What grind gap for my system?

[kohalajohn]

Good evening all. Question about the grind gap.

I have a AIO Brewzilla gen 4 35 liter. I make three gallon batches. Overnight mash with a continuous and gentle vorlauf. Full volume mash, no sparge.

My lhss grinds at 1 ml or .039 inch. He will do a double crush, which helps a bit.

But I know with my system I can go finer.

If I do buy a mill, what gap would you recommend?

 

[tracer bullet]

.030 is kind of standard for a starting point / recommendation

You probably could have kept this in your other mill thread from today.

 

[SFC Rudy]

Crush your grain and check your mash efficiency. If you’re happy with it, that’s your setting. If not, adjust for your next beer and check again.

 

[JohnDBrewer]

With that long of a mash you shouldn't have any issues no matter the crush.

 

[Bassman2003]

I take a different point of view. Make your crush match your most difficult grain bill. Go as fine as you can get away with and still have good flow. For me, this was brewing hefeweizen without the need for rice hulls. So I use a .039 in my Anvil Foundry. But I use a false bottom and a brew bag and actually conduct a lauter to a separate brew pot.

So you see, the mill gap has to fit your system. Blanket recommendations are not the best way. Try a few different gaps with the same grain bill and judge. This is not a sprint and efficiency is not always the main concern. I have a few milling videos on my brewing channel (in my sig.) that I made just for this discussion.

 

[kevin58]

This is the kind of question where 20 people will answer and you will get 25 different answers. You just need to experiment by adjusting the gap yourself until you find what works for you and your system.

 

[kohalajohn]

I see. That is helpful. That is why my guy mills at .039. It works for all his customer's jobs.

I think I'll stay with my guy and have him double crush.

 

[Halfakneecap]

I find it totally depends on the grain im using. I now stick to one base malt after having issues when not adjusting mill gap for the grain. I generally use .037ish for my robo on my base malt.

If i do change base malt, i will do a test crush, see how it looks, and adjust from there. Basically a tight gap, then open it til its just starts crushing.

 

[Bassman2003]

True. I do send wheat malt through twice.

 

[Halfakneecap]

I bring my gap down to .025 for wheat.

 

[Bobby_M]

With a long recirculation like that, finer crushes will just encourage major compaction for no added benefit. Fine crushes are for conversion speed and not without issues.

 

[kohalajohn]

Good. Another reason to overnight mash.

 

[Imhoppy]

This is the kind of question where 20 people will answer and you will get 25 different answers

Also noted is the surplus 5 different answers will be for some question(s) not even asked. Lol