Just bought the 15lb Barley Crusher

CornyKegs 728
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I can't wait, mine shipped today. Should be here by the middle of next week. Looking forward to breaking it in...
 
Not gonna lie, if a discount was offered to HBT members I'd prolly buy one regardless of OEM.
 
I just bought one for Christmas/Birthday today. Hurry up UPS man, I've got grains to crush. :rockin:
 
One of my favorite purchases, my eff went from high 50s to a whopping 86% on my last recipe. Of course the recipe is so unbalanced it isn't what I set out to make, but now I won't have to order extra grain anymore to make up for it!
 
Woot! I just recieved a box on Friday and it is addressed to my SWMBO. I am sure its a box my parents purchased as I had put the Barley Crusher on my xmas list! :D
 
Flipper said:
Woot! I just recieved a box on Friday and it is addressed to my SWMBO. I am sure its a box my parents purchased as I had put the Barley Crusher on my xmas list! :D
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Now you just need to figure out how to crush a batch and clean her up real good and repackage so the SWMBO doesn't find out... :D
 
BierMuncher said:
Now you just need to figure out how to crush a batch and clean her up real good and repackage so the SWMBO doesn't find out... :D
Click to expand...

LOL! I brewed on Sat. My BC is under the tree with nothing but a bow on it. I still couldn't use it, clean it up, and put the bow back on. I'd get SWMBO-slapped (did I just coin a new term? :D ) for such indisgression.
 
BierMuncher said:
Now you just need to figure out how to crush a batch and clean her up real good and repackage so the SWMBO doesn't find out... :D
Click to expand...


I am right there with Sparky! I would get SWMBO Slapped as well!!:cross:
 
Nuthin' a little compressed air can't take care of :D.

More importantly, I just picked one up from my LHBS. They had it sitting there for $130, and with the local brewer's guild discount, I made out like a thief at $117. Woot!

I should be breaking it in in the near future with a 10 gallon batch.
 
the_bird said:
I'm with you! I was so sick of the HBS's gentle massaging of my grain; I think their mill is a "Barely-Crusher" ;)
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Now here is a thought, and maybe it has come up before, shouldn't a HBS be interested in giving you a less than optimal crush? The low efficiency will lead to the sale of more grain.

To be fair. So far there have been 3 HBSs that I got crushed grain from. 2 of them had a great crush that gave me 75 % efficiency.

One of them sucked badly because the mill they had wasn't a real mill. It was more of a chopper and got me 45 % efficiency.

Kai
 
Besides the risk people getting their fingers stuck there is probably a good reason you can't see the rollers at the brew shops. Someone might accidently put a feeler guage in there to see what they are set at.
 
Funkenjaeger said:
The rollers were visibly non-parallel. I don't know if that is how they were supposed to be, or if they didn't carefully set it before shipping it,
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Here, on Jack Schmidling's site, I read that offset rollers call help you create a crush that is similar to the crush commercial brewers get from a 6 roller mill. I disagree with that. Though the distribution of flour to coarse grits might be similar, only the husks of the grain crushed at the wider side will be kept intact fairly well while the husks of the grain crushed at the narrow side will be shredded.

6 roller mills separate grits and husks before they mill a part of the grits to flour.

One way of keeping the husks while going for a very fine crush is to condition the malt with some water before crushing. Many commercial brewers do this. They raise the malt moisture level by 2%. Since this happens mostly in the husks, the husks don't fray as easily and will stay intact even with an aggressive crush that gives you lots of flour. I oftentimes do this by using a spritz bottle, but you have to be careful not to overdo it as it will result in a mess. Though I expected to lauter more easily with such a crush I'm not seeing a significant benefit in my run-off times.

Kai
 
WormBoy said:
Based on what I've read here and other research, I bought the 15# crusher and OMG what a dream. Excellent crush right out of the box! I also bought a hanging scale and hung it over the crusher. I scoop from the sack into the scale and tip it into the hopper. Its the ultimate setup. Only one caution though - full crusher when sitting on a pale is top heavy. Spilled grain on your not so clean basement floor is not a pretty site. I think I cried that day....then I scooped it up and crushed it!
Buy it.
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Where did you find one of those hangin scales? That is a great idea...

Well I think I am going to order mine tonight as well.

It is only 25$ more with shipping for larger one... .. hmmmmm...
 
Kaiser said:
Now here is a thought, and maybe it has come up before, shouldn't a HBS be interested in giving you a less than optimal crush? The low efficiency will lead to the sale of more grain.

Kai
Click to expand...

Not if you don't come back. I think they are more worried about customers getting a stuck sparge, though.


TL
 
TexLaw said:
Not if you don't come back. I think they are more worried about customers getting a stuck sparge, though.


TL
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I don't know... I had the exact same epiphany as The Good Kaiser. HBS gives you a bad crush, one of two things happen.

1. You buy more grain
2. You buy a mill :D

Of couse, it requires a de-facto collusion among homebrew shops to not "overcrush" their grains....

I think you're right about avoiding stuck sparges being the main reason for HBS's usually terrible efficiency, but it's might convenient the side benefit...
 
She has arrived! Awww yeeeaaah...

8492-IMG_0574_2.jpg
 
I just ordered my 15lb Barley Crusher....

I am not doing All Grain yet... but after I get all my gear by christmas I will be joining the AG club...

right now I am trying to learn how to calculate Efficiency so I can talk with you guys.. ha!


