First Crush Of Marga Mill

[gava]

hey guys, my first attempt at my modded marga mill..

I've never milled before and I can't remember how my crushed grain was the first time..

below is a pic of my milled grain (sorry about phone pics i can't get pics off the camera lost cord)

Also if anyone knows how to hook up a motor instead of a power drill I'd love to know..

 

[anc001]

looks a bit too fine AFAIK, though its a fairly crappy pic TBH

 

[Mantis]

Thats about what I get out of mine with the finest crush gap. But I BIAB so fine is ok.
Others with more experience should answer soon

 

[Fourstar]

The grain should still be intact but breaks apart into itty bitty pieces when pressed or pulled in your hands.
Thats probably a standard crush, the finer you go from there the higher your chanes are of stuck sparges + tannin extraction.

The upside of a finer crush like yours currently is a faster conversion and increased efficiency (efficiency is proportional to how long you mash for + sparge method + manifold to tun design.)

Cheers!

 

[technocat]

After reading here that fine crushes may be a distortion of fact (ie: crush as fine as you can without getting a stuck sparge) so to get better efficiency, I adjusted my Marga to go a bit coarser and the result after never been able to get out of the low 70"s I finally managed to climb to 81.5% efficiency. My run off was much better with my sparge and in retrospect I feel that my lousy efficiency was probably due to channeling so that my sparge water was missing missing a lot of sugar. Reason grain bed compaction. Thanks for the tip seems I am heading in the right direction.


Cheers :icon_cheers:

 

[Fourstar]

Hey beernut,

give a listen to basic brewing radio. it has a good session on mash efficiency
January 24, 2008 - Mash Tun Efficiency - with john Palmer

There is also a new one i'm about to download to get further down lows is:
March 19, 2009 - Mash and Lauter Efficiency - with Kai Troester.

As i said, all that a finer crush allows is faster conversion and an increase in conversion %. sure that's the 1st step but if you cant get that conversion out of your mash tun (like your experience), you are really just doing yourself an injustice. With everyone, you just have to try and find the 'sweet spot'.

Cheers!

 

[technocat]

Hey beernut,

give a listen to basic brewing radio. it has a good session on mash efficiency
January 24, 2008 - Mash Tun Efficiency - with john Palmer

There is also a new one i'm about to download to get further down lows is:
March 19, 2009 - Mash and Lauter Efficiency - with Kai Troester.

As i said, all that a finer crush allows is faster conversion and an increase in conversion %. sure that's the 1st step but if you cant get that conversion out of your mash tun (like your experience), you are really just doing yourself an injustice. With everyone, you just have to try and find the 'sweet spot'.

Cheers!

Yes mate I hear what you are saying

 

[dicko]

hey guys, my first attempt at my modded marga mill..

I've never milled before and I can't remember how my crushed grain was the first time..

below is a pic of my milled grain (sorry about phone pics i can't get pics off the camera lost cord)

Also if anyone knows how to hook up a motor instead of a power drill I'd love to know..

Hi Gava,

I used a Marga for the first 18 months of my AG brewing and I found that when it was driven with a drill I had to keep the speed the same at every crush or I found that the faster I drove it with the drill the more it tended to "tear" the grain and with this tearing I got a higher efficiency.
Of course you will get to a point when the speed just tears the grain to pieces resulting in a crush that is too fine.
Keeping the drill speed the same each time is extremely difficult with a variable speed drill.
I found I was better using a two speed fixed control type drill to keep the crush close to the same each time.
I hope this helps

Cheers

 

[gava]

Hi Gava,

I used a Marga for the first 18 months of my AG brewing and I found that when it was driven with a drill I had to keep the speed the same at every crush or I found that the faster I drove it with the drill the more it tended to "tear" the grain and with this tearing I got a higher efficiency.
Of course you will get to a point when the speed just tears the grain to pieces resulting in a crush that is too fine.
Keeping the drill speed the same each time is extremely difficult with a variable speed drill.
I found I was better using a two speed fixed control type drill to keep the crush close to the same each time.
I hope this helps

Cheers

I did find using a drill maunally did give me mixed results...

What may I expect from my brew day with too fine grain? and what can I do to fix?

I had a look of my grain v's the "how to brew" dvd and it looks close..

 

[dicko]

I did find using a drill maunally did give me mixed results...

What may I expect from my brew day with too fine grain? and what can I do to fix?

I had a look of my grain v's the "how to brew" dvd and it looks close..

Does the grist have any wheat in it?
If the quantity of wheat is high you may find a stuck sparge is possible.
To prevent this you could use rice hulls in the mash.
The crush doesn't look to bad to me, I would give it a go.
As a few have said above there is a lot depending on the design of mash tun as well.

Cheers

 

[gava]

Does the grist have any wheat in it?
If the quantity of wheat is high you may find a stuck sparge is possible.
To prevent this you could use rice hulls in the mash.
The crush doesn't look to bad to me, I would give it a go.
As a few have said above there is a lot depending on the design of mash tun as well.

Cheers

Yeah I might give it a go...

my mashtun is a Willow Esky (55lt) with a BeerBelly False with and a SS bottom for the false..

 

[gava]

well.. had my brew day on sunday with the above grain.. hit my OG spot on....grain bed sat fantastic, it seem to work pretty well... Might just leave it now

 

[Pollux]

In the interest of not creating a duplicate thread..

I just did my first test crush on my marga mill, handful of ale malt hand crushed....




I didn't adjust the second gap as I was unable to find feeler gauges at Bunnings, but did adjust the feed gap to the widest setting.

It may be a touch fine, but as I BIAB the idea of a stuck sparge is not an issue hopefully...

Any opinions appreciated before I set about cracking 5+ kilos tomorrow night.

 

[gava]

I didn't adjust the second gap as I was unable to find feeler gauges at Bunnings, but did adjust the feed gap to the widest setting.

I was wondering how you'd get the size.. I just did mine by eye.. might fine one of those tools and see how close I was..

 

[mika]

Looks okay to me, maybe a little fine but certainly won't be an issue for BIAB

 

[Steve]

Pollux there looks like a lot of empty husks there and lots of chunks of the white inside bits (is that what people refer to as tearing?) Mine a more whole when they come out but cracked so when you put one between finger and thumb they break easily like fourstar mentioned in post four.
Cheers
Steve