Grain crush evaluation help

[GParkins]

So I got a Monster Mill 3 for Christmas, and I think I have it set up OK, but I'm not sure what a great crush is supposed to like like. I had my guy add on a pound of 2-row to my last order, and just ran half of it through the mill. Below is a closeup of the result. I would appreciate an evaluation, to see if it looks like a balance between extraction efficiency and stuck spares. Thank you!

 

[Gavin C]

Great picture.

Looks like a quality crush for a conventional mash-tun.

With any setup, the objective should be to crush as fine as possible without getting a stuck sparge or otherwise negatively affecting lautering efficiency. (Recirculating setups typically benefit from a coarser crush owing to different mash mechanics)

The only way to learn that is to brew on your rig. If the numbers are where you want them and there are no lautering issues then your crush is good enough.

If you find your mash efficiency to be lower than desirable and no lautering issues are noted, crushing finer is a good first step at fixing that.


But in short. This crush looks very good IMO.

 

[GParkins]

Thank you very much. Will leave it where it is for brew day tomorrow. Since I batch sparge, I'm betting I can get away with a slightly finer crush. I have the rollers set to as close to an 0.040" gap as I can get it.

 

[Gavin C]

Thank you very much. Will leave it where it is for brew day tomorrow. Since I batch sparge, I'm betting I can get away with a slightly finer crush. I have the rollers set to as close to an 0.040" gap as I can get it.

I'm betting you could go finer the next time without issue.

 

[biestie]

I'm betting you could go finer the next time without issue.

Ditto on that. I'm at .033 and I'm pretty sure I could go finer if I wanted.

 

[Izzie1701]

I'm quite a bit finer then that. Crush it till your scared. I havnt had a stuck sparge yet and I'm about half the size of your crush. Quite a bit more "flour" looking. My first crush was about that and I got 68% efficiency. Now going a lot finer I'm around 76% consistently. Not sure what the gap size is but I know I started at credit card wide and now I'm closer then letting my credit card through it. Next time a crush I'll take a measurement.

 

[brewkinger]

I'm betting you could go finer the next time without issue.

AGREED

Ditto on that. I'm at .033 and I'm pretty sure I could go finer if I wanted.

I have the same mill and am at 0.35 and get 83% mash efficiency on last 4 brews.
Like mentioned, if you get good efficiency then don't mess with it.
Otherwise tweak until you get good efficiency or lauter problems