I would have never gone all grain if it were not for this site and the encouragement I received.

T
Austin, Texas
 
Yesterday I hit 81% with the factory setting. I love blowing through several pounds of grain in less than a minute. I <3 Barley Crushers...
 
Just brewed my fist 2 all grains today, and I am in love with my BC
It was probably the most fun part of entire process
I think I could sit there and grind grain all day long :D
 
strohs said:
Just brewed my fist 2 all grains today, and I am in love with my BC
It was probably the most fun part of entire process
I think I could sit there and grind grain all day long :D
Click to expand...
I ordered by BC on this last Thursday. I'm stupidly checking the UPS tracking about every hour....

How was your efficiency?
Did you leave the factory setting on the BC?
What'd you brew?
 
ma2brew said:
I ordered by BC on this last Thursday. I'm stupidly checking the UPS tracking about every hour....

How was your efficiency?
Did you leave the factory setting on the BC?
What'd you brew?
Click to expand...
I'm consistently at 72-75% using a round tun. I think a larger, rectangular tun would help my effeiciency.

I adjusted my knobs to not quite 1:00 (and not quite 11:00 on the other side...they're mirrored settings) and that was good. Anything past that, and I've had sticky sparges.
 
I am in the process of building my own crusher :) . It will have 8 in. long rollers and be fully adjustable from 0.00 to .100 inch I havent decided what to use for a hopper yet I am thinking of using a cheep waist basket I picked up at the dollar store.
 
I'm bummed, I had my first stuck sparge last week and I couldn't get it going again. I ended up siphoning it out of the tun through a pair of brewer's filters (read those nylons that come in the little plastic ball you can buy at Wal-Mart for $0.33) and using the wort for starters.

There's a few things that it COULD have been but I'm suspecting too good of a crush (with the BC's facoryt settings) with too little specialty grain (read: none, was working on a SMaSH)
 
Kevin Dean said:
I'm bummed, I had my first stuck sparge last week and I couldn't get it going again. I ended up siphoning it out of the tun through a pair of brewer's filters (read those nylons that come in the little plastic ball you can buy at Wal-Mart for $0.33) and using the wort for starters.

There's a few things that it COULD have been but I'm suspecting too good of a crush (with the BC's facoryt settings) with too little specialty grain (read: none, was working on a SMaSH)
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Between your post and BM's, and seeing Ed's earlier, I think I'll back off the factory setting slightly right from the get go. I've set my brewing software for a 70% eff. target for my first batch of AG. I hope using the same gauges that I use to set the valve clearances on my old Volvo will be satisfactory for the BC.
 
ma2brew said:
I ordered by BC on this last Thursday. I'm stupidly checking the UPS tracking about every hour....

How was your efficiency?
Did you leave the factory setting on the BC?
What'd you brew?
Click to expand...


Mid 70's on both brews, not bad for my first 2 all grains :mug:
With some improvments to my processes, I think I can get that up to the upper 70's with no problems
 
WooHoo! Just busted through 13 lbs of malt in a couple minutes. I hand cranked about a pounds worth first, just to see how it was, but I quickly mounted the 3/8" drill up and absolutely tore through the rest!

The last batch of grains I got at the LHBS I crushed with their Corona type mill. It wasn't quick, and even though it was just a couple pounds it took forever. This BC just rocked through this grain.

My only concern at this point is that I left it at the factory .039" setting, so I hope it wasn't too fine. The husks look good, but it seems a little flour-y on the kernels.
 
Mine is perfect with the factory setting. Maybe a picture of your crush?



Plenty of people mess with theirs, so maybe there's an inconsistency...

:drunk:
 
Sorry about the red tone of this shot, but my camera is doing funny things on the macro setting right now.
P1030204.JPG
 
I'd question the freshness of your grain. The crush doesn't look far off, but the 'torn' husks, make me question how old they are...


:drunk:


Plus, I couldn't find my RED shaded glasses to truly decipher your image...
 
Spyk'd said:
I'd question the freshness of your grain. The crush doesn't look far off, but the 'torn' husks, make me question how old they are...


:drunk:


Plus, I couldn't find my RED shaded glasses to truly decipher your image...
Click to expand...
I don't think they're that old. My LHBS recently got new stock in, and he was pretty low before, so the turnover seems good. Anyway, if I had the drill running too fast, would that create torn husks? My drill had a hard time running too low, so I believe I was running about medium speed on the plug-in Black & Decker.

I set my software for 70% eff. I hope I'm in that range tomorrow (today I guess, looking at the clock. I better get to sleep.)
 
As long as you see alot of whole kernals and I actually see alot of good husks, I think you'll be fine. You'll always have flour, that's just an end product, but after a couple times, you'll know what to expect.



I say, brew on!

:rockin:
 
Just gotta add that I am loving my BC. I got the 7# hopper to save some coin, no problem though, I just run the drill with one hand, and lean the bucket with grains on my knee and dump with the other hand. Takes all of 3-4 mins to get through 20+ # of grains and full speed on my drill. I haven't bothered measuring efficiency, but I am hitting OG's perfectly (don't use software, just recipes).
 
I am really hoping I get one of this for Xmas. I told SWMBO i wanted one, left the northern brewer site up with the BC on it and I said I want the 7# model. I might send her an email just to make sure.
 

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