Grinding Coffee in a Barleycrusher

[Bearcat Brewmeister]

Has anyone done this? We buy coffee beans in bulk and grind enough for 3 or 4 days at a time in our burr grinder. Well, the grinder died and I was thinking, "I have this huge grinder in the garage". I was trying to find information on how commercial coffee sellers grind their coffee in bulk and found the commercial roller mills they use in online searches. The specs seem to indicate that for filter coffee, the setting is 500 - 1,000 um (0.019 to 0.039 in.). I don't know how the configuration of the grooves/studs differ between a grain mill and commercial coffee mill are (how well it would grab and pull the coffee through), but I was thinking it might be a possibility.

 

[The Pol]

I roast my own beans and have a burr grinder. I also have a BC malt mill.

I have a hard time beleiving that the BC will grind the coffee fine enough... but to even get to that point you are going to have to get those small diameter rollers to pull in those large, smooth beans. My educated guess is no, it isnt going to work.

 

[TXCrash]

It might work for the coffee but I'd be worried about the coffee oils sticking around and tainting your next brew...

 

[The Pol]

I dont see the crusher pulling the beans in.

Do you have any idea the amount of HP it will take to run COFFEE BEANS through a .019 gap? Hope you have that thing bolted down bro.

 

[malkore]

Yeah, the coffee oils are going to get all over the rollers. And then slowly turn rancid. Thats where bitterness in coffee comes from...old coffee oils. Its the reason I roast my own coffee and use it within a week. Any roasted bean older than 14 days is essentially 'spoiled'.

I also don't see my BC doing a proper grind. A grinder GRINDS...a BC crushes.

 

[The Pol]

I still have serious doubts that a BC will ever pull a nean in. The only reason the rollers work with malt is becuse the kernels are small enough to get pulled in, there comes a point when you are basically placing a marble on some rollers and it will just sit atop the rollers.

 

[Bearcat Brewmeister]

Good point folks. I think some of the industrial models have 5" to 7" diameter rollers, so pulling the bean in is not an issue like it would be with the BC.