Finer Crush For Biab

[Bribie G]

Ross (or other suppliers) - If a customer orders a reasonable amount of base malt, say 20k, is it feasible to do a finer crush for BIAB purposes or would this involve too much fiddling around with resetting etc?

 

[t2000kw]

Ross (or other suppliers) - If a customer orders a reasonable amount of base malt, say 20k, is it feasible to do a finer crush for BIAB purposes or would this involve too much fiddling around with resetting etc?

Have you considered getting your own crusher? It may seem pricey, but you can store your grain longer, and you can crush it fresh just before brewing.

The Corona mill isn't the best, but it is not expensive, especially if you can get it used. Careful adjustment of the plates can get a decent crush. I used to use one for all grain brewing and got good results with very little flour, no stuck mashes in the lauter tun, etc. It should be fine for BIAB, and you can crush very fine if you wish, even to the point of making flour with it, which is its intended purpose, really.

I finally bought a Valley Mill (now out of production) on eBay, but the Schmidling mill is possibly a bit better and has a lifetime guarantee, I believe (at least on the rollers). It would be my choice. He has an adjustable version, which is probably what you would want. For typical all grain brewing (not BIAB), you wouldn't need the adjustability, and Jack actually recommends against it even though he charges more for that feature.

There are others available, of course, and each has its benefits. The less expensive Phil Mill is also reported to do a good job. I don't remember if it is adustable or not.

Donald

 

[kram]

Bribie, with the AUD rising fairly well i'd recommend finding someone else who's keen on a new mill and grabbing the Monster Mill 2 from the states. Two will fit in the same package for postage purposes which is around the $40 mark.

 

[Ross]

Ross (or other suppliers) - If a customer orders a reasonable amount of base malt, say 20k, is it feasible to do a finer crush for BIAB purposes or would this involve too much fiddling around with resetting etc?

In answer to your question yes, will crush finer with any volume if requested - Though to be honest, I don't think you will gain anything

Cheers Ross

 

[pdilley]

Ross (or other suppliers) - If a customer orders a reasonable amount of base malt, say 20k, is it feasible to do a finer crush for BIAB purposes or would this involve too much fiddling around with resetting etc?

if you are not in a rush Im waiting to see the pan out of AUD to USD from the World GFC and then go in for a joint shipping order for one each.

 

[Sammus]

Yeah if the aud/usd was a bit better I would've picked up a monster2.0 3 roller, but ended up with a millmaster instead. Does the job quite nicely TBH I'm not sure why everyone switched boats, bailing on the millmaster and getting a monster.

 

[kram]

I couldn't resist a MM2 for $100AUD incl delivery!

Bribie, it would be interesting to hear the results of the finer crush if you go that way.

 

[Sammus]

I couldn't resist a MM2 for $100AUD incl delivery!

Wow when was that? Even the cheapest 1.5"diameter Monster mill is 104USD pre delivery, which works out to about $200aud delivered...

 

[kram]

When they had a few 'scratch and dent' items which were just rollers which had minimal double knurling at one end. So NickB and I got one each and the dollar was nearly even with the US. Doesn't affect the crush in the slightest, basically cosmetic flaws.

 

[Bribie G]

Wow I didn't realise they were that cheap, I thought anything better than a Marga would be up in the three or four hundreds. The thing is that for my house beer I'm paying $3.60 a kilo crushed from Ross and if I get it for say $2.50 on a bulk buy it's going to take me an awful long time to pay off a mill, but I suppose If I could get one in the foreseeable for $150 if the resources stocks improve and China gets going and the A$ rises.... Definitely.

I've just ordered a couple of brews worth from Ross today pretty late on so if they haven't got round to it yet I'll see if he'll be kind enough to do me a fine crush and I'll see how it goes. Tasted the spent grain from my regular crushed mash today and there wasn't much sugaz left in it to my taste, after a bit of a dunk sparge on the side, but I'll try anything once. Well almost anything

 

[pdilley]

Yeah, the crankandstein was? $74 USD last I saw, or was I confusing it with another make?

I think I read that the commercial guys use 6+ rollers in the crush, so 2 roller, 3 roller gives home brewers something to talk about but not sure how much benefit to additional cost. Maybe some of the guys that have used both could chime in with some first hand experience.

