Grain Crush Too Fine?

I just bought a new (cheap) drill, which didn't have the torque to drive my malt mill at anything but very high speed (probably over 500 rpm). I think my crush came out a bit too fine, but wanted to know what anyone else thought.

I've used these rollers before with this gap setting, and (iirc) the crush wasn't quite this fine.

Too fine? Will this cause me issues? I don't want to, but may have to return the drill for a higher power/torque one so I can roll it at lower speeds.

EDIT: Don't know if I can get the pictures to work on here... link to the photos are:

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10101063402699431&set=a.10101063402484861.1073741827.17001168&type=3&theater

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10101063402654521&set=a.10101063402484861.1073741827.17001168&type=3&src=https%3A%2F%2Fsphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net%2Fhphotos-prn2%2F968837_10101063402654521_1472990001_n.jpg&size=960%2C720

Your crush looks good to me. I crush mine just a little finer. Never have stuck sparges and am very happy with the efficiency outcomes (82%). Brew with it and see how it works. Like many others have said, keep tightening till you start having sparge problems and then back it off a tad.

Looks fine to me too. You even have some small whole kernels left. Mine is milled even a bit finer too. (New MM-2 @0.035", Credit Card)

The problem I noticed with high speed milling is it creates more flour for some reason.
Here's a thread showing the $50 Harbor Freight low speed drill a few of us are using. drill-barley-crusher

Looking good to me as well. I wouldn't fret over it.

Looks good from here. I had a bit of the same situation, today, with my new mill set up. The higher speeds are shredding the husks a bit too much. I had no problem with batch sparges, though. I do plan to look into the HBF drill to lower my crush speed and, hopefully, reduce husk shredding.

ianw58 said:

Looks good from here. I had a bit of the same situation, today, with my new mill set up. The higher speeds are shredding the husks a bit too much. I had no problem with batch sparges, though. I do plan to look into the HBF drill to lower my crush speed and, hopefully, reduce husk shredding.

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If you are having no trouble with sparging, why do you want to change? The finer you can mill the grain without a stuck sparge, the higher your efficiency and the faster the conversion.

RM-MN said:

If you are having no trouble with sparging, why do you want to change? The finer you can mill the grain without a stuck sparge, the higher your efficiency and the faster the conversion.

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Shredded husks. It's much more difficult to clear the wort during Vorlauft with husks shredded into small pieces. Slowing down the crush speed will help reduce husk shredding.

Additionally, the amount of flour thrown into the air will be reduced, as well.

That crush looks perfect. If you want to leave the hulls more intact, try Malt conditioning I have it down to where I put the grain in a bucket, spray it with the mist setting from a garden hose nozzle, mix it around by hand and repeat until I think it's good. (I have a potable water hose I use for brewing). There's a WIKI on in too. It takes all of 5 minutes to do and IMO is well worth it.

Thanks for everyone's responses. I do condition my grain, so that may have helped my crush out at the high speed.

Intuitively, I figured a very high mill speed would produce more flour, and perhaps be less efficient than a slower speed. Seems that some husks would be pulverized, while other smaller ones may pass through uncrushed... It sounds like as long as the end result is a decent crush, doesn't matter too much how you get there.

My brew day ended up just fine - mash efficiency ended up around 70%, which is normal to slightly on the low end for my setup. I'll probably keep the drill since I can now crush 10 lbs of grain in about a minute!

Grinding too fine can cause a stuck sparge, depending on your mash filter. Some filters designs are more prone to this.

Also, the fineness can affect the speed of conversion. If you are used to a coarser crush, then you might want to mash for a shorter time as a finer crush will convert faster and you might end up with a lighter bodied beer (and higher ABV) than you are used to