Barley Crusher Settings

Can anyone with a Barley Crusher help me out. I have a new unit and it is set from the factory at .39 I don't have a 'feeler' guage and was wondering if someone has figured out X amount of turn on the adjustment screw equals a known distance? What is the best spacing to set? I have read .19, about 1/2 the factory distance is correct, true? So then how many turns of the set screws will get me there?

Thanks for any help!

There is some talk of "1 o'clock" and such, but with feelers under $5 at an autoparts store...

I'm at .032 and that's really fine. I would think with a .019 crush you would need to condition your malt. That's REALLY a fine crush otherwise.

Umm, .019" will give you flour... I would not take that advice, that will help you make cement.

.039" is a great setting, I have gone as low as .035" with malt conditioning... but at a certain point, crushing finer gains you nothing. Much will depend on your lautering device and what it can handle.

Malt conditioning will keep your husks intact, it does nothing for the inside of the kernel. If you crush fine and use malt conditioning, you will still get flour and the husks wont be able to help you.

I must bet crazy, don't know where I got that .19 can't find it again... I'll keep it at the factory setting then

:rockin:

I go a little before 1 o' clock, I forget which setting that is. I think I have it at .036. I get 81% efficiency almost every time.

I only have 2 batches on mine but I got 80% on both using the factory settings.

.035" on mine. That's still wide enough that it lets a few kernals fall through the rollers when I first load the hopper.


You need to measure the gap. With the rollers adjustable on both sides I'd be hard pressed to think anyone could gap the rollers even all the way across without using a gauge. Harbor Freight has them for $3, there's no reason to guess.

Past 1:00 I have trouble with a lot of grains not feeding through so I have gone back to 1:00 and am happy there.

Another quick Q if anyone's looking back on this, it says to put a 1/2# of grain through when it is new and if not used for a period of time... Not sure what that period of time is, is once a week too long? Why do I have to waste the 1/2# of grain? Crud in the grinders? Couldn't I just vacuum it out?

Netflyer said:

Another quick Q if anyone's looking back on this, it says to put a 1/2# of grain through when it is new and if not used for a period of time... Not sure what that period of time is, is once a week too long? Why do I have to waste the 1/2# of grain? Crud in the grinders? Couldn't I just vacuum it out?

Click to expand...

potential rust, it removes it

The .019 setting is on the wiki... https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Evaluating_the_Crush Personally, I think the .019 talk is BS. I've got mine set at .039 and I'm getting into the 80's efficiency wise. Down at .019 you'd have just about flour..

You could use your drivers licence as a gauge. I measured mine at .032". An *OLD* credit card will also work, .030".

The markings on my knobs are not even. If I set them both at 12:00 lined up with the other marks, the rollers are visibly crooked. Get a guage to make sure it's even, then crush some grain and adjust until it looks good.

For what it's worth, I think I read some where that you can run oat meal through the barley crusher to clean it out so you don't have to waste any grain. Hope this Helps.

Want2Brew said:

For what it's worth, I think I read some where that you can run oat meal through the barley crusher to clean it out so you don't have to waste any grain. Hope this Helps.

Click to expand...

Dude... nice. :rockin:

imherb said:

You could use your drivers licence as a gauge. I measured mine at .032". An *OLD* credit card will also work, .030".

Click to expand...

Seems like a great idea, I wonder if AMEX is thicker than VISA ...

I bought some $3 feelers...

You need to know that the BC rollers MOVE when you tighten the set screws. If you are using a CC, it will simply get compressed, whereas a steel feeler will not. FWIW

Yeah, I'll get me some feelers In the meantime I'll do my first crush w/the factory settings and see what kind of eff. I get. Just want to take full advantage of the crusha...