Just got my Barley Crusher.

Milling question. Should I mill my grain dry or should I "condition" the grain first.

Information on conditioning the grain from the Home Brew Wiki is interesting, but curious if anybody actually conditions.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Evaluating_the_Crush

I plan to start with the mill at the factory setting of .039". Seems that is what most people do. Will be milling mostly Pale Malt and Crystal malt. I'm a pale ale guy.

Thanks,

John

I mill mine dry. BTW if you see a rubber o ring come loose when you rind your first batch or two; don't worry. It is there for shipping only and when it breaks and comes loose there is no problem.

Love my barley crusher. Since getting it I went from 65% efficiency to 80-82%

Maybe Santa will bring one for me! That's good to know about the rubber o-ring, just in case Santa thinks I've been good.

If you batch sparge, conditioning won't do anything for you.

If you are a fly sparger, give it a whirl after a few batches of normal milling. That way you can make a qualitative comparison.

Love my crusher, I condition my malt. It allows for easier draining during sparging for my system. I condition my malt at 2% water/weight. And then run it through the crusher 1 to 2 hrs after conditioning right before dough in.

I over-conditioned my first milling with my barley crusher, made a real mess of things. Just did my second batch last weekend, ran it through dry and I got 77% brewhouse eff. and something like 93% conversion eff.

Conditioning only seems worth it if you are going to crush much tighter than factory settings. Since the purpose of conditioning is to keep the husk intact while getting a very fine crush of the endosperm.

passedpawn said:

If you batch sparge, conditioning won't do anything for you.

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Please explain.

http://www.braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Malt_Conditioning

It would appear to me that the sparging technique shouldn't matter. The purpose of conditioning is to help with the lauter. When batch sparging you need to recirculate again to re-set the grain bed.

16 more days until I get my BC

conditioning your malt will reduce the amount of dust deposited on your BC.

IrregularPulse said:

16 more days until I get my BC

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Got mine last year for x-mas....best gift ever!

I love my Barley Crusher!!! I always get 77-83% efficiency.

Hugh_Jass said:

conditioning your malt will reduce the amount of dust deposited on your BC.

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I could be wrong, but I'd think that dust can easily be blown off. And that moisture on steel would be more problematic.

passedpawn said:

If you batch sparge, conditioning won't do anything for you.

If you are a fly sparger, give it a whirl after a few batches of normal milling. That way you can make a qualitative comparison.

Click to expand...

That's not been my experience as a batch sparger although I also tightened the gap. The benefit I see with conditioning is the husks are more intact so I have a better filter bed for the finer crush. That's the benefit IMO... Cheers!!!

Even if you're going to leave it at the factory setting, I would get a feeler gauge to check what the actual settings are on both ends of the roller. My BC shipped with one side at 33 and the other side at 36, even though it said it was set at 39.

AnOldUR said:

I could be wrong, but I'd think that dust can easily be blown off. And that moisture on steel would be more problematic.

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I've malt conditioned for ~1 yr and ran hundreds of # of grains through the BC in that time. No problems yet. YMMV.

The problem I had was the dust getting into the gears and not allowing the free roller to spin. Since conditioning the grain, the problem has solved itself.

Another word to the wise... Don't mill right after conditioning. Let the husk absorb the moisture (15 minute rest minimum). And don't condition de-husked malt. Mill it separately. Cheers!!!

AnOldUR said:

Please explain.

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Yes please do. I think it helps regardless.

Frank99 said:

Even if you're going to leave it at the factory setting, I would get a feeler gauge to check what the actual settings are on both ends of the roller. My BC shipped with one side at 33 and the other side at 36, even though it said it was set at 39.

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Did that as soon as I got it. Not sure where it was set, I just know it was tighter than .039. Reset to .039 with my guages.

It seems that some do and some don't condition. As I would rather avoid the possibility of a stuck sparge, I think I will start off with conditioning, but only about 2oz per lb grain and then let it set for 1 - 2 hours before milling in attempt to avoid any possibility wet problems.

I assumed ( ) that the purpose of conditioning was to maintain the husks to benefit fly sparging (in which a loose, porous grain bed is imperative). My comment was based on that assumption.

I can't see how conditioning my malt before milling is going to benefit me in any way. If I'm missing something, I hope to learn about it in this thread. I'd gladly do it if there was a benefit.

BTW, I never use rice hulls, even for wheat- and oatmeal-based beers. For whatever reason, my system never clogs.

passedpawn said:

I assumed ( ) that the purpose of conditioning was to maintain the husks to benefit fly sparging (in which a loose, porous grain bed is imperative). My comment was based on that assumption.

I can't see how conditioning my malt before milling is going to benefit me in any way. If I'm missing something, I hope to learn about it in this thread. I'd gladly do it if there was a benefit.

BTW, I never use rice hulls, even for wheat- and oatmeal-based beers. For whatever reason, my system never clogs.

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Conditioning malt fluffs up the whole grain bill for easier lautering. It works great regardless of sparge technique.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Malt_Conditioning

tasq said:

Conditioning malt fluffs up the whole grain bill for easier lautering. It works great regardless of sparge technique.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Malt_Conditioning

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So, if I now sparge (batch) without issue, is there any benefit to me?

passedpawn said:

So, if I now sparge (batch) without issue, is there any benefit to me?

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Sure is! You can get away with a finer crush.

I just got mine yesterday as well. So excited to give it a spin this weekend, I wonder what it'll do for my efficiency?

tasq said it.

Conditioning lets you crush the endosperm finer without shreading the husks.
Finer crushing of the endosperm helps with your conversion efficiency (not to be confused with brew house efficiency).

Better conversion efficiency equals more gravity points in the kettle


Great pictures are available on Kai's site...

Dry Crush


Conditioned Crush


Happy Brewing.

I know I'm going to come off as argumentative, so after this I'll sit back and be a voyeur. But I already crush very fine, almost flour. I'm fairly sure my conversion efficiency is 100%.

I haven't cared about my resulting brewhouse efficiency in a long time. 1) it's fine, between 80-85%, and it never seems to change.

Having said all that, I'll spray down my malt next brew (probably an IIPA) just for kicks. One thing about this hobby, there's always something new to try.

No need to worry, conversations like this help us all learn about brewing.

If you are getting good conversions with no stuck sparges, I wouldn't change a thing!

For the people who might not be getting 100% conversion or are getting sparging issues, conditioning the malt is one of many possible solutions. Others might include utilizing a different type of false bottom/grain filter, monitoring mash pH, temperature, water:grain, etc.

If you give conditioning a try please learn from my mistakes and take it easy on the H20 amount, for a big grain bill (>15lbs), try to keep it around 150ml.

As the starter of this thread, I would like to first thank all responders. As with all things in home brewing, it is easy to see that when something works for somebody, they like to stick to it, as do I. Thanks for all the input.

Also, since I still have 9 days before my first AG batch, I decided to play with my new mill. I took about 1/2 lb of Pale Malt. and started playing with the mill. In short what I found this evening is that by lightly misting the grain, (just enough to get the dry straw feel to go away) and mixing the heck out of it, then letting it sit in a plastic bag for 15 minutes, really changed the way the crush looked. Hulls were much more in tack and the whole thing looked to be very fluffy compared to no wetting. I took my rollers from .039 to .030 and the hulls were still more in tack than dry crush at .039.

I don't know if it will make any difference in the final result, but I for one am going to condition. It might add another step, but after seeing the crush results, I just think it will be a good thing to do.

Once again......Thanks to all,

John