eyedoctodd
Well-Known Member
Hello all,
I searched for info on this but all the other similar sounding problems seem to be after hundreds of pounds of grain have been put through the BC.
I rec'd a BC about 6 weeks ago. I bought 10 lbs of malt (half pilsner and half wheat) for a German hefe and got an extra pound of pils malt for adjusting my gap and my crush.
The BC was shipped with the lines not lined up for the default 0.039 gap and it also was visibly not parallel. So I set to adjusting my gap with feeler gauges and got it correctly set to 0.039 on both sides of the roller. Interestingly, on one side, the marks lined up at 12:00 and on the other it was more like 1:00 to get the correct gap. I put my pound of pils malt through it with a drill and admired my work. I read a little more about people's gap preferences and put it aside.
I had been really busy the past few weeks with no chance to brew, so it wasn't until yesterday that I went to use it. I was not sure what I had left the gap at after 3-4 weeks of not thinking about it so I went to adjust my gap to 0.039 again and noticed that it was again out of parallel. I readjusted it to 0.039 and went to mill my grain bill (I mixed the wheat and pilsner malt all in together - was that stupid?) About 1/8 pound got crushed
and then it was obvious that the thing was just spinning without crushing anything. So I dumped the grain out of the hopper, cleared the few kernels that were in the gap, rechecked the gap, and it was off again. I think that time I wasn't sure how tightly I had gotten the set screws, so after repeating the whole process (milling/failing/dumping) I was careful to get the set screws really tight. That still didn't solve it.
Long story short, I never got to mash in because I never got my grain milled. I've read plenty of reports about people having this problem but it always seems that they are gummed up with tons of crap after milling hundreds of pounds of grain.
Wondering if:
A) ..there are others who have had this on a new mill
B) ..there's anything I may have done in my gap setting to eff it up. It seems pretty foolproof but you never know.
C) ..is there any chance I will screw it up further by disassembling as others have done here
D) ..if replacing the set screws with new ones might be able to hold the settings better.
I know others have talked about conditioning their grain improving their crush but I want to start simple at first and I don't think conditioning should be a prerequisite to get out of the gate.
Looking for any and all advice, I gotta brew and I don't want to take the grain back into LHBS, because then I'm still no closer to getting my system and my numbers dialed in.
Thanks y'all!
Todd
I searched for info on this but all the other similar sounding problems seem to be after hundreds of pounds of grain have been put through the BC.
I rec'd a BC about 6 weeks ago. I bought 10 lbs of malt (half pilsner and half wheat) for a German hefe and got an extra pound of pils malt for adjusting my gap and my crush.
The BC was shipped with the lines not lined up for the default 0.039 gap and it also was visibly not parallel. So I set to adjusting my gap with feeler gauges and got it correctly set to 0.039 on both sides of the roller. Interestingly, on one side, the marks lined up at 12:00 and on the other it was more like 1:00 to get the correct gap. I put my pound of pils malt through it with a drill and admired my work. I read a little more about people's gap preferences and put it aside.
I had been really busy the past few weeks with no chance to brew, so it wasn't until yesterday that I went to use it. I was not sure what I had left the gap at after 3-4 weeks of not thinking about it so I went to adjust my gap to 0.039 again and noticed that it was again out of parallel. I readjusted it to 0.039 and went to mill my grain bill (I mixed the wheat and pilsner malt all in together - was that stupid?) About 1/8 pound got crushed
and then it was obvious that the thing was just spinning without crushing anything. So I dumped the grain out of the hopper, cleared the few kernels that were in the gap, rechecked the gap, and it was off again. I think that time I wasn't sure how tightly I had gotten the set screws, so after repeating the whole process (milling/failing/dumping) I was careful to get the set screws really tight. That still didn't solve it.
Long story short, I never got to mash in because I never got my grain milled. I've read plenty of reports about people having this problem but it always seems that they are gummed up with tons of crap after milling hundreds of pounds of grain.
Wondering if:
A) ..there are others who have had this on a new mill
B) ..there's anything I may have done in my gap setting to eff it up. It seems pretty foolproof but you never know.
C) ..is there any chance I will screw it up further by disassembling as others have done here
D) ..if replacing the set screws with new ones might be able to hold the settings better.
I know others have talked about conditioning their grain improving their crush but I want to start simple at first and I don't think conditioning should be a prerequisite to get out of the gate.
Looking for any and all advice, I gotta brew and I don't want to take the grain back into LHBS, because then I'm still no closer to getting my system and my numbers dialed in.
Thanks y'all!
Todd