Proud New Owner of a Barley Crusher!

[brewt00l]

I went old school for my first brew with my barley crusher...hand crank!! Milling 11 pounds of grain required a lot more effort than I thought, and it was a little tricky to keep the mill steady while I cranked. But what the heck, exercise is a good thing, and I figured I burned enough calories to enjoy another pint while I brewed.

I have used it on 4 batches so far and I won't be motorizing it. I just put my knee or foot on the left front side of the base and that keeps it steady as she goes.

 

[MussBrew]

What size of hopper did you end up getting?

 

[enderwig]

What size of hopper did you end up getting?

I got the 7 lb hopper and added onto it myself, it's working out pretty good

 

[enderwig]

So, for the last two weeks I have had horrible brewing luck, I must have angered the beer gods in some way. 3 weeks ago, I had a nearly stuck sparge (slow), 2 weeks ago I had a very stuck sparge (resulted in the use of a pot and strainer, and 2 hours of time). So I took last week off. I am pretty sure that I needed it. So this week, I decided to set my barley crusher at .045 instead of .037 and went with a very simple blonde ale recipe. (2 row and crystal 10) And had a wonderfully refreshing brew day, albeit with poor efficiency(71%), but that's OK. So, things are looking up in my brewing world , I guess that I forgot to keep it simple and was pushing the efficiency envelope. Oh well, lesson learned!