"Double-milled"?

[Vini2ton]

I got this grain delivered from a reputable mob. As I have no experience in milling malt, having always relied on my home-brew shop retailer for many years to do the fine job he does. To the experienced eyes, does

this look to have been "double-milled"? I brew in a bag, will my wort be less than expected or do I need new glasses?

 

[S.E]

It doesn’t look double milled. It looks perfectly milled to me. A few grains look un-cracked but if you rub them between your fingers do they open up? If so they will expand and crack as soon as they hit the mash.

 

[MHB]

Looks better than a lot of crushes I have seen, could be finer for BIAB. But that's only going to affect the time it takes to extract all the goods into solution. If your not sure just extend your mash time 15-30 minutes.

Out of curiosity - what aren't you happy about, with that malt?
Mark

 

[Vini2ton]

Thanks guys. Its not as fine as I have had from this mob with similar orders and same grain type. I've done a 2 hour mash, so I'll see how it goes. It was just the BIAB issue that I pondered on. BB ale was the malt.

 

[MHB]

Milling is an interesting part of brewing, I think it should get more attention than it does.
What you have there looks to me like what I would expect for a 3V or recirculating system. It will work fine in BIAB but yes you would normally expect a finer crush for BIAB, limit being how fine your bag is.
Understand that its very hard to really tell from a photo.
I help out at Brewman when he's busy, the mill there can be adjusted from 0-6mm in a matter of seconds and people can request their choice of crush. It's a bit of a monster of a mill, but like any other mill it needs cleaning occasionally, needs to have the rolls checked for parallel and the gap settings need calibrating, bearing's lubed...
Point is that milling malt is a bit of an artform as well as a measurement. The same gap will give different crushes on say UK Ale and German Pilsner malts and a bit of having a look at the crush and tweaking the gap on the fly gives a better outcome than just sticking to one setting even if it isn't ideal.
Could be that someone forgot to throw the malt back in for the second pass, that the mill has just been cleaned and re-set and needs a bit of fine tuning, new batch of malt with a bit smaller corn on average, there is a new driver... lots of things. Relax it will mash well, bit of extra time and you will get your normal efficiency, wouldn't surprise me if you got clearer wort and less trub, that's the sort of tradeoffs that keep cropping up in brewing.

I remember when the much missed Thirsty Boy did a mash on un-milled malt and still got ~45% efficiency, that one has always made me think.
Mark