How coarse to crush?

digdan · May 31, 2006

I have no idea what to set my mill to, or even how to set it. I think my grain is being crushed too fine and causing some tannin flavors. Does anyone have a good picture of "perfectly" of their crushed grain so I can gauge on what I should set my mill to?

Thanks

Brewpastor · May 31, 2006

Something like this:

Kaiser · May 31, 2006

Brewpastor said:
Something like this:

Looks like you had some malt for breakfast.

Have you ever tried to moisten the malt before crushing it?

Kai

homebrewer_99 · May 31, 2006

...hmmm, just add milk... :drunk:

Brewpastor · May 31, 2006

Kaiser said:
Looks like you had some malt for breakfast.

Have you ever tried to moisten the malt before crushing it?

Kai

I have not, and my fear would be gumming up the works, but I can see how it could help the dust control. Any other thoughts as to the advantages or not of doing this?

Kaiser · May 31, 2006

Brewpastor said:
I have not, and my fear would be gumming up the works, but I can see how it could help the dust control. Any other thoughts as to the advantages or not of doing this?

I have reat that it alows for a finer crush w/o breking the husks. The grains itself will not be dripping wet, but the husk will have softened a bit so it is more likely to remain intact. A few commercial breweries do this.

I'll have to get my own mill to give this a try, but it sounds promising to me.

Kai

Kaiser · May 31, 2006

homebrewer_99 said:
...hmmm, just add milk...

If you add 160F milk, it will even get sweet

Then it is called a "cereal" mash.

Kai

digdan · May 31, 2006

Thanks for the pic pastor. I can't seem to get that perfect of a crush on it. Perhaps the grains I'm using vary too much in size. Or am I missing something?

Glibbidy · May 31, 2006

digdan said:
Thanks for the pic pastor. I can't seem to get that perfect of a crush on it. Perhaps the grains I'm using vary too much in size. Or am I missing something?

Is it a corona mill that you are using? Mine is remarkably unreliable & inefficient at times!

digdan · May 31, 2006

glibbidy said:
Is it a corona mill that you are using? Mine is remarkably unreliable & inefficient at times!

Nope, its a Crankenstien, if I spelt that right.

RichBrewer · May 31, 2006

glibbidy said:
Is it a corona mill that you are using? Mine is remarkably unreliable & inefficient at times!

The Corona mill grinds the malt as apposed to crushing it like a roller mill. It will tend to grind up the husks and not leave them semi whole. When I first started AG, I crushed the grain at the LHBS which had a Corona mill. I had a lot of problems with consistency. Once I bought my roller mill, I had no more problems.
EDIT: It always seemed to me that the plates were always out of adjustment.
Brewpastor that is a great photo. It gives us a good look at what properly milled grain looks like. Thanks! :mug:

Blender · May 31, 2006

Have you tried to measure the gap between the rollers? I believe you use a spark plug gauge to determine the gap.

fishmonkeystew · Jun 1, 2006

ahhhhh, the Corona mill. I have one of those. I used it for the first time (first AG ever) a few weeks ago, and I saw what they mean about impossible to stay adjusted. I had to keep my hand on the various wingnuts, etc. the entire time and crank at about 40 revolutions a min or less-reeeeaaaaalll slooooooow. It worked, and heck, my grains looked an awful lot like that pic above. Just took a lot of patience. And hey, at $20 on ebay, my wallet was pretty thankful.

Brewpastor · Jun 1, 2006

The picture is not mine. I found it out there in cyberland, but it seemed to fit the bill. I just don't want to take any credit for what is not mine and give preachers a bad name

Baron von BeeGee · Jun 1, 2006

I find my Corona mill therapeutic, at least for 5g batches. A 10g grist would be too much therapy.

I'll upgrade it one day, but at the moment there's always something else to spend that $100-200 on.

Kaiser · Jun 1, 2006

A nice roller mill is going to be the next thing that I will have to invest into once I moved. I don't like how the corona mill works and don't really want to start with it. $100 -$150 for something that can be motorized later seems like a good investment.

Kai

Brewpastor · Jun 1, 2006

The roller mill I made is nice and I love the results, but to be honest, it has not made that great of a difference from my old drill driven Corona. I did pick up a bit on the effeciency rating, but flavors were just as good before. I look at my mill as another toy and a great project to keep me off the streets and out of the bars.

Baron von BeeGee · Jun 1, 2006

I've gotten great results and exercise from my Corona, and for <$30 shipped the value for the money is extremely high. Which isn't to say I wouldn't take a motorized crusher and enjoy it, just that I see it as more of a bell-and-whistle in my brewery as long as I continue to get the results from the Corona. With the arrival of my progeny imminent, the brewery's bells-and-whistles budget has been reappropriated

Kaiser · Jun 1, 2006

Baron von BeeGee said:
I've gotten great results and exercise from my Corona, and for <$30 shipped the value for the money is extremely high.

