Grain Mill

[wide eyed and legless]

Might try conditioning my grain and bring it back to .059 that 1.5mm so I don't have to keep adjusting it. Surely no grain would be under 1.5mm

Rye, I have a separate mill for rye malt it has no husk so in effect just ends up very fine.
https://www.morebeer.com/articles/crushin_it

 

[Schikitar]

Rye is definitely a challenge, think I'll be buying flaked rye in the future..

 

[wide eyed and legless]

Rye is definitely a challenge, think I'll be buying flaked rye in the future..

I have thought of that, but haven't seen any in my usual haunts.

 

[Malted Mick]

Rye is definitely a challenge, think I'll be buying flaked rye in the future..

I am a newbie and generally try to keep it simple without over engineering everything. It pays not to overthink things! For instance which way does the grain go through the rollers? Pointy ends first or sideways? Also I did not realise rye did not have a husk, it also seems a very hard grain. My needs are very simple as I have a basic cheap 2 roller knurled mill and just hand crank it for a BIAB fine crush. I reduce the gap for rye to .9mm based on the average rye grain diameter. (2.3mm) I measure several grains with verniers which only takes a few minutes. My rye calculation was based on barley grain milled at 1.4mm, average grain size 3.5mm. Seems to work for BIAB and me.

 

[Schikitar]

Also I did not realise rye did not have a husk, it also seems a very hard grain.

My issue with rye in the past has been that sometimes my cordless drill can't crank it through the rollers as it is very hard - it's been a while since I've tried though and I used to crush a lot finer (and dry) for BIAB but now I have a Brewzilla so I don't crush as fine and I prefer to wet condition first. Looking to do a Rye IPA this weekend so I guess I'll find out pretty soon if the wet conditioning helps (unfortunately I ordered regular rye malt before I realised I could get flaked rye in which case I wouldn't need to be stressing out about it).

I have thought of that, but haven't seen any in my usual haunts.

BeerCo carries it if you ever get curious - UniGrain Rolled Rye - NEW!

 

[postmaster]

Can you please confirm your gap? 0.085 inches (85 thou / 2.159 mm) seems a big gap.

Still, if it works....

Yes Thats what on the dial on the side of the mill. I do not know how accurate it is, because cannot get a feller guage in it to measure it. It seems damn wide to me, but it gave a good crush on JW Trad Pale Ale. I though grain would have been only about 2mm thick. It must crush it twice so not sure what gap that is perhaps its the top two rollers and than it get crushed between the 2nd and 3rd roller. I did contact Keg King at one stage and they said credit card width. Well that a bloody big credit card lol

 

[postmaster]

Yes Thats what on the dial on the side of the mill. I do not know how accurate it is, because cannot get a feller guage in it to measure it. It seems damn wide to me, but it gave a good crush on JW Trad Pale Ale. I though grain would have been only about 2mm thick. It must crush it twice so not sure what gap that is perhaps its the top two rollers and than it get crushed between the 2nd and 3rd roller. I did contact Keg King at one stage and they said credit card width. Well that a bloody big credit card lol

Yes Thats what on the dial on the side of the mill. I do not know how accurate it is, because cannot get a feller guage in it to measure it. It seems damn wide to me, but it gave a good crush on JW Trad Pale Ale. I though grain would have been only about 2mm thick. It must crush it twice so not sure what gap that is perhaps its the top two rollers and than it get crushed between the 2nd and 3rd roller. I did contact Keg King at one stage and they said credit card width. Well that a bloody big credit card lol

Hi Mate Had a bit of time on my hand on this cold day in Victoria. Pulled both side off the 3 roller (2 rollers on top and one underneath. The dial guage is set on about .080. But thats not the crush measurement. The rear side measures .077 and until I use it again not sure if grain come out this side or not, but the front side measures is .040 (About credit card size) The top two rollers are geared together and the bottom roller turn when the grain hits it. The bottom roller is the adjustable one.

 

[postmaster]

Can you please confirm your gap? 0.085 inches (85 thou / 2.159 mm) seems a big gap.

Still, if it works....

Hi Mate Had a bit of time on my hand on this cold day in Victoria. Pulled both side off the 3 roller (2 rollers on top and one underneath. The dial guage is set on about .080. But thats not the crush measurement. The rear side measures .077 and until I use it again not sure if grain come out this side or not, but the front side measures is .040 (About credit card size) The top two rollers are geared together and the bottom roller turn when the grain hits it. The bottom roller is the adjustable one. So my thinking is if you have a 2 roller and set it to ,040 you shouild not have any problem. Hope this helps

 

[postmaster]

Yep, had the same problem when I first got my 3 roller, can't get a feeler gauge in, and the markings on mine seemed to be way out, got it done by trial and error in the end, so have no idea what the gap actually is, and a change of grain means little trial crushes and judging it by eyeball, not ideal but it works.

Hi Mate Had a bit of time on my hand on this cold day in Victoria. Pulled both side off the 3 roller (2 rollers on top and one underneath. The dial guage is set on about .080. But thats not the crush measurement. The rear side measures .077 and until I use it again not sure if grain come out this side or not, but the front side measures is .040 (About credit card size) The top two rollers are geared together and the bottom roller turn when the grain hits it. The bottom roller is the adjustable one. So my thinking is if you have a 2 roller and set it to ,040 you shouild not have any problem. Hope this helps

 

[MHB]

Snip
BeerCo carries it if you ever get curious - UniGrain Rolled Rye - NEW!

Just remember that that's un-malted Rye, it will taste and behave very differently, usually regarded as a short cut to a stuck sparge.

Its really important to make sure the rolls are parallel. Otherwise the malt will tend to flow to the wider part of the gap.
If you cant get at the gap over the bottom roller, there is an old trick. They used to feed a bit of lead wire through the mill, then measure the wire (a Vernier would be a good call). Not going to recommend Lead, but at the hardware store the other day I did see Tin/Copper (~98/2%) solder on a coil it about 3.2mm so should work pretty well. Worth checking both ends of the bottom roller to.

Hard to find much technical information on mill settings, my old copy of Kunze says Precrushing Rollers 1.3-1.5mm, First gap). Husk or Grist Rollers 0.8-0.4mm, (second/third gap on (6 roll mills)).
I think 0.4mm might be a bit fine for most home brew systems, I usually double crack at about 1.4-1.5mm for the precrush and about 0.9mm for the second pass.
Mark