The dreaded grain mill issues thread

[tennesseean_87]

Another update from yesterday's second brew, a quad at 1.092 with 2lbs sugar and 16.X lbs grain. I tightened the gap to .035" for this one one after the .040" on the 1.050 brown.

Recirculation was still way better than my Corona crush, and I hit planned 70% efficiency on a bigger beer. The brown ale at average strength got 68-9%, which isn't far off, but I usually lose efficiency on higher gravity beers. This may have partially been due to the 90 minute boil and a little extra water to compensate. FWIW I do a dunk sparge for a few minutes in a 10 gal bucket with some stirring.

The grain feeding was flawless, confirming that it was the re-milling of the first bit as I was dialing in my crush that caused the issue with the brown ale batch.

Re: some of the debate above about gap size, it seems the maltsters supplying pre-crush probably have in mind commercial setups which may vary from a home-brew setup, especially BIAB. I've read that the courser crush that enables better recirculation gives the best efficiency for eBIAB. In the past I've noticed looser crush giving me worse efficiency, and I've had issues with recirc rate. So far the MM3G seems to be giving me better recirc rates and about the same efficiency (maybe better for the quad mash), which at least frees me from babysitting the mash to get other stuff done. The Corona seemed to yield a fairly inconsistent crush--some large/whole, lots of small particles and flour. I may try a bit tighter to see how that works out. I may also try a different 'sparge' manifold for the recirc to see it that helps efficiency or recirc (I currently recirc back into the center of the mash a few inches deep with streams pointing out).

P. S. the whirpool return I also recirc through allows more power to be used in step mashes without bag burning or scorching. Thanks for the idea on that, @Bobby_M . Thicker mash with a sparge also helps these steps go quicker.

One thing I forgot to mention is that I did a protein rest on the Quad mash, which may have had an impact on increased efficiency (I feel like I get a few more points when I do this).

 

[tljljc]

I have THE BARLEY CRUSHER MALT MILL that has stopped working. The roller that is attached to the spinning arm is rolling but the other roller is not. This happened after I tried to adjust the gap to the width of a credit card. Is it fixable i could not get in contact with the company.
Thanks
Tom

 

[day_trippr]

Swap the rollers and run the mill in reverse...

Cheers!

 

[IslandLizard]

Swap the rollers and run the mill in reverse...

Cheers!

Can it be simply turned over, upside down, then driven in reverse?

 

[day_trippr]

You can't flip the mill chassis over because the end plates are not symmetric - the mounting points for the hopper have to be on top. Also, you can't literally "swap" the drive roller with the driven roller because the adjusters on the driven-roller side aren't going anywhere. So you actually "flip" each roller over and put it back in the "same place" but now the drive roller's stem pokes through the "other end" of the mill, which means the drive roller has to rotate in the opposite direction.

These might help visualize this. The first shot shows my current primary mill Cereal Killer, but the Barley Crusher was in the exact same spot originally. The drive shaft rotates counter-clockwise here.

This shows my Barley Crusher in the same orientation as above (adjuster to the left) after flipping the rollers.

Finally, here's the BC with flipped rollers from the drive shaft end (and the adjuster now to the right).

I could have moved my gear motor over to match the relocated drive shaft - the BC itself truly works great in reverse - but frankly for $99 I was ready for a whole new mill with hardened rollers for most work and use the BC for specials like wheat, oats and rye.

Also, that GE gear motor is a bit more powerful running in its "forward" rotation - I think it was like 5 inch pounds - which is more significant than it sounds when the "good" direction is only 40 inch pounds

Cheers!

 

[IslandLizard]

You can't flip the mill chassis over because the end plates are not symmetric

Ah!

These might help visualize this.

Yes, it surely does. Thank you for the detailed illustrations!

 

[Dave Parry]

Check out this thread I replied on. A temporary solution at least - and cheap.

Post in thread 'DIY Smooth roller grain mill project. Any tips?'
DIY Smooth roller grain mill project. Any tips?