[flbrewer]

Noticed this morning (cleaning out my mash tun) that there was a small amount of metallic flecks at the bottom of the tun. After checking a few things and ruling them out, I ran a pound of grain through the Barley Crusher again.

Ran a rare earth magnet through it and knew the problem right away. For whatever reason small flecks of metal are coming off my mill.

My immediate question is if this is harmful? I don't think much made it to the boil and I've never seen this in the final product. I certainly don't want to dump this 5 gallon batch.

Secondly, is this a common occurrence?

[hopfenundmalz]

What mill do you have? Just curious.

[flbrewer]

What mill do you have? Just curious.

Barley Crusher. Probably ran 80-100 pounds of grain through it.

[brewinhard]

I have never had this happen to me before and I have been a strict Barley Crusher user for 8 years or so.  I do make a point to clean the rollers with a brush after each use though.  Those rollers are made of steel, correct?

[narcout]

Are you hand cranking or powering it with a drill?

[flbrewer]

Hand cranking

[quattlebaum]

That's really really strange. Have you adjusted the mill gap at all?  Also wonder if the "hopper" is rubbing on the rollers but that is aluminum I think.


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[flbrewer]

Yeah, I need to check the hopper although this wouldn't react with the magnets. The gap has never been changed and is set properly.

[dkfick]

I have no clue what the issue could be... I would def strive to correct it as chunks of metal in the mash (hopefully that's where they stay as they get filtered by the grain bed) could negatively affect the flavor of the beer (metallic/iron).

I would take the whole thing apart and see where there is wear.

[euge]

Have you bothered to contact BC- the manufacturer? It's a warranty issue.

Shouldn't be harmful and if they make it into the boil, there are plenty of other steps ahead that give them an opportunity to be left behind on up to serving. I'd be flabbergasted if any shaving would make it into the glass.

[Slowbrew]

The metal likely wouldn't make it past the mash/sparge tun.  They should settle out during sparging. 

If they are picked up by a magnet they would have to be from the rollers or roller shafts.  Everything else is aluminum and wouldn't stick to a magnet.

I have a BC and have never seen metal shavings in my tun.  As others have said, take it apart and find where they are coming from.  It could be a manufacturing error causing friction where it doesn't belong.  Definitely contact the manufacturer.  He was easy to deal with on the one repair I've needed.

Paul

[flbrewer]

Have you bothered to contact BC- the manufacturer? It's a warranty issue.

Shouldn't be harmful and if they make it into the boil, there are plenty of other steps ahead that give them an opportunity to be left behind on up to serving. I'd be flabbergasted if any shaving would make it into the glass.

I sure did. Sending it back today.

[euge]

Good. I've never had to yet, but should send my rollers in as the knurls are pretty worn. Sounds like you got a defective unit.

Let us know about the customer/RMA experience with BC.

[flbrewer]

Good. I've never had to yet, but should send my rollers in as the knurls are pretty worn. Sounds like you got a defective unit.

Let us know about the customer/RMA experience with BC.

Well I think it may happen more often than people notice. At first glance it just looked like some darker pieces of grain pieces that were below my false bottom. Someone also mentioned on another forum that they've had customers pumps get fouled by excess metal shavings from the mill (not necessarily the Barley Crusher).

[euge]

Did it look like the shavings were from the bushings?

Anyway, I wonder if some of the problems are related to too high RPM.