Barley Crusher

Wow, does anyone not use a drill to cursh with the BC? I used arm strength and man, it was work!

i used it without a drill for a short time. i got my BC right after moving into my house and i had lost my cordless drill for a few weeks until i opened the right box. i think i did two batches that way...it just seemed to take forever to get 10+ pounds of grain crushed.

I keep the handle handy incase the battery dies on my POS drill.

Otherwise, nope.

I did it once, and will never do it again.

yeah me too - once was enough. I use a corded Makita on mine.

my barley crusher is arriving on thursday, and the handle is immediately coming off.

Every batch...every week (sometimes 2x per week) since January. And I condition my malt which makes it even harder to turn.

I don't get nearly enough exercise but in the last 4-5 months I've been doing this my weenie arms have gotten...less weenie. I def feel it when I'm done. It's actually holding down the BC that takes half the effort.

I just condition the malt...let it sit to absorb the moisture while I portion out and treat my water...and then I grind the malt while the strike water is heating. So it doesn't add too much time to the brewday.

Between that, using a little 1' long wooden spoon as a mash paddle, and all the lifting of pots/carboys/buckets my arms get a bit of a workout during a brewday. But I need it.

...and boy are my arms tired!

I did it a couple of times. My 7 year old daughter even help me out once. Then I thought I'd hook my cordless drill up and see what happened. Now I've become lazy.

slightly

I use a drill, but I run it fairly slow. Can I crank that sucker up to full speed without sacrificing quality?

Guess I could just experiment, but I get no post count for that.

I hand crank my all grain starters. Does that count?

I do it by hand. The one drill I have has no speed controll and the other one isn't powerfull enough.

It really isn't that hard to mill through 10-15 pounds of grain. I find that the resistance is actually quite low. It just takes a bit of time. (maybe 5-7 minutes.)

I do it by hand. It takes me about 10 minutes or so for a 5 gallon batch. It's kind of a pain, but it really isn't that bad.

I don't use a drill.. but I don't do it by hand either... I use a motor..
It's not the nicest setup out there - I kinda whipped it together real quick when I needed to get some grain crushed and never bothered to make it any nicer because it works...

http://s66.photobucket.com/albums/h252/jrbruin/brewing/IMG_7315.jpg

I think I even got better efficiency with the drill. I have a old and heavy 1/2 inch Milwaukee on it. Even hard wheat goes right through. I tried the raw wheat by hand and that was a real chore.

SpanishCastleAle said:

Every batch...every week (sometimes 2x per week) since January. And I condition my malt which makes it even harder to turn.

I don't get nearly enough exercise but in the last 4-5 months I've been doing this my weenie arms have gotten...less weenie.

Click to expand...

You need this as you avatar then...



Crop it up a little of course

I do mine by hand...that button doesn't push it self you know !

Yes I see how that button could get tiring. You must use gloves to keep from wearing out your finger...... lehr, you sure do excellent work!! Wish I had the skills and money for that matter to put build a brew rig and milling system like yours! Bravo Zulu , cudos and escalades. :rockin:

I hand cranked mine the first time for about 20 revolutions, quickly figured out that I'm to old, and have way to many tools for this crap!

lehr said:

I do mine by hand...that button doesn't push it self you know !

Click to expand...

Have you considered using a non-deadly bucket? Just a thought.

I've hand crushed so far. After my Bavarian Hefe, which was 60% wheat malt, I'm seriously considering rigging up a drill.

Conroe said:

old and heavy 1/2 inch Milwaukee

Click to expand...

Ahahahaha that drill rules.

TommyBoy said:

You need this as you avatar then...

Crop it up a little of course

Click to expand...

Done...poorly...but done.

Ryno said:

Yes I see how that button could get tiring. You must use gloves to keep from wearing out your finger...... lehr, you sure do excellent work!! Wish I had the skills and money for that matter to put build a brew rig and milling system like yours! Bravo Zulu , cudos and escalades. :rockin:

Click to expand...

Thanks and a bravo tango foxtrot to you !
Pat

noisy123 said:

Have you considered using a non-deadly bucket? Just a thought.

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Well hell I almost washed it once !
Pat