Grain crushing advice...

[Brewedout]

I was bought a grain mill for Christmas, so there won't be a grain mill building project afterall / / / not sure whether I'm upset about that!

Can you offer some 'nuggets' of advice to ensure my first foray into crushing is a good one. I will be grinding via hand power not drill power.

Thanks

[Jocky]

Get a cheap hand drill Seriously - a handy drill that has two speeds, so you can use it on the lower 'screwdriver' speed. Or you're going to get some great exercise.


Other than that, get the roller gaps close enough to crack nearly every grain into 3 or 4 pieces without completely shredding the husk.

Wheat malt is harder - it'll make your arm ache - and also smaller so you need to narrow the rollers when milling wheat malt, but it also doesn't have a husk, so you can grind it very fine if you wish.

[BenB]

Here's what I did....

I had some expired crushed grain from my LHBS. I had some uncrushed grain. I crushed the uncrushed (the mill instructs you to chuck the first X grams of malt anyway). I adjusted the rollers until the newly crushed stuff looked like the ready crushed stuff.

The roller gap just happened to be the thickness of a CC which is what I'd heard recommended.

It seems to work.

My daughter happily munched the freshly crushed stuff. I worry one day the nursery is going to call social services when she explains her love of eating freshly crushed malt. It's either the daughter or the mice that live in my garden that get the malt!

[Brewedout]

Ha ha love the end of your reply Ben! I think my youngest will be of similar ilk too.

Thanks for the suggestions Ben & Jocky

[Rookie]

Wheat malt is harder - it'll make your arm ache - and also smaller so you need to narrow the rollers when milling wheat malt, but it also doesn't have a husk, so you can grind it very fine if you wish.

I don't know if it's available where you are, but Great Western white wheat malt is described as "The great thing about this malt is that the kernels are so big that you do not have to readjust your mill."

[Matt in Birdham]

I've had a mill since Christmas and I'm loving it. I've been conditioning my malt with water before crushing, as described here. Not really a huge amount of extra effort IMO, and the difference is startling. The benefit being that you can mill at a finer setting (to get well crushed germ) whilst retaining whole husks that help create a loose grain bed. I mill at 0.7mm, which is finer than you would probably want to go without conditioning, and I would strongly recommend picking up a gap measurer for a couple of quid so you know what you are milling at (whether or not you end up conditioning your grain).

[Brewedout]

Wheat malt is harder - it'll make your arm ache - and also smaller so you need to narrow the rollers when milling wheat malt, but it also doesn't have a husk, so you can grind it very fine if you wish.

I don't know if it's available where you are, but Great Western white wheat malt is described as "The great thing about this malt is that the kernels are so big that you do not have to readjust your mill."

That's a good idea, I'm not using wheat malt for the next 4 or 5 brews but a good plan. Cheers

[Brewedout]

I've had a mill since Christmas and I'm loving it. I've been conditioning my malt with water before crushing, as described here. Not really a huge amount of extra effort IMO, and the difference is startling. The benefit being that you can mill at a finer setting (to get well crushed germ) whilst retaining whole husks that help create a loose grain bed. I mill at 0.7mm, which is finer than you would probably want to go without conditioning, and I would strongly recommend picking up a gap measurer for a couple of quid so you know what you are milling at (whether or not you end up conditioning your grain).

An interesting idea. I might try this out after my first time through and compare the difference. I have a set of feeler guages that came with the mill, so hopefully will be able to get a good measurement. Thanks