Changing Mill Settings For Different Malts

[T.D.]

I have a Barley Crusher mill which I have only put 3 brews through so far. All of those brews have used Powells Ale as the base malt (I used to use JW malts but always had them crushed by the home brew shop). I have been learning more about roller spacings every brew I have done so far and efficiency is on the rise. But now I want to do a brew that uses Joe White Ale as the base malt. I have been told that the JW malt is quite a bit more forgiving when it comes to milling, but even so, I have never actually cracked the stuff myself so I have very little idea of how to set the rollers. So, I was wondering what most people do here when they mill either Powells or Joe White? How do your mill settings differ? What mill settings would you recommend for Joe White?

Cheers. :beer:

 

[sosman]

I have a Barley Crusher mill which I have only put 3 brews through so far. All of those brews have used Powells Ale as the base malt (I used to use JW malts but always had them crushed by the home brew shop). I have been learning more about roller spacings every brew I have done so far and efficiency is on the rise. But now I want to do a brew that uses Joe White Ale as the base malt. I have been told that the JW malt is quite a bit more forgiving when it comes to milling, but even so, I have never actually cracked the stuff myself so I have very little idea of how to set the rollers. So, I was wondering what most people do here when they mill either Powells or Joe White? How do your mill settings differ? What mill settings would you recommend for Joe White?

Cheers. :beer:

[post="102078"][/post]​

I haven't changed my mill settings since I first set it up.

 

[Shunty]

I set mine to 35 thou when i got it and haven't changed it since. 75-80% efficiency and only one stuck runoff (60% wheat malt - was kinda asking for it)

Homebrew scale sparges tend to be pretty forgiving, you're only talking 20-30cm grainbed depth. I wouldn't worry about changing your crush at all

 

[nonicman]

Have even crushed Powells and JW malts together. The best setting is determined by the result sitting in the bucket that catches the crushed grist. No change here between the 2 brands of grain.

 

[Gerard_M]

When using most base malts I find very little variation if any is required in the settings of my Barley Crusher. I use a Black & Decker 2 speed drill. 1st speed is way too fast, the other is even faster. Not too heavy on the trigger finger & you have a whole range of speed variations.I have found that with the Powell's Ale there is a variation in the grain size which means the smaller grains are slipping through without being cracked. To fix this I tighten up the setting and run it through again.
I have also marked my Barley Crusher with the optimum settings for different grains. Tip- when doing this do not use a white board marker!
Basically what ends up in the bucket is your best guide.
Try a few handfuls at a time and see what works best for you.

Cheers
Gerard

 

[T.D.]

Thanks guys.

One small thing though, I know what cracked grain looks like, but what exactly am I looking for when determining the quality of the crush? I guess the most obvious thing is to make sure there aren't any obvious uncracked grains in there, but I have not ever seen a single fully uncracked grain in my past 3 efforts (and I did have a look at the crush carefully each time), yet my efficiency has fluctuated quite a bit depending on the different settings I have used.

 

[wessmith]

You certainly should check what comes out of the mill and adjust accordingly. Aussie barley tends to be much smaller grains than UK/European barley - even in a good season. Wheat malt is usually crushed finer than barley malt as there is no husk to worry about.

The other factor to take into account is the "friability" of the malt. This is sort of like "crushability" but is really a measure of the level of starch modification during malting. Poorly modified malts will have a lower friability and require a finer crush to expose all the starch - including the bits of raw starch left in the ends of the grain. A higher friability malt will literally fall apart in milling at a wider gap than a lower friability malt. As a case in point, those of you that have used the Thomas Fawcett ale malts will know how easy that grain is to mill. The friability rating is one of the key parameters in malt analysis.

At the end of the day none of this matters too much for home brewing - if you are happy with your results, go for it.

Wes

 

[wessmith]

TD, the key point in crushing your malt is to make all the starches available for conversion. Large chunks of starch will never completely convert to sugars as the enzymes cannot get into the chunks during mashing.

At the same time you dont want to totally destroy your husk as you will need this material to set the filter bed. That said, some mash tuns with large open areas and perhaps large holes in them will require a coarser crush to support the mash.

Wes