Beer Forum

Hey all,
I just got a Barley Crusher and some bulk grain after years of having the LHBS do the milling. So, I have a couple of questions for you fine fellows;
I know vaguely that you can/should mill certain grains finer than others. Can anyone explain this and/or tell me which grains you mill finer (more finely?) or point me towards this info?

Oh, and second, is the deault setting on the Barley Crusher pretty close for regular base malt or will I be tightening her up (the mill)?

Wheat and rye kernels are a little smaller than barley, so you can tighten the mill up a little on them if you want.

Also, some recommend that you crush the living shit out of some of the roasted grains (like roasted barley) with an espresso grinder if you are adding very small amounts for coloring or very light flavor contributions only.

Flaked grains such as flaked barley or flaked oats or flaked maize don't require any crushing at all. Same with torrified grains like torrified wheat. Running them through the mill won't hurt any, though.

Otherwise, I don't really know of any reason to mill differently. If there is a reason, I'm all ears.

I believe the default setting on the BC is .039". On reccommendation of my LHBS, I set mine using a credit card which ended up being .032". I'm getting 75%-80% efficiency and am happy with it.

Thanks for the helpful replies guys! I'll be giving it a shot this weekend on a Saison (seems to be the thing to be brewing at the moment!)

bashcraft wrote:I believe the default setting on the BC is .039". On reccommendation of my LHBS, I set mine using a credit card which ended up being .032". I'm getting 75%-80% efficiency and am happy with it.

I got mine set at the default (.039") and I'm getting about 75% efficiency. Didn't adjust lower like some have said, to about .035" because I don't have any feeler gauges and I'm lazy. Cool trick with the credit card though...I'll have to try that. Mastercard or American Express?

TheDarkSide wrote:

bashcraft wrote:I believe the default setting on the BC is .039". On reccommendation of my LHBS, I set mine using a credit card which ended up being .032". I'm getting 75%-80% efficiency and am happy with it.

I got mine set at the default (.039") and I'm getting about 75% efficiency. Didn't adjust lower like some have said, to about .035" because I don't have any feeler gauges and I'm lazy. Cool trick with the credit card though...I'll have to try that. Mastercard or American Express?

I think I used a Visa, but they're probably all the same.

I have my BC at the factory gap setting. While you can go slightly finer on wheat and rye, I don't bother. I get typically get 83% efficiency on my medium gravity beers with OGs around 1.067. My efficiency went up about 8% from when I used the JSP mill at my LHBS. I'm sure the JSP would give the same efficiency, but I don't think the one at my LHBS was every really calibrated.

Thanks guys. Tomorrow is brew day (I'll be running up the starter with my also brand new stir plate ), so, I'll try some milling today, get a feel for it. I'll let you know what efficiency I hit - I've been pretty variable in the past and I really want to try to standardize my process and results now (as preached by the wisdom of Tasty) so I can control my variables better.