Crush, Crush, Crush!

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Sea

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I know it's been said before, but crush is soooo important. After strugling with very poor efficiency for some time, I finally sacked up and tightened my mill down farther than I was previously comfortable with (I'm currently using a hand-me-down Corona mill). Low and behold, 20% increase in eff!

Gotta get that BC!
 
yea +1

I motorized a corona and cranked it down pretty tight. Crush (or some might say shred) seems pretty good w/ excellent results.

w/ a 20% jump in eff., are you sure you need a BC? Not convinced I need one.

Mikw
 
Yeah it does make a difference. When I make my Hefe's I have to crush them separate, the Pils and the Wheat. As long as your sparge is going smoothly and you don't shred the husks, you should be ok.
 
I just saw another post about having to do wheat seperately. I have a motorized Valley Mill that I bought used and my friends and I used it for the first time on our last brew (which had no wheat).

Do you need to change the settings for wheat? If so, smaller or wider gap? Or is it just that the two don't play well together?
 
Do you need to change the settings for wheat? If so, smaller or wider gap? Or is it just that the two don't play well together?

Wheat has no husk and is a smaller kernel, so a tighter gap is in order. I tighten my mill and crush the wheat first, then open the gap for the barley. My reasoning is that the barley will kind of flush the wheat out of the mill.

I doubt that part of it makes a difference, but it's part of my routine.
 
I'm using a Barley Crusher. Any suggestions on the gap size for crushing wheat with it?
 
I have a Barley Crusher and I mill my wheat and barley at the same gap (factory setting). I brewed a Franziskahner clone with 7lbs of wheat and about 3lbs of barley and got a little above 70% efficiency (batch sparging). If you're really paranoid, I guess you could run the wheat through a second time, but as long as you don't see a lot of whole or nearly whole wheat kernels, I think you should be OK.
 
hmmm this came to mind for some reason when I read the title.

 
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Whats the downside of crushing too tightly, (too much)? Logic would tell me husks getting in the wort and causing astringency, anything else besides the obvious?

Yes, this is the biggest potential problem, another is stuck sparge.

On the other hand - calculate, how much do you save on grain, inreasing the efficiecy, and decide if it is worth to jopardize the taste of a beer to save $2 or so.
 
I had a stuck sparge today and still ended up with 74% eff. It sucked, but I suck it up, adapted and moved on.
 
I rock my monster mill at .037 and never get stuck sparges and always get 70s efficiency. I did a rye beer a couple days ago, after running my first pound through I checked it and it looked great. I ended up getting 78% efficiency on that beer with no stuck sparge, I did throw some rice hulls in there though, as insurance for the rye.
 
Any have experience with the pre-crushed grain from Austin Homebrew. Good, bad?
 
I have a BC and now I always run every grainbill though it twice. Crush it until you can't crush it any more!
 
I stole an idea from Hagen on this board. I always run my mash through a fine mesh nylon bag. I never get ANY particles in my wort. I vorlauf before running my mash into my pot but now as I am typing this I think I do that more out of habit from doing it before I used the bag then for any practical reasoning. Stuck mashes can be a concern but with this method ($4 for the fine mesh 24 inch nylon bag) getting husk particles in your wort is impossible in my experience.

:tank:
 
z987k - That was a cool song. I have no idea what it has to do with this thread, but hey I enjoyed it.
Actually I can't even remember the original point of this thread, BUT:
For the barley crusher what does the survey say for best generic crush? Best Wheat? etc.
I think the BC will be my next big purchase, and I'm just hoping BC does not mean "Barely crushed". :)
 
Crush being said repeatedly was part of the refrain/chorus...

I care less about the song and more about the fake red head! :rockin:

:tank:
 
Yeah I decided to look at the chick. Not normally something I would do when on this forum but...I listened to the lyrics and at first didn't get it until the chorus.

:tank:
 

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