Why is crushing your own better than pre-crushed?

Chimone, what model did you get? Cheesefood, please report back on yours when you can. Thanks!

John, I've got this one http://www.crankandstein.com/cgm2d.htm and have been using it for over a year, my eff. is in the 80's and 90's.

John Beere said:

Chimone, what model did you get? Cheesefood, please report back on yours when you can. Thanks!

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I got the 139 dollar package deal on their website. Funnel, mill, and baseboard


http://www.crankandstein.com/cgm-bcc.htm

boil done in 20 minutes......

Mine shows up tomorrow!

How's your eff?

I was shooting for 5.5 gallons of 1.044. I have 5.5 gallons of 1.051


thats 82%. However....Im not sure if I have any tannin extraction or not. Tastes real good going into the fermentor, but I need to wait a month until its finished just to be sure

But I think Im going to keep this gap setting. So far, so good......

Chimone said:

I was shooting for 5.5 gallons of 1.044. I have 5.5 gallons of 1.051


thats 82%. However....Im not sure if I have any tannin extraction or not. Tastes real good going into the fermentor, but I need to wait a month until its finished just to be sure

But I think Im going to keep this gap setting. So far, so good......

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Yeah, but you're experienced enough to know from tasting the wort whether or not it'll turn out good in the end (I hope).

Mine shows up today!!! I may have to make a trip out to the LHBS and get some grains.

true....

Im sure it will be fine, Im just thinking this is too good to be true right now. Ive been wanting to get up into the 80% eff range since I started AG about a year ago. I think I can close the gap just a tad more too. After this batch is finished Ill have more confidence in it Im sure.

The only thing Im not 100% happy with is the size of the hopper. I wish it had a 20lb supersizer on it, but oh well....I can make one I guess.


Want to hear something funny? I finally break out with a hydrometer to see what I get with this batch, and I it ends up falling off the shelf and breaking. Guess Im not supposed to use one after all.

Chimone said:

The only thing Im not 100% happy with is the size of the hopper. I wish it had a 20lb supersizer on it, but oh well....I can make one I guess.

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I've been thinking about that, but what are your thoughts on placing your crusher directly on top of yout MLT (after putting a little mash water in), crushing a few pounds, putting in some more water, crushing some more, etc?

Fresh crushed grains, right in your mash water.

Cheesefood said:

Fresh crushed grains, right in your mash water.

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I say go for it. It doesnt take long at all to crush all the grains and you wont loose any heat in the time it takes

Chimone said:

The only thing Im not 100% happy with is the size of the hopper. I wish it had a 20lb supersizer on it, but oh well....I can make one I guess.

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Thats the reason the Barley Crusher initially caught my eye - the 15lb hopper option. Truthfully, there is nothing wrong with my JSP mill except it isn't adjustable...

I've had my for 6 months so I'm still experimenting and learning. I vote no on putting it directly over the mash tun. Most of the time, it will work great. When it doesn't it'll be a pain in the ass. I bought the 3 roller crankandstein model and most of the time it mills beautifully. Occasionally however I've had some problems. This has been with harder grains. I suspect my drill (variable speed, corded) just might not have enough torque at low speed some time. I've had problems when the grain just jumps around and won't feed through - particularly with a hard grain and a small gap set. Usually a couple of reverses will get it to bite and then off it goes. I've also had it bite, but then be too hard to turn (with my drill). If you mill is not solidly mounted to something, it will then flip around throwing grain everywhere. I suspect all of this could be taken care of by using a hand crank, but that is no fun. I like milling 10 lbs of grain in a minute!

Another solution I found for the occasional problem is to manually rotate the "stationary" roller until it bites on the grain, then power up.

I mounted my mill on a 10" wide (by 2 ft) piece of wood that I clamp to my work bench. I then made two saw cuts about 1" from the end of the board that are both about 3" deep towards the center. I then hang a 5 gal. bucket (reserved for grain only), fitting the handle into the saw cuts to position it under the mill. The 3 roller model throws the grain to one side so I installed a rubber flap to deflect it down

It truly is a thing of beauty.

Reviving an old thread here, but.... What's so difficult about stopping for a minute to reload a hopper? Seems pretty easy and not too inconvenient. Am I missing something?

Toot said:

Reviving an old thread here, but.... What's so difficult about stopping for a minute to reload a hopper? Seems pretty easy and not too inconvenient. Am I missing something?

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Just the difference betwee having to do it and not having to do it.