Le Barley Crusher est Arrivé!

This thing looks very nice. Haven't had a chance to grind anything yet, but it sure looks like it'll do the jarb.



My question is this: it comes pre-adjusted, according to the directions, with a roller gap of .039". How does this sound? Anyone else using the BC? Is the factory setting satisfactory?

Oh, and here's some more eye candy...



The Special Bitter has had the weirdest fermentation. That WLP005 slurry just never did much, at least visually...but I'll be damned if, even now, I'm still getting bubbles every 5 secs or so through the blowoff tube. I think it'll finish fine. That 005 is weird stuff.

I can't wait to try out that Gleneagles Maris Otter...

I'm waiting on my new mill to arrive myself. Did you hook up a power drill to that beotch yet?

Not yet. Just got it last night.

Looks great. Did you get the larger hopper or is that the standard size?

That's the standard 7lb hopper. Couldn't justify the extra money. I'm rarely doing more than 12 lbs of grain anyway, so 7lb capacity means just one stop in the middle to refill it.

I would try it at factory settings first and see how it does. I moved my rollers to .035 to try to get a few more points out of the grain. It drains with no problems.

Cookiebaggs said:

Looks great. Did you get the larger hopper or is that the standard size?

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Here's the 15 lb. size.



SWMBO got it for me for Christmas, so I asked for the 15# hopper.

Evan! said:

Oh, and here's some more eye candy...

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I love this pic. Someday, when I get the BrewHut built, I will have counter space like this.

Thanks Ed. That is a much bigger hopper. SWMBO got you a nice gift!


I have an aluminum brake. I think making a collar attachment out of some galvanized duct material would be a neat little project. I need to pull the triger on the BC!!!

Glibbidy said:

I'm waiting on my new mill to arrive myself. Did you hook up a power drill to that beotch yet?

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He got the cheaper version, he's still waiting for the oxen to arrive in the mail.

EdWort said:

I love this pic. Someday, when I get the BrewHut built, I will have counter space like this.

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You should have seen the space before I built that rig. Ugh. It was just empty unusable space. So the previous owners left behind a bunch of brand new postform countertop (makes up for the broken refrigerator and broken window AC unit the left us, and had to subsequently find a way to get rid of). $35 worth of 2x's and a saturday was all I needed. But I know SWMBO's not too happy. See that little piece of black all the way to the left on the counter? That's the roughly 18" of counterspace I left her for her seed starting operation.

It sure is nice having all that space to divvy up hops, grain, etc. And just by coincidence, those rubbermaid containers fit perfectly below. I am able to keep my operation completely out of the kitchen now. So she's happy. Now, if I wasn't taking up the rest of the laundry room with all my cases of brew...

I think you have more grain than all three of my LHBS' combined!

Do all of those blow off tubes go to the same bucket?

Is it wrong for me to think that BC is sexy? What about the 50 pound sck of Maris Otter?


Dan

EvanBut I know SWMBO's not too happy. See that little piece of black all the way to the left on the counter? That's the roughly 18" of counterspace I left her for her seed starting operation.

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Yeah, I hear ya. SWMBO can't wait till I leave the kitchen. She won't be getting any space for anything in my Brewhut through. I will have a cot in there just in case it's needed

robbase9 said:

Do all of those blow off tubes go to the same bucket?

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Would that make it a communal blow off bucket?

david_42 said:

I think you have more grain than all three of my LHBS' combined!

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Doubtful. 55 lbs there, plus maybe another 50 in misc specialties. That's not that much. I anticipate this GlenEagles stuff to be pretty versatile base malt.

robbase9 said:

Do all of those blow off tubes go to the same bucket?

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Just two of them. I've got 7 carboys going right now, plus my friend took 3 bungs for his meads, so I ran out of bungs and had to revert to blowoff tubes. The Barleywine and the bitter both run into the same bucket of starsan solution. The barleywine's been in secondary for a couple months, so...I'm not anticipating a blowoff , it's just because I ran out. And the krausen never got above 1/4" tall on the bitter, so, same there.

Willsellout said:

Is it wrong for me to think that BC is sexy? What about the 50 pound sck of Maris Otter?


Dan

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It's sexy indeed. Looks very well-constructed, despite the archaic web ordering process, and the rather pathetic grasp of the english language that was displayed on the instructions. Just goes to show, ain't need no good grammer or spellun in orda to make a good grain mill.

Evan! said:

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Awesome beer porn Evan!

Sparky likey! I need one!

Bout time you got a mill!

zoebisch01 said:

Bout time you got a mill!

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No joke. Well, you know, I've only done 5 AG batches, so...I'm right on schedule. I just wanted to see if AG was really where I wanted to go before I invested.

Evan! said:

I just wanted to see if AG was really where I wanted to go before I invested.

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Good deal. You'll love having a mill, it just rocks. ROCKS I tell you! Wheat crushing is a little laborious so be forewarned. I think the next time I do wheat, I am going to crush it seperately at an ever-so-slightly-finer crush and then do the Barley. Plus you can do shizzle like raw wheat berries.

I run mine on the factory settings and have been satisfied so far. Started milling with the hand thingie for additional exercise for the right arm, but that didn't last long. The drill works much better and saves your strength for hoisting a cool one.

The price on these is way better than the Crankandstein ones offered in alot of homebrew catalogs. Looks like a damn good deal to me even with shipping.