Since the barley malt only needs to be cracked, is there a cheap mill you can get??? LIke 50$??
Or is there a place in Montana I can buy 50 pounds of malt and have them crush it ??? or bad idea??
[quote=“38812”]Since the barley malt only needs to be cracked, is there a cheap mill you can get??? LIke 50$??
Or is there a place in Montana I can buy 50 pounds of malt and have them crush it ??? or bad idea??[/quote]
There are cheap ways of doing it, but you’ll hate them. Corona mills get old fast. I used one for a year. Dave will tell you he used a blender. Possible, but a proper grain mill is so much better. I spent about a hundred on the Cereal Killer… I could see myself getting fancier. But Id never go cheaper.
Most homebrew shops are happy to crush your grain for a price. [quote=“uberculture”]
There are cheap ways of doing it, but you’ll hate them. Corona mills get old fast. I used one for a year. Dave will tell you he used a blender. Possible, but a proper grain mill is so much better. I spent about a hundred on the Cereal Killer… I could see myself getting fancier. But Id never go cheaper.[/quote]
+1 on the Corona getting old. That was the first mill I ever had and I gave it away. Got a JSP mill after that and it has been great for years but they are about $100
You can buy your malt pre-crushed. My local maltster sells it that way by the sack, and most mail-order places will crush malt for you if you ask for it. But once crushed, you will want to use if fast. Even if kept dry and protected from humidity, it won’t last very long (a month or two maybe) before it starts to go stale, and you WILL taste that in your beer.
Uncrushed grain by contrast will keep almost indefinitely if protected from moisture, humidity and pests.
If you’re going to be brewing on a regular basis, my advice is to pony up for a decent grain mill and learn to adjust it for a good crush. I’ve seen lots of variability in how mail order grains are crushed, even from the same supplier. If you don’t mind big swings in your extraction efficiency, this isn’t such a big deal. Otherwise, the only solution IMHO is to crush your own grains.
[quote=“HD4Mark”]Most homebrew shops are happy to crush your grain for a price. [quote=“uberculture”]
There are cheap ways of doing it, but you’ll hate them. Corona mills get old fast. I used one for a year. Dave will tell you he used a blender. Possible, but a proper grain mill is so much better. I spent about a hundred on the Cereal Killer… I could see myself getting fancier. But Id never go cheaper.[/quote]
+1 on the Corona getting old. That was the first mill I ever had and I gave it away. Got a JSP mill after that and it has been great for years but they are about $100[/quote]I did the exact same thing as Mark. The JSP rocks!
If all other processes are good, the grain crush should help a lot. For example, my mash pH has been spot on, my processes and techniques the same, but my efficiency varies a bit. I can only imagine it’s due to crush. Efficiency was a bit higher ordering the kits already crushed from NB, but when I started buying and crushing at my LHBS, efficiency went down a bit.
I decided to take advantage of the discount and free shipping on the Captain Crush mill last week. Should be here tomorrow. I already have some grain crushed waiting to brew, but on my next batch I will crush my own and see what I am able to squeeze out!
Why does the Corona style get tiring? Is it just the limited size when you are doing large batches? I have one now and built a little hopper that holds about 3lbs and with my hand drill it takes no time at all to plow thru my grain bill.
I never used a drill… For a ten pound grain bill, it would take me forty five or so minutes with a corona. Takes me ten minutes now. Hopper capacity isn’t a huge deal for me, but output seemed really slow.
I’ve never used a Corona, but I’ve seen them. They are designed for making flour, not cracking grain. A design like that will tear the husks, instead of separating them from the endosperm. Which all means that grain run through a corona mill won’t lauter as well as grain run through a two or three roller mill. You will get more stuck sparges, and/or lower efficiency.
So if I’m doing 3 gal BIAB batches, a corona mill might be ok for me?
Ron
[quote=“Frenchie”]So if I’m doing 3 gal BIAB batches, a corona mill might be ok for me?