I certainly don't doubt that point. But right now I deem geting a decent roller mill as more important than getting a new kettle, so I will spend money on that.

Kai

Musthavbeer · Jun 1, 2006

Has anyone motorized their Corona? I stuck a properly sized bolt with the head ground off, (I think 5/16" if memory serves) and chucked my varible speed electric drill on the bolt. I can mill a ten gallon grain bill with very little effort.

digdan · Jun 2, 2006

Would there be downfalls to setting the mill coarse and running the grain through a couple of times?

Or is that lost effort?

fishmonkeystew · Jun 2, 2006

I have to agree about the theraputic aspect. Nice and slow. 'Course, everything I do is slow. My wife calls me Turtle. hehehehe. Maybe I don't need that kind of therapy.

Brewiz · Jun 2, 2006

digdan said:
Would there be downfalls to setting the mill coarse and running the grain through a couple of times?

Or is that lost effort?

You can do that but you have to be careful it may crush it too fine. Which model do you have? And have you been to their web site for any info? I have the CGM-2D and have had very good results with it.

Mykel Obvious · Jun 2, 2006

Brewiz said:
You can do that but you have to be careful it may crush it too fine. Which model do you have? And have you been to their web site for any info? I have the CGM-2D and have had very good results with it.

How do you like the 2D? I'm looking at that one myself when money allows and would like your thoughts on it if you have time

:mug:

thanks,
mikey

Brewiz · Jun 2, 2006

I love it, so far I have run about 80lbs of grain thru it and no problems. I just made a table for it the other day, I am still using a drill, plan on motorizing it when I can.

alemonkey · Jun 2, 2006

Musthavbeer said:
Has anyone motorized their Corona? I stuck a properly sized bolt with the head ground off, (I think 5/16" if memory serves) and chucked my varible speed electric drill on the bolt. I can mill a ten gallon grain bill with very little effort.

That's exactly what I did. It works pretty good, but I still want a Crankandstein. I just hate trying to keep the Corona in adjustment.

digdan · Jun 5, 2006

Brewiz said:
You can do that but you have to be careful it may crush it too fine. Which model do you have? And have you been to their web site for any info? I have the CGM-2D and have had very good results with it.

I purchased the cgm-bcc, which uses the CGM-2A mill, what should I set my gap to?

Update, found out it should be 0.044" thick for medium crush. Now a ghetto way to measure that... well, copy paper is 0.004" thick, so just grab 11 pieces of copy(printer) paper(which now measure 0.044" thick) , cut it to fit into the mill, and tighten once both edges touch both sides of the paper. Now that is ghetto fo' sho'

Mykel Obvious · Jun 5, 2006

digdan said:
I purchased the cgm-bcc, which uses the CGM-2A mill, what should I set my gap to?

Update, found out it should be 0.044" thick for medium crush. Now a ghetto way to measure that... well, copy paper is 0.004" thick, so just grab 11 pieces of copy(printer) paper(which now measure 0.044" thick) , cut it to fit into the mill, and tighten once both edges touch both sides of the paper. Now that is ghetto fo' sho'

That is ghetto fab, my brother!!! Ya get double points for knowin' how thick your copy paper is!!! Follow up for a triple score:
what weight bond is the .004" paper???

later,
mikey

snaproll · Jun 5, 2006

I set my crankandstein at .039 and have had good luck with that. I brew a lot of wheat beers and cream ales ect.
I also made a table for mine and used a 1.5" drive pulley and a 12" mill pulley. I'm using an old furnace blower more that turns at 1750 rpm's ( I think that is about standard for a 110v motor.) and I used a 3 Gal distilled water bottle for a hopper,
it will hold just about 12lbs of grain.
email me if you'd like pictures of it. I think it is a pretty cool setup. but that is my opinion only.

Mykel Obvious · Jun 5, 2006

snaproll said:
I set my crankandstein at .039 and have had good luck with that. I brew a lot of wheat beers and cream ales ect.
I also made a table for mine and used a 1.5" drive pulley and a 12" mill pulley. I'm using an old furnace blower more that turns at 1750 rpm's ( I think that is about standard for a 110v motor.) and I used a 3 Gal distilled water bottle for a hopper,
it will hold just about 12lbs of grain.
email me if you'd like pictures of it. I think it is a pretty cool setup. but that is my opinion only.

Hey Snap,
Why don't ya post the pics in your gallery???:rockin:

mikey

Mad Scientist · Jun 27, 2006

Sorry to revive an older thread, but is there anyone who can provide info on a Glatt Mill?

How coarse to crush?

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