Grain Crush?

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The crush will affect efficiency to some degree. A fine grain should give better efficiency, but might run the risk of a stuck sparge. Worst case, throw in some rice hulls to minimize the chance that that happens and brew on.
 
Not speaking from experience, but I have heard that crushing too fine can damage the husks and therefore lead to astringency.

Not sure if I would really worry about it though...just another thing to be aware of???
 
McKBrew is right. The risk is a stuck sparge. Kaiser has a page in the wiki where he explains malt conditioning. It makes a big difference. It really helps to keep the husks from shredding when doing a fine crush. Basically it is mixing a little bit of water with your grains before milling. I've been using about 75 ml of water for about 8-9 lbs of grain. I just drizzle it in while mixing with my hand. I doesn't take much water at all. This masks the husks less brittle - and helps to keep the dust down a bit.
 
+1 on the malt conditioning. I've been doin it for my last couple batches it seems to help.

I'm using the Corona so It really tears em up. I haven't had any issues with astrigent taste yet
 
I have been at .033 for awhile and it's too damn fine. Shredded husks, stuck sparges, high efficiency. I was going to back it off for the single setting, but now I'm thinking about a double pass method to try to imitate professional mills.

There's a connector bar on my Crank and Stein that ties the two sides together so it's easy to quickly adjust. I'm going to open it up wide for the first pass just enough to crack the grains and separate the husk, maybe .046 or something. Then tighten it up for the grits to .033 and hopefully the husks can pass right through that way, otherwise I was thinking about sifting them out.

The husks don't really do anything until lauter anyway, so you could add them at the end of the mash along with crystal and roasted stuff to really try to get rid of astringency entirely.
 
The husks don't really do anything until lauter anyway, so you could add them at the end of the mash along with crystal and roasted stuff to really try to get rid of astringency entirely.

Mash 'em all together! I really can't see any reason to add specialty grain at the end; I suspect your extract efficiency may suffer if done too late.

Does know how long it takes for the crystal sugars to become soluble?
 
It's just like steeping in an extract batch. You could add them before the top up. Not sure if it would help, I'm switching to building water because my tap water is high carbonate and RA. Have yet to see if that solves my astringency issue, but it should.

Actually, now that I think of it the darker grains would drop the pH when added to throw it off if it was correct during the mash...
 
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