If you don't want to wait let me know

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

EDIT: Correction http://www.crankandstein.net/index.php?mai...p;products_id=3

 

[flattop]

I would also like a mill but $200 is putting me off, i've already sunk $220 into an urn, that will take a bit of brewing to pay off, the Melbourne bulk buy has come around and the savings are plain to see, mind you one of my grain suppliers is fairly reasonable on price.
The other issue is space and setup, although my house is big enough i don't have a room for brewing and can't use the garage so a mill is another thing to store away and setup when i need it. Perhaps the convenience of buying crushed grain outweighs the cost aspect

 

[Bribie G]

No hurry, Pete, we're moving (locally) next month and I've just put in my last pre move order of milled grain to Ross so everything will be brewed, bottled and the kit mothballed. Then when we get into the new place and the brewery has been re-established I'll be considering getting a mill. Late June earliest. If we get one each, freight within Aus isn't too bad. Or meet Dubbo for the delivery?

 

[pdilley]

Thats a bit bloody inland for an island guy!

Still you're moving closer to me all the time

I'll have to see if the Canberra Brewers Club has any info on good buys around between now and then as well.

If I can't swing a holiday off work then can just fallback to freight.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[T.D.]

In answer to your question yes, will crush finer with any volume if requested - Though to be honest, I don't think you will gain anything

Cheers Ross

Why don't you think there would be any gain from a finer crush? I have always found my efficiency improves significantly if I crush finer or crush twice. The only thing holding me back is the increased likelihood of a stuck sparge as I use a false botton. But with biab that problem doesn't apply. And with the fine mesh of a biab bag I would think you'd want to crush as fine as possible. In these days of higher prices etc I reckon you might as well try and get the most out of your grain.

So good to hear you're offering to crush finer for biab folk!

 

[Kai]

Ross (or other suppliers) - If a customer orders a reasonable amount of base malt, say 20k, is it feasible to do a finer crush for BIAB purposes or would this involve too much fiddling around with resetting etc?

Any good HBS should tweak their crush to suit your requirements... as Ross has said he would. It always annoys the crap out of me when I get a coarse crush and lose 10% or so on efficiency.

Also worth saying that a finer crush is as relevant (and usable) to a well-tweaked lauter tun as it is to BIAB. How much do you BIABers find your efficiency varies based on crush?

 

[flattop]

Haven't done enough BIAB to confidently answer but the finer the crush the more trub in the urn, this much i know, flour passes through the weave.
I think that Bribie is probably right though, a finer crush will probably create and environment for better sugar extraction.
In the end i suspect this is topic is more about exploring BIAB to it's limitations than actual efficiency.
If we can get more sugars from a finer crush great... will it impact significantly on overall efficiency, i don't know, i suspect Bribie already had tweaked his process to get a fair amount of efficiency already...

 

[Kai]

Haven't done enough BIAB to confidently answer but the finer the crush the more trub in the urn, this much i know, flour passes through the weave.
I think that Bribie is probably right though, a finer crush will probably create and environment for better sugar extraction.

Aye, a finer crush definitely will expose more of the grain for sugar extraction (without getting into the coarse crush & floating mash theory). It's getting the sugar out of the mash that poses more difficulty, and I found myself wondering how well this fares in a bag.

 

[Damian44]

I was getting 70% with default setting on my mill. I tightened the gap (cant remember how much) and now i get 76%. I could go alot finer if i wanted.

 

[Bribie G]

This morning I posted a recipe for the fairly strong UK pale ale I mashed in this morning, in the 'what are you brewing 2' thread and Scotsman asked me for the Beersmith file. I don't use software (yet) so he offered to run the recipe through beersmith for me, and based on the OG of the wort at cube time I got 73 % efficiency. Considering that it's one of the biggest grain bills I have BIABd so far, and the OG ended up a handy 1054, I'm quite encouraged with that and it's a challenge to see if I can go better, as I've heard of BIABBers getting far better.
Of course I've been using the standard crush from Ross so If I can get onto him early enough tomorrow and get my new order finer crushed, it will be interesting to see how it goes for the next brews.

Good incentive to get Beersmith