Protos
Die Schwarzbier Polizei
Today, trying to compensate for the grain aging (it wasn't very fresh even a year ago) I intentionally milled the malt extremely fine, almost to flour. I hoped it would give me the same if not better extraction. No way, the extraction turned out to be lower. From which I conclude that the age of the grain was a more important factor than the crush size.
I use a Corona mill. Buy one, you'll have the full control over your milling. Me, f.ex., I always crush base malts and Crystals in different sizes (I prefer my Crystals milled finer) and even different brands of the same type of malt often require different gap setting: for instance, Scandinavian Pilsner malts are much plumpier than French Pilsner malts so the mill must be set accordingly. No LHBS would account for such subtle nuances if I didn't have my own mill.
I use a Corona mill. Buy one, you'll have the full control over your milling. Me, f.ex., I always crush base malts and Crystals in different sizes (I prefer my Crystals milled finer) and even different brands of the same type of malt often require different gap setting: for instance, Scandinavian Pilsner malts are much plumpier than French Pilsner malts so the mill must be set accordingly. No LHBS would account for such subtle nuances if I didn't have my own mill.