Just used my new grain mill

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PADave

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I just used my new grain mill for the first time. Crushed grains for brewing tomorrow. I have the Cereal Killer and adjusted it to it's tightest setting, about .025". Can't wait to see what this does to my numbers. I've been adding an extra pound of 2 row to all my brews to make up for inconsistent crushes. What I just crushed is much finer than anything I've gotten when ordering crushed grains. Will report back with my numbers tomorrow.
 
Congrats! You'll love having your own mill and full control over your crush.

I mill barley at 0.028" and always mill small kernel malt such as Rye and Wheat as well as flaked goods separately, tightening the gap to 0.024".

If you do BIAB, you can mill as fine as you like.
 
I have the cereal killer also.Great mill. Its been going for strong for 100's of pounds of grain.

A good mill gap is to stick a gift card between the rollers.Tighten till the card moves up and down easily by hand but still moves the rollers
 
I used a feeler gauge when I first bought my cereal killer but now I just use a credit card. Love the cereal killer. My efficiency went up about 5-7% because of the grain crush. Between the cost savings of bulk base grains and using less grain because of better efficiency, the thing has paid for itself 5 times over already
 
I too have the Cereal Killer and have had a good 10% bump in efficiency. Like you I set it at the tightest setting and I screw on my Ryobi corded drill and crush away! :tank:
 
ditto the credit card trick. I set it there and never change it. I also stopped double crushing and haven't seen any drop off (brew house is pretty much low to mid 70's every time)
 
Old school hand crank here! :rockin:







That's going to get old so fast It'll make your head spin...or your arm
Just stick a drill on the post and pull the trigger. I still remember I made it through one hopper and said screw this.


This. I started using my crappy old drill but the battery wouldn't make it through a full hopper which left me hand cranking. Rather than use my brand new dewalt I bought a 25$ variable speed corded drill at harbor freight. Great purchase!
 
I still hand-crank 1 gallon batches (about 2lb of grain normally) but for bigger batches, yeah, the hand cranking got less fun after the first few times.
 
This. I started using my crappy old drill but the battery wouldn't make it through a full hopper which left me hand cranking. Rather than use my brand new dewalt I bought a 25$ variable speed corded drill at harbor freight. Great purchase!

+1 here. Heck, we might have the same drill. I'm very happy with the cereal killer too.

Brewing has been so much better now that I control my crush. My first BIAB I think I was right around 80% (couldn't verify with my hydrometer) on the narrowest setting. I would be interested to hear the OP's results.
 
Ok, results are in. I was shooting for an OG of 1.062 and got 1.059. Which was higher than I would have got adding an extra pound of 2 row as I had been doing. My question is, for a 5 gal brew, where is that 5 gal? After the boil? Into the fermenter? Into the bottling bucket? I've been trying to get 5 gal into the bottling bucket, so I do a little more water to start. This brew I had 5.5 gal into the fermeter. So if a recipe is for 5 into the fermenter I'm doing good with efficiency. Now I just need to dial things in. Thinking I'm going to scale everything to 6 gal.
 
[...]My question is, for a 5 gal brew, where is that 5 gal? After the boil? Into the fermenter?[...]

Into the fermentor. This accounts for all losses and efficiencies prior to the pitch.
Any volume loss after that is irrelevant to the notion of "Original Gravity".

And it doesn't have to be "5 gallons"; it's whatever volume into fermentation you wish and have accounted for in your recipe.
I use 5.5 going in because I know I'm going to lose between a quart/quart-and-a-half in the fermentor and I want to fully fill my corny kegs (which can comfortably hold 5.25 g as I cut the gas tubes down to 1/2"). So I base my recipes "Into the fermentor" at 5.5g...

Cheers!
 
My question is, for a 5 gal brew, where is that 5 gal? After the boil? Into the fermenter? Into the bottling bucket?

You get to decide where you want to define it!

In Brewer's Friend there are a couple of options for this. Either into the fermenter or in the kettle at the end of the boil. Volume in the fermenter gives brewhouse efficiency. Volume in the kettle gives "ending kettle" efficiency. It doesn't really matter where you define the volume, as long as you're ending up with the amount of final packaged product you were shooting for.

As a side note, my personal opinion is that brewhouse efficiency isn't a very useful number for folks to use when they compare their efficiencies to that of others. Someone who is a "dump it all in" kind of brewer is going to have minor losses due to hop absorption or maybe boil overs. Someone else may be super concerned about having crystal clear wort so they whirlpool and leave behind a gallon in the kettle. Alas, most times when someone states an efficiency in here it is brewhouse.

