Beer Forum

I bought a new Monster Mill mm3 yesterday. Of course I started playing around with the knobs to see how everything works as soon as I got it out of the box. I didn't mark the factory pre-set gap width, so I have no idea what my mill's optimal gap width is. What gap width would you suggest for this mill?

Buy a few pounds of two row and run a few ounces thru at at time. Look at the crushed grains and adjust until you're happy with the end result. Shattered interiors with intact husks should be what you're looking for.

I would call them. Their website says the first gap is fixed and set to 0.060", and the second gap is adjustable. I would have no idea what the 2nd gap would be set to then. Would assume something smaller than the 0.060".

Addendum. From their website;


What should I set the gap to on my mill?

The gap on the 2-roller mills should be set somewhere around .037 - .055". You will need to assess the crush, and determine if the gap should be smaller or wider. On the two roller mills you will find a point at which the mill will stop feeding the grain when you close the gap too tightly. You will run the drill, but the gap is too small for the grain to fall into, and the drive roller will just spin and not feed. How you crush your grain is up to you. It is important that you experiment with different settings and find out what works best for you. Generally it is not necessary to change the gap frequently. Most grist will crush just fine using the same gap. Unless you have extremely dry or moist malt, you shouldn't have to adjust frequently.

Sofaking,

I also ahve a MM-3. Christmas gift from the wife two years ago

When I was setting mine up I started at the widest gap and worked down checking the grain after each run. I finally set my gap at 0.039. This gap leaves fairly intact husks and beats up the kernels pretty darn well. The only time I ever have an issue is with a good bit of Rye. That shit is rock hard. The first time I milled it my belt was slipping all over hell and back. Now I try to make sure the Rye is thoroughly integrated into the recipe and it seems to do better, well at least the second time I milled Rye.

Hope that helps.

Thank you for the suggestions. I ran a couple of pounds of grain through the mill - a couple of ounces at a time - as I adjusted the gap width. I found a setting that gave a decent crush and used it for my CYBI Black Butte Porter clone. The next day I measured the gap to be 0.063 inches. I got a great crush with this setting, so I'm leaving it as is. This is an awesome mill!

Seems a bit wide ..... ok alot wide ....... but it's hard to argue if the crush looks good. What malt are you using? Continental malt tends to be plumper. Also how was your efficiency?

From the cybi black butte porter recipe, I used Maris Otter, wheat, 40L crystal, English chocolate and American chocolate malt. I noticed that the chocolate malt kernels were pretty beat up, but all other malts were crushed great. I had set my brewing software for a 70% yield. My beer's sg came in a little too high. I haven't calculated my system's actual efficiency yet.