Just conditioned my malt and...

...boy are my arms tired! That **** is like 3x harder to crush than unconditioned! But the difference in the crush is pretty dramatic. Maybe I did it wrong but the malt never felt wet or even damp at all...I used a spray bottle and went slow and it just kept sucking up moisture so I stopped at some point. It def felt different and wasn't dusty/floury but still felt dry. But crushing it was a *****. I like what I see though...way less shredded husks.

what kinda mill are you using? Hook a drill up to that bad boy! Also, you could just crush the hell out of it and add some rice hulls afterwards...

what kinda mill are you using? Hook a drill up to that bad boy!

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It's a Barley Crusher...the small one. My drill couldn't touch it...I tried. I'm only at the factory setting plus maybe a tiny, tiny bit just to make it a constant gap all the way across the rollers (I have to offset one side a tiny bit for it to be even). So it's @ about .040" which is pretty loose compared to some.

Hmm... I have a 18v Black and Crapper and it kicks my barley crushers arse. Well... not wheat... but everything else it pwns. I do feel bad for the drill after 17 pounds of grain tho! HAH!

I've noticed, that when I spray the grains from spay bottle on their way to the mill, I use up way too much water.
Now I put my grain in a bucket, I add 2% of water (100ml usualy) and stir it with my hands until all grain becomes wet and "leathery".

One more trick to keep the mill clean: save some dry grains (i.e. wheat or crystal) for the end of milling.

What are you conditioning the malt for?

I've noticed, that when I spray the grains from spay bottle on their way to the mill, I use up way too much water.
Now I put my grain in a bucket, I add 2% of water (100ml usualy) and stir it with my hands until all grain becomes wet and "leathery".

One more trick to keep the mill clean: save some dry grains (i.e. wheat or crystal) for the end of milling.

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I think if anything I'm not using enough because it never becomes wet and I'm not sure I understand the 'leathery' description...probably because I never go that far.

From Kaiser's Malt Conditioning wiki (link above):

Soon the malt's feel with become less like dry straw and more like leather. Once it looses it's dry feel and a few of the kernels start to stick to your hands let the malt sit for a few minutes to let the husks soak up the moisture.

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When you mill the malt you will notice that once in a while a crushed kernel will stick to a roller of the mill. This is ok and it only becomes a problem if a dough starts to build up on the rollers. In this case you used to much water. Run some dry malt through the mill to remove the dough.

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I haven't had any problem with this...it's not even an issue so that further supports my hypothesis that I may not be using enough water.

After crushing a hand full, look at the crush. You want to see kernels that look more flattened (like oatmeal) than crushed. Pick them up and the endosperm should be dry and come out easily. If this is the case you can continue crushing the rest. If they still look more broken than flattened add more moisture and try again.

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But my crush looks like this. It's all dusty/floury unconditioned and looks like flattened oatmeal when conditioned.

Oh well, my skinny arms could use some work.