It'd be nice if we could start a revolt, eschewing the habit of comparing brewhouse efficiencies. But it's an uphill battle.
 
Ok, results are in. I was shooting for an OG of 1.062 and got 1.059. Which was higher than I would have got adding an extra pound of 2 row as I had been doing. My question is, for a 5 gal brew, where is that 5 gal? After the boil? Into the fermenter? Into the bottling bucket? I've been trying to get 5 gal into the bottling bucket, so I do a little more water to start. This brew I had 5.5 gal into the fermeter. So if a recipe is for 5 into the fermenter I'm doing good with efficiency. Now I just need to dial things in. Thinking I'm going to scale everything to 6 gal.

I'm going to suggest something that may be anathema (I just LOVE that $6 word, but it's appropriate) to many or most who brew, but I think some people are WAY overfocused on getting exact numbers.

There are few people here who are more OCD than I am when it comes to measuring things related to brewing. I was hugely focused on efficiency and so on when I started. Then I found that even though I might not be hitting my numbers exactly, guess what? The beer is great!

Does it matter if my OG is 1.059 or 1.062? Not really. That beer is going to taste great either way so long as I ensure I follow good process procedures. When I first received my Barley Crusher (I'd buy the CK if I could do it over again, btw), I just went with the gap it came with. The crush is good, my numbers are good--and most importantly, the beer is good.

If I were running a commercial brewery, sure, those things would matter a lot. But I'm not, and what's coming out is great.

There are so many places where measurement error can cause different conclusions. Actual volume of the wort, our ability to read the hydrometer, mash temp, mash PH, there are lots of things that can influence the outcome of what we do.

My conclusion? If you're close, you're fine. :)

********************

I just brewed two batches of California Common back to back.

BATCH ONE Pre-boil gravity 1.047. Post-boil (OG) gravity: 1.053

BATCH TWO Pre-boil gravity 1.046. Post-boil (OG) gravity: 1.054

Funny numbers, eh? What's the difference? Probably the volumes. I had exactly the same grain bill, same crush, but there probably was a little variation in water at the start, a little difference in the amount of wort at the end, but all in all, I'm not worrying about it.

Once I get my wort at close to particular numbers coming out of the mash tun, it's about getting to the correct volume in my boil kettle. I usually have a little more wort I could get out of the mash tun (typically a quart, maybe less). If I add that into the boil and boil it down, my OG goes up because I've captured the sugar in that last quart. I've been aiming for about 6.5-6.75 gallons to start, more than that and my kettle can't hold it.

A quart difference. Who cares? Not me, but it's OK if others are concerned with it.

********************

Brewing seems to be a pretty resilient process provided we do our part with sanitation, basic process, and a little bit of care. IMO, the most important measure of all is hedonic: how does it taste to you? If that measure hits the sweet spot, then all those other numbers aren't important, IMO.
 
I was playing around with the Brewers Friend efficiency calculator and my last few brews. Looks like I was consistently getting around 68% in the past. This latest brew using the new mill and fine crush got me 80%. I'll take that! :ban:
 
I'm going to suggest something that may be anathema (I just LOVE that $6 word, but it's appropriate) to many or most who brew, but I think some people are WAY overfocused on getting exact numbers.

There are few people here who are more OCD than I am when it comes to measuring things related to brewing. I was hugely focused on efficiency and so on when I started. Then I found that even though I might not be hitting my numbers exactly, guess what? The beer is great!

I'm not one of those obsessed with hitting the numbers exactly, but I do like to get something close to what I was going for. My biggest interest was to see how crushing my own grains improved my process and will make it more consistent. I've been making good brews, sometimes hitting numbers, sometimes missing, but always turned out good. I'm now at the point that I want to improve things, but if I make a change it better improve my process or I'm not going to do it. I'm in total agreement that close is good. But closer is more better. ;)
 
Great job, PADave! To me, the ownership of a grain mill is part of the enjoyment of brewing and having control of your process. Your grind is very important when it comes to efficiency as you have just proved.

I had my LHBS put together two grain bills for recipes I sent him. When it gets to .5 # of this and .25# of that, I just let him build my recipe as I don't buy those grains in bulk. I told him twice please don't mill these grains.

I picked the recipes up yesterday and he apologized for having forgotten and he milled one of the recipes. I looked at the malts, didn't say anything, but his grind had barely cracked the husk, and was not a consistent grind at that. I told my wife heading home that I will certainly run these malts back thru my own mill a second time. Had I not owned a mill and accepted his grains as is, my numbers would have been terrible. How many others out there will use his milling as is and get what he hands them w/o question?

Point being, having a nice mill will enhance your beer making skills plus gives you control over your final product. ENJOY!
 
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