crush gap

[_Mick_]

Just curious to see what different people set their mill to when crushing.
I've been playing around with mine a bit lately ranging from 0.5-1mm finding a good comprises between efficiency and filtration at about 0.8mm

Cheers
Mick

 

[_Mick_]

Around 80% if anyone was wondering

 

[shaunous]

Mines at .9mm

 

[shaunous]

Also it'll change between mills, roller configuration, size and quality of knurl will all affect it.

 

[_Mick_]

Yeah good call, be interesting to see if the BIABers out there use a finer crush to up the efficiency given that stuck spares aren't an issue.

 

[Camo6]

My Mashmaster minimill is at 1.4 mm atm and while it's a nice looking crush and filters beautifully I think it's the cause of my efficiency drop. I had it at 1.1mm but opened it up due to sticking mash beds which I suspect were more likely caused by changes to my system and process. Serves myself right for making more than one change at a time.

 

[Yob]

I've got mine fairy wide, 1.2mm or some such, gradually bringing it in, still getting to know the MM3

 

[_Mick_]

I found once i went into the 1mm+ range my efficiency started to suffer, not dramatically though. I reckon I've found my sweet spot at 0.8 as long as I'm sparging at a rate to suit.

 

[droid]

keg king here and it's around .042 but it only goes from .25 to 1.0 so is that imperial?

 

[shaunous]

Yeh 40 thou is 1mm

 

[Moad]

1mm, had it finer but my motor struggled with wheat at that width. I find 1mm good for speed and consistency of the crush as well as efficiency on my system

 

[droid]

Yeh 40 thou is 1mm

thanks

 

[shaunous]

thanks

Thou = thousands of an inch. Incase others are trying to translate my imperial jargon.

 

[_Mick_]

Should have specified, I use the keg king mill too (cheap+works well) but I measure the gap with feeler gauges, it's more accurate than relying on their increments.

 

[Spiesy]

People should also specify what your brew system is. 1mm on BIAB is going to yield a very different experience to 1mm on a 3V system.

As long as efficiency is reasonable in my BIAB system (i.e. around 70%), I'm more concerned with repeatability than faffing about to gain an extra couple of points (and save 5c), only to have a beer that isn't exactly what I planned to brew.
Mind you, there can be lots of variables - such as quality of malt (Gladfield is known to give extra efficiency, for example), length of mash, water chemistry, temperature consistency throughout mash, sparging/non-sparging, thickness of mash, etc.
I've hit upwards of 75% on a 1.3mm crush BIAB system before, but I'm generally at 70%.

Going to be interesting to see how this all changes with my Brau this weekend.

 

[Jazzafish]

I run some grain through and inspect. Then tweak gap if needed before running the rest through. Essentially different grain types/brands are different sizes.

Sometimes the same supplier will also differ between batches too as growing conditions change.

So for me the gap width is a moving target

 

[Yob]

I've hit upwards of 75% on a 1.3mm crush BIAB system before, but I'm generally at 70%.

God knows what my efficiency was but last brew as I dint exactly weigh anything or record anything ( there were other factors as well as the crush that were different than the norm) but my first runnings were 1.115 :blink:

 

[RobW]

My Monster mill set at 0.8mm yields around 80% with a 3V system.
For the Brau I run it at 1.2mm for mid to high 70s.

 

[_Mick_]

God knows what my efficiency was but last brew as I dint exactly weigh anything or record anything ( there were other factors as well as the crush that were different than the norm) but my first runnings were 1.115 :blink:

Haha some of my best beers have come from this method

 

[_Mick_]

Other factors aside, I am just curious to see if anyone also has a 'go to' crush gap for their system.
Mine is 0.8mm on my 3v with the kk mill.