How does this crush look?

[Turfgrass]

I use the Barley Crusher Malt Mill to crush the grains down to there .39 thousands gap recommendation. Couple pics of 2-row. What to you think? Thank you.

 

[Jag75]

I can smell it from here ! Looks good to me.

 

[wilserbrewer]

I think I smell some whole kernels, tough to tell from the picture.

Are there any whole or uncrushed kernels?

 

[Staticsouls]

Looks fine to me, what brew method are you using?

 

[RM-MN]

I think I see particles that are so large that their starches will not fully gelatinize which will affect your mash efficiency as the starch will not convert to sugars until gelatinized. I'd be tempted to crush finer but then add rice hulls to help avoid a stuck mash.

 

[Turfgrass]

Maybe some larger particles, but definitely not left with any whole kernels. I’ll double check the roller gap.

 

[Turfgrass]

Looks fine to me, what brew method are you using?

I have a 3 vessel HERMS system. I used a bag for the first time in my MT as an experiment and it worked great.

 

[RM-MN]

I have a 3 vessel HERMS system. I used a bag for the first time in my MT as an experiment and it worked great.

If you plan to use the bag in your MT every time, you can crush finer. Just watch the water/wort level as the circulation of your HERMS will tend to clog up the pores in the bag and can cause it to overflow. The finer the crush, the faster and more complete the conversion will be.

 

[Turfgrass]

If you plan to use the bag in your MT every time, you can crush finer. Just watch the water/wort level as the circulation of your HERMS will tend to clog up the pores in the bag and can cause it to overflow. The finer the crush, the faster and more complete the conversion will be.

I’m use to doing a 60 min mash and then doing an iodine text for completeness. When do you start check for a finished mash? Thanks for the tip.

 

[jaymosbeershack]

Look into conditioning your grain. A simple prosses of sraying water over the gain before milling. Will alow you to mill very fine wothout pulverizing the husks ( i do .028 and never have a stuck mash((unless im using 50%rye))) As far as the iodine test, most conversion is completed after 20 minutes of mashing. The rest of the mash is more to help extract that sugar.

 

[RM-MN]

I’m use to doing a 60 min mash and then doing an iodine text for completeness. When do you start check for a finished mash? Thanks for the tip.

I experimented with that and with my first try and a very fine crush I decided to sample at 5 minutes and every 5 minutes after that until the iodine showed no color change. It turned out that 5 minutes was too long. Now your crush cannot be as fine as mine or you WILL plug up the pores in the bag but I'd probably take the first sample at 10 minutes, then every 5 after that if you want to know. You may have to repeat the experiment to see for sure.

With that said, do not stop the mash too quickly or you get the alcohol in the beer but no flavor. Extracting the flavor seems to take longer. I don't recommend stopping until at least 30 minutes even if the conversion is complete before then.

 

[Dog House Brew]

I run a 3 vessel HERMS too. I run my mill at .032. I use a Wilser bag in my 120qt MT. My mashes are usually 90 min by the time I step and rise to MO. I usually mash thick at around 1-1.2qt/lb. I try to maximize my sparge volume.
Your crush looks like it could be finer to me, especially if your using a bag. I’ve tried to go super fine, but there is a “fine” line when recirculating. If your not recirculating, I’d go fine. Just MO of course.

 

[doug293cz]

I’m use to doing a 60 min mash and then doing an iodine text for completeness. When do you start check for a finished mash? Thanks for the tip.

If you just sample the wort (no grits) the iodine test can show that your mash is "complete" before all the starch has gelatinized. Gelatinization is normally the slowest step in the conversion process (known as the rate controlling step), so you can have starch remaining in the grits while there is no starch in the wort. If you have starch remaining in the grits at the end of your mash, your conversion efficiency will be less than 100%. A better way to test for mash completeness is to monitor the SG of the wort (always stir before sampling). Learn more about this method here.

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