90 replies to this topic

[zymot]

Just ran a pound of Rahr two row base malt through the Barley Crusher. Used the hand crank. Went in and out like a dream. The crank was an easy peasy turn. Not much more force required compared to cranking it with no grain. It did not take more than 30 seconds to get one pound crushed.

 

The crush looked as I understand a good basic crush should be. Hulls intact and torn into about 3 or 4 hull pieces per kernel of barley, The insides are broken and there is just a slight hint of powder/flour.

 

For now, that is how I will use it, hand crank. I try to set up for my brew session the day before. I have a spare 7-10 minutes to crush by hand. Perhaps someday I will revisit the drill, but I got something that seems to work, so I will keep it that way.

[Big Nake]

So the joke on the board is that Zymot likes to do things by hand.  ZOMG, are we in the PH?!?!?!?!?   

[zymot]

No. This is a reasonable and rational forum where you can have an opinion contrary to others and your sanity, intellect, and the contours of you brain are not questioned.

[LeftyMPfrmDE]

Barely crushers come with a “lifetime” warranty. I have no idea how generous or literal Barely Crusher honors the lifetime warranty.

The only thing that could be wrong with the mill is the lubrication is old. I have crushed less than 10 pounds with the device. I never got it to work with a drill. I set it aside and forgot about for the last 7-8 years.

There is an odd little LHBS not far from work. I will pick up some test TR and see what I get.

 

In the past, from what what other folks had said on other boards, they were really good about replacing the rollers. as the years went on, they seem to fight out tooth and nail about it. 

 

when i first started having issues with my BC, radio silence via e-mail. even got a phone number, and got the run around.   

[zymot]

Yesterday I noticed a rubber O-ring on one of the rollers. At first I thought it was something caught on the roller like hair and string get wrapped up on your vacuum cleaner brush roller. I never noticed it before. I emailed them and got a prompt response.

I would advise thinking long and hard about giving lifetime warranty to home brewers. We are a finicky bunch. Especially if the item is known to be subject to some and not expected to last a lifetime. I would offer replacement rollers at a moderate cost. But free to home brewers, they are going to demand something for nothing.

[porter]

I've done it but I don't really want to do that anymore.

 

 

Back in the day I hand cranked quite a few 10 gallon grain bills with a Corona mill. Now I have a proper mill, heavy duty drill and it's all done in 3-4 minutes rather than 45 minutes of cramping forearms and dust inhalation. 

Edited by porter, 04 September 2019 - 09:43 PM.

[zymot]

I did a quick test. >1 pound of grain, 31 seconds. The effort was minimal. I could turn the crank with three finger tips.

Really the only chore is spending the 5-10 minutes cranking the grain through. Some people report a better crush with the hand crank over the drill. Maybe it is the lower RPM? Just a guess.

[positiveContact]

Better how? I mostly care how the beer turns out.

[HVB]

I did a quick test. >1 pound of grain, 31 seconds. The effort was minimal. I could turn the crank with three finger tips.

Really the only chore is spending the 5-10 minutes cranking the grain through. Some people report a better crush with the hand crank over the drill. Maybe it is the lower RPM? Just a guess.

I had read that 180 rpm was optimal but I think that also depends on roller diamater and what not.  I use a 175 rpm gearhead motor, flip it on fill the hopper and wait a couple minutes.  Hell even the crank on my can seamer was removed for a motor.  No hand cranks here

[zymot]

Just a hypothesis, I think that with a hand grinder, you tend to go at a more moderate to lower RPM. Plus you get some mechanical feed back and sort adjust your speed to get it to go through the mill nice and easy. If it sticks a little bit, you can back up and try again. With a motor or a drill, you would tend to set it to muscle through.

[HVB]

Just a hypothesis, I think that with a hand grinder, you tend to go at a more moderate to lower RPM. Plus you get some mechanical feed back and sort adjust your speed to get it to go through the mill nice and easy. If it sticks a little bit, you can back up and try again. With a motor or a drill, you would tend to set it to muscle through.

If set right and there was not a rock or something in the grain why would it stick?