Grain Mill setting

[croc4]

After doing my first AG brew (see other thread), I have a question about what is the proper setting for the mill spacing. I have the "Schmidling Maltmill" from NB. It came preset to .045", and not knowing much about it, I used the default setting.
The crushed grain seemed to be pretty powdery, it seemed to do a good job at crushing the grain. So was this setting to tight?

Can someone post a pick of what a proper crush should look like?

[brewmonkey]

The grain should be cracked and not crushed. Sadly I do not have a picture to show you but the grain should be cracked open. Generally you will find the malt split down the sides or split in half across the middle. The idea is to have enough of the husk intact to allow for it to set up a filter when you sparge/lauter. To fine and it will stick to coarse and you will not reach your potential extract.

The mill should also be adjusted based on the malt being milled as well as the lot specs of the malt. While there is some uniformity in size of the kernals, it will change from batch to batch. I know in 2002 we recieved batches of some US malts where the kernals were substantially smaller then the previous lots and we saw a decrease in efficiency until we adjusted the mill for that lot.

Your local supplier should have the malt analysis for the batch.

Edit:

Found a picture of properly milled malt.

http://home.wanadoo.nl/hoorns.hopbier/schroot1.JPG

[croc4]

Thanks Brewmonkey!, My malt was a little to finely crushed based on the pic, I'll have to play with the setting at bit.

I did not have a stuck mash, it seemed to go very smoothly, maybe it was beginners luck. I'll see how it goes this weekend with batch #2