Milling Grain

Hello,

I seem to be having trouble getting the correct size of milled grain. My mash tun get clogged something fierce, as in I have created more grain dust than cracked grains. I want to make sure, that when I adjust my mill, I get what the optimum cracked grains for best results.

What is the optimum milled grain size? If anyone has a pic that would be great.

Thank you

Sorry, don't have a pic available. The optimum size can vary a bit depending on your grains. Some grains are a bit plumper than others. What you are looking for is to make sure all the husks are cracked. Pick up a small handful and check to make sure they are all cracked. The more of them that are cracked but still intact, the better your grain bed filtration. For most of your base grains a mill gap in the .040 to .044 area works well. Some like to go tighter to squeeze more efficiency out of the grain.

what type of grain mill are you using? is it adjustable? what is the current gap of your mill?
if you are making dust, you need to widen the gap.

I have my mill set for .39" unfortunately I don't have any pics at the moment and I won't be brewing until Sunday. .39" with my system ( a 10 gallon igloo with false bottom) and a nice slow sparge usually yields me 80% and above for effeciancy. Very seldom do I get a stuck sparge just make sure to use rice hulls.

you are looking for something like this;

I've got my mill (Monster Mill 2 roller) set at .040 and get 85% efficiency on a nice slow fly sparge.

With the larger gap, I don't need rice hulls unless I'm doing 80%+ wheat or pumpkin.