Buying a grain mill from the States

[Dai]

I remember reading a thread about this being done by some RealBeer-ites a while ago, but was wondering if you had to pay duty on the goods when they come into the country? I bought a GPS a year or so ago from the States and they pinged me an extra hundred at NZ customs (or somewhere similar). Just wondering if they are going to do the same if I get a mill (or three) sent over.

Thinking about a Crankandstein one:

http://www.crankandstein.net/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=1&...

Anyone got one of these? I am thinking about getting the 2S model, as it is a pretty reasonable price and I don't think I will need the extra features the more expensive ones offer.

[James P]

The last time I used the gap setters it was 1mm and my efficiency suffered along with my first ever stuck sparge.... nothing like giving your mash tun a blow job!

I have it set by "eye" at the moment as my brewing assistant (3 year old) was the last to use my gap setters! The gap must be okay as numbers were up! :)

[studio1]

do you think the gap is more or less than 1mm for your better eff?

[James P]

I would guess over 1mm. However as I said I did change it part way through the crush.

I remember reading about the crush make up, saying for the best crush you needed xx% of flour, xx% of husky, and xx% of whole kernal. Damned if I can find it on google now!

[Soren]

James, one way of testing the grist is to run a sample of your grist through a standard flour sifter. you should get about 30% going through and 70% staying behind. obv this depends on the mesh in your sifter but I think they are all pretty standard, if you want I can masure the grid in the one I use.
the percentage of whole kernels should be as close to zero as you can get it:)

[jt]

Barleycrushers are said to be set to 0.039" which http://www.chapelsteel.com/inches-millimeters.html tells me is 0.99mm
I have a suspiscion that mine has closed up a smidge as I've been getting a bit stuck at the end of my batch sparge and my efficency has racked up by about 5% and I'm not sure if it's the mill or my technique

[Greig McGill]

Interesting. Mine's done the opposite, and my efficiency has dropped by about 8%. I really need to get some feeler gauges.

[jt]

That'll be due to you being further north than me Greig

[denimglen]

Running my Barley Crusher at .035" with a drill.

What speed? Dunno, the slowest I can get it to go with the shitty adjustable trigger.

No stuck sparges, could even go a bit finer I reckon.

Does anyone know how the speed of the drill effects the crush? I used to get higher efficiency with a bigger gap and hand cranking, but has been dropping slowly over time, hasn't been much change in deadspace loss either.

[Pilgrim]

I set my mill to 45 thou (.045" = 1.143mm) and I'm very pleased with the crush. I've got a 1/4 HP motor driving it and with the drive/driven pulley ratio 2" to 9" and a 1425rpm motor, the rollers would be doing around 320rpm. The rollers are 62mm dia.

[Soren]

"Does anyone know how the speed of the drill effects the crush?"

from my very limited experience with my monster mill I have concluded that running it too fast give a more inconsistent crush: too much flour and too much whole kernel. running it as slow as you can without getting stuck would be the way to go I'd say and then adjusting the gap til your satisfied. that's what I'll try to do anyways...

I don't really care about the efficiency (as long as I know what it is for recipe design), but worse is it to get a lot of tiny particles go through to the kettle or getting a stuck mash.

it also depends on the grain, when I did a rye PA the other weekend I had to turn the gap way down (I'm guessing about 0.6 mm) to get any crushing done to the rye (just the rye though, barley would have been pulverized at that gap).

[denimglen]

I'm getting a pretty consistent eff between batches (+- 2 gravity points of target). And not much fine particles coming through, I'm sure I had more flour when I was at a wider gap and hand cranking. Weird. Getting any consistent speed with my current drill is a bit of a mission though.

If I'm brewing something with wheat in it I usually run the wheat through twice. Have never brewed with rye before though.

Yeah, might try adjusting it in a few more thou and see what happens, also gonna try a double batch sparge as well.

I was at 85% at one point and at 66% now. Which I know everyone says in a homebrew situation that it's not a big deal, but for a 1.050 batch of base grain only that change in eff will yield an extra batch out of a 25kg sack. Still only works out about $3/batch cheaper. Penny saved penny earned kinda thing though.

[Dai]

Hi all- thread jack on my own thread! One of the guys that I thought would be a starter for a mill has left me and another guy in the lurch. As me and my friend are cheap buggers, we were wondering if anyone would like to come in with us to make up the third mill in the order? Basically, Crankandstein have a flat rate freight policy, which is USD41.95. This covers three 2 roller mills. We have worked out that 3x USD76 mills (model 2S) with the freight will cost about USD90 (NZD133) each. If anyone is keen, flick me an email on d [dot] k [dot] massey [dot] ac [dot] nz and we can sort something. We are in Hamilton, but I can't imagine it would cost much to send a mill across the country. Oh, you don't have to get the 2S if you want a better one- but as the freight rate is based on weight (nice rhyming!), it would have to be a 2 roller model.