The (soon to be) great "How's my crush?" Thread!

[jerrylotto]

Mine is powered by 1650 RPM washing machine motor, pulley ratioed down about a factor of four to about 400 (2" d pulley on the motor, 8" d on the mill) It crushes fast but evenly and I can process 10 lb in about a minute with a .022" gap

 

[GoeHaarden]

God help me I was trying to start an honest thread about mill gap.

This thread had potential.

Post your grain pic, the mill and gap you used, your efficiency, and move on.

If I was new here and I read your OP, then it might scare me into thinking that my off flavor is somehow related to the crush, then I would wonder why my efficiency dropped off. Claiming you can taste a difference in your crush when all other numbers are the same is laughable.

squeeze the ever-loving schitt out of my grain bag.

Maybe this is your problem...

Maybe we all should just crack each husk by hand

 

[MON5TER]

I can taste the difference with my grain crush. But I was told licking the mill wheels is stupid and dangerous…..so I can’t taste it any more.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

I was trying to start an honest thread about mill gap.

And, if one skips over the (attempts at) humor, there's actually interesting content here.

but after a few dozen batches I found myself chasing down the source of an unpleasant bitter husk flavor, and tweaked a bunch of things before finally trying a wider mill gap.

I had an off flavor that no amount of googling could help; it was only after a ridiculous degree of troubleshooting (I learnded water chem(ish) and bought an RO setup!...) and looking at everything else did I eventually look at my crush.

It took me a long time to recognize my own issue with a subtle but persistent bitter off flavor as a husk issue. Sounds simple now in retrospect but I did a lot of work to isolate the problem.

My brewhouse efficiency is 70%, I hit my numbers every time

Indeed we are! I'm an avid user of lactic acid to adjust my pH, but there exists a flavor from the 'mud' that overly milled husk produces.

 

[AkTom]

I have nothing to add..., I just want to be a part of such an epic thread

 

[bracconiere]

10 lb in about a minute with a .022" gap

10lbs ina minute at 022? i'd like to see a pic next time you mill some grain. it takes me about 10-15 minutes at 026

 

[DBhomebrew]

I BIAB with a wilserbag. My crush is fairly tight, a good amount of flour. Somewhere between yours and bracc's. I dunk sparge once and let gravity do the work of lautering.

How long do you mash? Long enough, the crush makes less difference as far as conversion and mash efficiency go.

Do you get 70% brewhouse every time? No matter the gravity? If so, are your preboil volumes always the same? By which method do you measure volume?

What are your mash efficiencies like? Brewhouse takes into account factors further down the chain that have no bearing on the crush, conversion, or lauter and gets in the way of comparing to others' BIAB experiences. With just gravity and a single sparge, my 1.040-45 beers regularly hit 90% mash efficiency, 95% conversion.

In your exhaustive search for the grainy off-flavor, had you tried skipping the garrote? You squeeze the schitt out of it, maybe the schitt is just that and better left in the grain bed? With just gravity, I lose .0875gal/lb. What's your absorption rate?

ETA: My thought is that the coarse crush gives you less schitt to squeeze out, but your garotting might be more effort than it's worth. Is the tight crush the problem or is the loose crush preventing the unwanted effect of garotting? Is the garotting really needed? All questions of personal preference, of course.

 

[bracconiere]

here's what i got running my drill as slow as it would go, and still have the torque to crush the grain.

my husks are still pretty torn up, but the grain looks a bit finer...

so that's what a gap of 026, run at ~100RPM looks like. sparges fine with a bazooka tube in a round cooler.

i've always heard crush till you're scared, and i have no sense of taste, so i can't comment on the husk flavor.

next time i mill some wheat or oats, i'll snap a shot and post it here.

 

[bracconiere]

anybody who conditions their grain before milling reading this? this thread could use a pic of their intact husks?

 

[day_trippr]

I do but I've never taken a pic. I'll try to remember to do that next brew.
Meanwhile, imagine much longer husk pieces that are kind of curly...

Cheers!

 

[bracconiere]

I do but I've never taken a pic. I'll try to remember to do that next brew.
Meanwhile, imagine much longer husk pieces that are kind of curly...

Cheers!

i'd appreciate it....and for the time being i have an image of mini-bananna peels in my head......

 

[bobtheUKbrewer2]

sieve and discard half the husks ?

 

[day_trippr]

Good grief ^why^?
Husks are our friends! Especially if they are fluffy and largely intact!
Get your water chemistry right if you're afraid of tannins....

Cheers!

 

[bracconiere]

^why^?

you know rice hulls ain't cheap unless you buy a bale from the garden store, maybe save up extra barley husks to save on a planed batch of hefe or something?

 

[day_trippr]

lol! That makes no sense at all

 

[bracconiere]

lol! That makes no sense at all

wait, the math is clear if they charge $1.50 a pound for rice hulls at the brew shop, and you only need like %50-60 barley hulls for an all barley sparge to flow....

but honestly, i'm actually trying not to have a sense of humor here, people tell me it's not any good, and stay true to the founder of the threads intentions, i do look forward to that pic of conditioned malt

 

[day_trippr]

lmao! Dude, drink some water once in awhile ffs

Anyway...I wonder what percentage of barley the husk is by weight, and how that compares by volume to rice hulls.
I have a feeling half the husks from my typical ~20-22 pound grain bills wouldn't amount to all that much volume...

