Barley Crusher Settings

[Sherpa FE]

I am expecting my BC any day now, and I was wondering how you set yours up.
I guess it comes set-up with .039"
I also saw in a post that you have to use a different set-up for different grains.
So I was basically wondering what knowledge you could impart on me about it, or any other tricks or tips.
Thanks
Josh

 

[buckeyebrewer]

I think most grains crush at the .039 setting just fine. Wheat is the only thing I have read that could be slightly smaller. I have a crusher that isn't adjustable. I believe its set at .040 and I haven't had any problems with any grain I have crushed.

 

[malkore]

you don't necessarily need to change it for different grains. i do wheat at the factory default and it looks fine to me.

I might try decreasing the gap to see if it raises my efficiency.

 

[eriktlupus]

not that it needs adjusting but run wheat through a second time at the same setting as your malts

 

[Bearcat Brewmeister]

The adjusting you may have to do is on your recipes. If you have been getting you grain milled for you, the BC may give you a better crush leading to better efficiency. I would definitely take a pre-boil gravity to make sure you are where you expect to be, otherwise you may have too high of a SG and then be low on your hops.

 

[Funkenjaeger]

the supposed factory set gap of .039 seems to be a good default setting. You can experiment with narrowing the gap, to the extent that your MLT manifold/braid can handle it without a stuck sparge.

My barley crusher did NOT come set to .039, in fact the rollers weren't even parallel - it was quite a bit tighter than .039 at one end, and quite a bit wider at the opposite end. Still, it crushed pretty well and my efficiency was in the 70's. I currently have it set at .037 and it seems to be working just fine. I know some people drop it to .035 or below, but I haven't tried pushing my luck too much yet.

 

[ErikH]

I used my Barley Crusher for the first time yesterday. I didn't change it from the factory setting and didn't measure the gap. I got 80% efficiency. Plenty happy with that.

 

[the_bird]

Yeah, I haven't changed it at all and I've been getting close to 80% (up from 55% - 60% using the HBS crush). Seems like a good crush, if anything, a bit on the aggressive side. I personally don't plan on futzing around with it too much, it seems to be pretty much spot-on out of the box.