There was no build up on the rollers. It just caused my motor to have to work much, much harder to turn my rollers. With a more powerful motor it would not have been an issue. I also just didn’t get an appreciable return for the extra step. That said, I’m more like denny in a lot of ways. I love brewing, but I’m not into spending more more time and energy than is necessary. The rest of you can geek out all you want. 
You’re a new brewer…you’ll get over it! ;) Kinda like the guys who use carboys so they can watch the fermentation. After a few hundred batches the thrill goes away.
Not here! 11 yrs., 300+ batches all fermented in carboys and still dig it. I liken it to watching a campfire or fireplace…
Not here! 11 yrs., 300+ batches all fermented in carboys and still dig it. I liken it to watching a campfire or fireplace…
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Same here. Last night while staring into the malstrom I was thinking “what a great screensaver!”.
You guys ride the short bus in school? 
j/k
What school?
The Tubercle drains with the valve full open and picks the end on the cooler up about 8 inches to get it all out. Pours in hot water stirs it up, and starts draining wide open again.
If there is something to fret over, it has to matter.
I use the hand-crank and malt conditioning doesn’t make it any more difficult. Perhaps you let it sit too long and the grain got rubbery. I don’t really wait any time after spraying the malt with water, just the time it takes for me to weight out the rest of the malt.
Anyway, it’s fine that some people have well tuned systems that don’t run better with malt conditioning, but the OP has a problem that has a very high probability of being resolved by the very simple technique of spraying a little water on some of his malt.
IIRC back when MC became a “hit” there were several people - including Kai - who said the malt was more difficult to crush. The malt was not “rubbery” - my mill just wouldn’t crush it as well. Perhaps it has something to do with mill settings. I have mine set very tight.
Perhaps, I can’t speak for other people, but I crush quite tightly (85%+ typical mash efficiencies) and malt condition most every batch, now, and I have no noticeable difficulty crushing the grain by hand. Perhaps it’s a difference in the standing moisture level in our grain. I may be returning my grain to the proper moisture level and you may be at that level, already, and exceed it with conditioning.
I have to store my grain with desiccant because of high humidity, which may have contributed to brittle husks and gradually slower lauter speeds. Malt conditioning allows me to run the drain wide open and fast, so that I add 1 minute to my process at the beginning and save 5-10 minutes at the end, potentially more. It sounds like the OP could save an hour.
It’s a process that has only upsides, for me, and I even suspect it may be contributing to the improved clarity of my beer, lately.
Can you say how it contributed to clarity?
Again, if it works for you, it works, but I also crush very fine average 85% efficiency, and don’t condition. Malt conditioning might help some people, but I’d say it’s far from a universal solution.
I’m gonna guess that the other poster finds that the husk integrity is more in tact which helps with a clearer lauter. However, like you I haven’t really found a link between uber clear lautering and clear finished beer.
Yep. I’ve also found that if you really care about clear runoff, pH control is the way to get it.
I have a cooler mash tun with a braid that I’ve been using for several years now. I crush with a JSP Maltmill set at .039"and I don’t malt condition. My crush is fairly fine but not as fine as flour. I can usually drain 30lbs of malt using a 1.25:1 qts/lb in about 10-15min. My beers are typically clear after a few weeks and the tannin levels are non-existent. In fact my most recent ESB is so clear it’s like looking through a glass window.
I also mash in a cooler with a SS braid. I drain a little slower than some – it takes me about 30-40 minutes to collect my first and second runnings (batch sparging). I’ve never malt conditioned and I don’t have any problem draining. As for clarity, I’m more inclined to attribute those issues to factors such as pH or the type of malt (see, e.g., the Maris Otter haze thread). Since I’ve been becoming more knowledgeable about water chemistry and how to hit an ideal mash pH, I haven’t had any clarity issues whatsoever. I’ve been brewing a lot of Pils lately and they turn out clear as a bell – without adding any finings – after only one week of lagering.
Braid here also. Monster Mill at 0.035, no conditioning. 10-15 drain time.
Then I wouldn’t recommend Malt Conditioning to you. The OP is having trouble with slow run-off, so I think it might help him. Clearly there is a difference between your two systems. He can try rebuilding the tun or changing other parameters randomly, and perhaps he’ll solve the problem, or he can condition the malt and have a decent probability of solving the problem.
Again, I wasn’t saying that people who don’t have runoff problems should start conditioning their malt (unless they just want to give it a try). It isn’t going to cure a problem that you don’t have, just like taking antibiotics aren’t going to make you feel betterr if you don’t have an infection. I don’t think it’s easy to come up with another treatment for slow runnings with such a high probablility of solving the problem, other than coarser milling which risks lower efficiency. I recommend malt conditioning to people who have slow runoff and it seems to help them.
I perfected my current water treatments around the same time as I started Malt Conditioning, so I can’t say for sure, and I usually credit my water treatment to my improved clarity. In fact, I’ve always had pretty clear beer, but I was controlling my pH and still had some minor haze (nothing I ever fretted about, I could still read the paper through my beers). Since I’ve been Malt Conditioning I’ve had absolutely crystal clear beers as soon as they’re carbonated. Frankly, I’m wondering why people use finings.
I don’t bother trying to get clear runnings. I don’t believe that matters, at all. I’ve tried it both ways and it never does in my beers. I think that I may have reduced my already slight polyphenol extraction to even less, thanks to not having a tun full of tattered husks. Perhaps it’s just enough to give me a slightly larger leeway with pH and Calcium.
I don’t mean to oversell Malt Conditioning, and I haven’t done the proper experiment, I’m just saying that there seems to be a correlation in my brewery.
I will try to KISS the problem and suggest that the OP double check the bulkhead fitting
and insure it is snug as comfortable and gasketed correctly. A small leak
at the bulkhead could be the culpret Also I put a twist of copper wire inside my braid
and tension the braid tube so that the pores are in the compressed…large unconstricted
form…opposite of pullling on the thing like a chinese finger cuff trap. (which makes the pore
dimension smaller)
I checked my SS braid, and it is plastic. :o Guess it is time to go find a real one.
Good Thread!