Cheers!

 

[bracconiere]

Dude, drink some water once in awhile ffs

yeah well, i'm drinking afternoon coffee now.....for some reason drinking water makes it hard to breath, and i feel like i'm suffocating.....

you are right, i doubt saving barley husks would amount to much...but to jayjay, maybe conditioning would let him keep the husks intact and mill finer for better then 70% effec....

 

[Erik the Anglophile]

lmao! Dude, drink some water once in awhile ffs

Anyway...I wonder what percentage of barley the husk is by weight, and how that compares by volume to rice hulls.
I have a feeling half the husks from my typical ~20-22 pound grain bills wouldn't amount to all that much volume...

Cheers!

Tbf beer is mostly water, and contains more minerals and vitamins, so it is like drinking water but even better!

 

[bracconiere]

Tbf beer is mostly water, and contains more minerals and vitamins, so it is like drinking water but even better!

i know i fueled it, but i swear i didn't start this...


but who was it that made a comment about drinking water and the nasty things fish do in it, and how he'd never drink it?

@Jayjay1976 if you feel like smackin some faces and getting this thread back on the rails with your earned "OP" sash on your avatar, feel free, lol

edit: i just want to see more crush porn!

 

[soccerdad]

i've always heard crush till you're scared, and i have no sense of taste

Not having a sophisticated pallet can be a real dilemma. I would have no clue how to determine that husks were even a flavor. I guess I'm just saying me too. No sense of taste.

 

[Bassman2003]

I made two videos exploring different crushes and mills speeds. In the end I found the small, "flour" gaps were no better than larger gaps. I now crush at .038" with an RPM of ~45. These videos are on my YT channel listed in the signature if anybody is interested.

 

[bwible]

I have an old school JSP geared malt mill and the gap is not adjustable to my knowledge. I don’t have any fancy geared motors. I run it with an old, corded $39 Black and Decker drill. I try to run the drill as low as it will go, I do alot of start/stop quick bursts. The hopper on the JSP only holds about 2 pounds. It tears through it pretty quick.

Works fine for me as I’m doing 3 gallon batches and my average grain bill is somewhere between 6.5 and 8 lbs.

I’m running my recipes through BeerTools software, putting 83% for efficiency and I’m hitting the numbers spot on. I’m adjusting my mash water with gypsum, since my water report from Ward shows low calcium and low sulfate. Calcium is important to the mash. After the gypsum addition I bring the mash ph into range with a couple ounces of acidulated malt. I had been creating recipes at 70% efficiency prior to adding gypsum and acidulated malt. These 2 minor changes brought me up to 83%. So I agree water chemistry matters. Who knew?

I’m using an Anvil Foundry 6.5 for the mash. Loving the temp control. But I don’t boil in the Foundry. I drain into to my kettle for the boil without pulling the basket. I found I can pull crystal clear wort if I don’t lift the basket. As soon as I lift the basket, the wort becomes muddy.

Thanks for letting me be part of this epic thread.

 

[ChiknNutz]

Just adding some add'l discussion fodder to the mix. I use a Cereal Killer set to a credit card thickness. I double crush and get more flour and smaller bits than what you show. I also am a single vessel BIAB brewer. My palette is not refined enough to discern the nuances you speak of, I am lucky if I can pick out which hop contributed what.

 

[soccerdad]

Not sure how a good a pic
Crush this am for a steam beer

I

 

[hout17]

Mill set to .032" gap (feeler gauge adjusted) getting ready to brew. Crushed using hand crank no power tools.

This is for batch sparge.

 

[bracconiere]

Crushed using hand crank no power tools.

i hope that's a measuring CUP and not a 5 gallon bucket then! otherwise i won't be able to sleep tonight, and i've got to get up early for work!


i gotta say though, that's a weird looking crush.....

 

[hout17]

i hope that's a measuring CUP and not a 5 gallon bucket then! otherwise i won't be able to sleep tonight, and i've got to get up early for work!


i gotta say though, that's a weird looking crush.....

Nah it's a two gallon bucket crushed for a 5 gallon English mild recipe. It's about 7.75 pounds of grain.

Weird? Might be the photo it looks great on my end also might be that I was shaking it as I ground towards the end to make it fit in the 2 gallon bucket so some of the good stuff probably dropped down showing more of the hulls. We are mashing away currently.

 

[bracconiere]

Weird?

it just looks like it's a fine crush....but like someone did the rolling pin, or hammer thing to it?

edit: what i'm saying it looks like you sifted out the flour, and added rice hulls?

 

[Jayjay1976]

Mill set to .032" gap (feeler gauge adjusted) getting ready to brew. Crushed using hand crank no power tools.

This is for batch sparge.

View attachment 737873

I'd mash that.