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You are here: Home --> Forum Home --> Brewing Forum --> Gear/Equipment --> Feeler Gauge Selection and Use

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chino_brews
Charter Member
Eden Prairie, MN
301 Posts


Would a feeler gauge set that covers the following inch sizes work for setting a mill gap?: 

.0015, .002, .0025, .004, .005, .006, .007, .008, .009, .010, .011, .012, .013, .014, .0.15, .016, .017, .018, .019, .020, .021, .022, .023, .024, .025, .026, .028, .030, and, .035.

Can I combine two adjacent leaves to "make my own" size, such as 0.015" + 0.016" to make 0.031"?




Posted 34 days ago.

brulosopher
Charter Member
Fresno, CA
167 Posts


That's exactly how they work and how I've been doing it.




Posted 34 days ago.

testingapril
Charter Member
Atlanta, GA
595 Posts


Yep. They don't even have to be adjacent. They're flexible enough to pair just about any you want to.





Posted 34 days ago.

brouwerijchugach
Charter Member
Anchorage, AK
59 Posts


I haven't calculated it all, but I belive they're designed to be able to use any combo of adjacent to make whatever you need..?





Posted 34 days ago.

Chal
Wenham, MA
45 Posts


And all these years I just used them for setting the gap between the camshaft and valves.... and the occasional spark plug.
Now I'm curious about the gap in my mill? 
I saw one brewer who had a shaker box to separate out the larger pieces from those that were crushed enough. The former went through a secondary crushing process. It seems to me that it's not just the mill gap that matters, but the variability in grain size that would require this. Or have I missed something?




Posted 34 days ago.

mchrispen
Bastrop, TX
485 Posts


To be the devil's advocate, you adjust the mill to achieve a great crush for your system, not to a specific gap size. The gap size is useful to annotate XYZ gap for a given malt (Marris Otter tends to be fatter than cheap normal 2-Row Pale Malt resulting in a higher extract efficiency with the same gap). The result should be loose but whole or split husks with small/medium bits of endosperm and minimal flour. If you BIAB and/or batch sparge, then a finer crush is probably beneficial. Cheaper malts (and often bags shipped for homebrewing markets) often have a larger mix of thins (small kernels) mixed in with the normal and fat kernels.

I actually barely crush my malt - ensuring fast circulation for my RIMS system and excellent lautering. I crush my malts separately, running thinner or poorly crushed malts through twice if required. Some malts, like black malt for color adjustment get powdered and used late in the mash.

The filters are useful for a commercial brewery to establish a consistent and measurable crush between malt orders and crusher cleanings. It seems overkill to have a filter for homebrewing - but if it works for him - cool.




Posted 34 days ago.

testingapril
Charter Member
Atlanta, GA
595 Posts


As Matt said, a particular mill gap isn't what you shoot for, it's the quality of the crush.

However, the feeler gauge is more useful than just to note the gap for a particular malt. It's necessary to ensure that both sides of the roller are at the same gap width.




Posted 34 days ago.

Necropaw
Charter Member
Central WI
608 Posts


heh...my mill has bigger issues than each side being the same gap....

The damn holes through the center of the one roller isnt concentric with the outside of the roller...




Posted 34 days ago.

Chal
Wenham, MA
45 Posts


mcrispen - for clarity, the brewer I mentioned is running a small commercial brewery. (so you are right-on with your assessment) And thanks for your reply - I learn so much from these posts.



Posted 34 days ago.

chino_brews
Charter Member
Eden Prairie, MN
301 Posts


Thanks for replies, everyone!



Posted 34 days ago.

Necropaw
Charter Member
Central WI
608 Posts


Chino, i bought mine at fleet/menards i think. Sounds like the same sizes youre looking at, and mines the same as what i remember from high school.

Theyre pretty basic things, really. Simple tool useful for many things.




Posted 34 days ago.

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