwell said, knowingly, "this really isn't to any style, is it?" I replied in the affirmative.

I just put the recipe in the Recipes/Ingredients area, to keep this on topic a bit.


TL

Merry Christmas to me!! My 7 pounder is on the way. Can't wait to make my next brew.

Based on what I've read here and other research, I bought the 15# crusher and OMG what a dream. Excellent crush right out of the box! I also bought a hanging scale and hung it over the crusher. I scoop from the sack into the scale and tip it into the hopper. Its the ultimate setup. Only one caution though - full crusher when sitting on a pale is top heavy. Spilled grain on your not so clean basement floor is not a pretty site. I think I cried that day....then I scooped it up and crushed it!
Buy it.

Seems like the BC is getting all the luv lately. Paying members of HBT should get a 10% discount (too late for me, got mine already).