Let's talk Mills

[UndeadFred]

One of these days I'll have to have one of you guys with a "good mill" mill a batch for me to see if I'm deluded in thinking my Corona in the bucket with the hammer drill as the drive train is good enough..

Joe's (BIY) mill didn't really count as I always thought his crush was a little coarse... but one of you guys with one of those monsters can do better it would be worth a try..

[czubak]

One of these days I'll have to have one of you guys with a "good mill" mill a batch for me to see if I'm deluded in thinking my Corona in the bucket with the hammer drill as the drive train is good enough..

Joe's (BIY) mill didn't really count as I always thought his crush was a little coarse... but one of you guys with one of those monsters can do better it would be worth a try..

Joe's is the same as mine, so count me out. You can ask him to adjust it ya know

[Matt F]

I crush mine at sort of a standard gap size and seem to pulverize the grain pretty good. Was never a problem until I went from 1.5 qts/lbs to 1.1 qts/lbs recently to squeeze 38 lbs. of grain including a couple pounds of flaked oats in my keggle mashtun. The pump could not get the usual flow going in my HERMS setup and I ended up decocting to raise mash temps.

My mill is adjustable but to do so you have to loosen two screws to adjust the detent knob. I never adjust mine though so have not had issues with it. The knob adjusters on a lot of mills look easier to use if you think you will be adjusting crush.

[karl]

Joe's (BIY) mill at the Marion location is a JSP Maltmill. I have the same mill but made about 10 years ago. Because I have my own I've never had Joe or Nikki mill my grain. But, I can say that I've been pretty happy with the crush on my mill. I can get efficiency in the low 80's and don't have problems stuck mashes or fines in the runoff.

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[UndeadFred]

One of the factors why I probably do not care about my ghetto Corona mill is that I have always mashed in a cooler lined with voile fabric. I am going to alternate between that and a wilserbrewer bag I just got straight in the keggle, but I suspect the problem many might have is that any "cheap" mill is going to have inconsistent fines in it.. I am dying to try the PID controlled recirc mash (I have it working) and then a boil in that pot.. but I am so overstocked on beer right now I am considering not brewing until I kick one more keg...

I am a coffee nut and roast my own: the grinder is critical for good coffee extraction.. well, unless you always use a filter-- and then you just need to make sure what you are using doesn't re-roast the coffee due to the angular momentum (blade grinders) or friction (cheap burr).... fines don't matter as much if you always use a filter.

I suspect if I wasn't using the voile I might notice the difference... but a curtain is about $1.50 a panel.. so.. I doubt it I will remove it from the system. I never need rice hulls that way either...

Fred

[andrewmaixner]

Yes, you are right Fred. A "proper crush" is much more important in traditional non-BIAB applications, where they need to get the right balance between "crushed enough" and "not crushed too much" for efficiency but not a stuck sparge/drain.
With mesh bags, that is much much less important, you can basically grind the crap out of it and get better efficiency.

[Eric B]

Yes, you are right Fred. A "proper crush" is much more important in traditional non-BIAB applications, where they need to get the right balance between "crushed enough" and "not crushed too much" for efficiency but not a stuck sparge/drain.
With mesh bags, that is much much less important, you can basically grind the crap out of it and get better efficiency.

I don't know. When I do my no sparge method (similar to BIAB but no mesh bag) I do a normal crush as I would any batch and still get around 80% mash efficiency.

[UndeadFred]

The sad thing is I get MULTIPLE stuck sparges in the cooler, but you tug a little and it starts right back up again..