Ron[/quote]
For that small amount of grain you might be better off just buying it crushed unless you plan to buy in bulk to save some money. The corona grinds the grain when we really want barley crushed or cracked open. The hulls are part of the process and work kind of like a “filter”. If they are ground up they can slow or prevent the flow of wort when lautering. The hulls also can cause tannins that will give you an astringent taste like aspirin if ground to powder. After all that I can say I made some good beer using a Corona. Might have just been luck.
Another problem is the Corona has an adjustment that is just a wing nut type screw to move the plate closer. It is tough to figure how to adjust it. If you were making tortillas with it then i guess you just crank it down until the corn comes out powder :lol:
For the under $30 price and small batches you might want to risk trying one. I would start with a small amount of grain and experiment with different gaps. You kind of want to break open the hulls to expose the endosperm but not turn it into powder if that makes any sense. Might want to buy some crushed from your LHBS and compare.
I’ve been using a corona-type mill for all my grain for over a year. It’s definitely a bit of a PITA, but it works, and works well enough for me to not spend the money on a nice one. My last brew day was around 20# of grain, and it took about 15 minutes and a very tired shoulder to get it all ground.
It does tear up the husks a little, and I had been having stuck runoff problems that I figured were due to the husks. After switching from a false bottom to a stainless braid, though, I haven’t had any issues whatsoever. Tannin extraction shouldn’t be a problem, as long as you control pH and mash/sparge temperatures.
Some things that make using a corona mill less of a pain - find a way to attach it securely to a bucket, piece together a bigger hopper, and make a shield that makes all the ground grain fall right into the bucket. I line the bucket with a large plastic bag and use clothes pins to fasten it around the output of the mill to catch all the grain and dust in a bucket.
I’ve been getting fairly consistent 72-75% efficiency this way. That being said, grinding the grains is my least favorite part of brew day.
It was a long time ago when I had the Corona but I think I found a bolt with the same thread as the one that holds the crank on, cut off the end and used an electric drill on it to power the mill rather than arm power. Just go slow so it doesn’t pulverize the grain.
[quote=“Frenchie”]So if I’m doing 3 gal BIAB batches, a corona mill might be ok for me?
Ron[/quote]
I use it for BIAB and it works great. Two reasons, with BIAB you normally double crush anyways to get better efficiency, so I buy mine crushed and use a off-name Corona
http://amzn.to/1Gd8yoS
for a second milling. Also with BIAB overmilling and husks are not as much a factor if you have a good bag as it filters for you.
Thanks for the advice, guys. Just looking into buying in bulk and crushing myself but not breaking the bank on a mill. Think I’ll give it a try.
:cheers:
Ron
[quote=“MullerBrau”][quote=“HD4Mark”]Most homebrew shops are happy to crush your grain for a price. [quote=“uberculture”]
There are cheap ways of doing it, but you’ll hate them. Corona mills get old fast. I used one for a year. Dave will tell you he used a blender. Possible, but a proper grain mill is so much better. I spent about a hundred on the Cereal Killer… I could see myself getting fancier. But Id never go cheaper.[/quote]
+1 on the Corona getting old. That was the first mill I ever had and I gave it away. Got a JSP mill after that and it has been great for years but they are about $100[/quote]I did the exact same thing as Mark. The JSP rocks![/quote]
Agreed on the JSP… am a little concerned as to most LHBS (as well as online HBS) are not selling it anymore. In my opinion, it blows away all the other mills on the market.
You can still buy one right from JSP http://schmidling.com/orderpp.htm with many options. He even sells “bare bones” options and has adjustable mills.
BTW My LHBS uses a JSP older than mine and I bet crushes a lot more grain than I do. I’m not sure is he sells them though. Will have to remember to ask next time I’m there.
[quote=“Frenchie”]Thanks for the advice, guys. Just looking into buying in bulk and crushing myself but not breaking the bank on a mill. Think I’ll give it a try.
:cheers:
Ron[/quote]
Buying in bulk (either malt or hops) will save you more in the long run than almost any other change to your brewing habits. Harvesting yeast might be the only thing that saves you more, depending on how much you spend on yeast packs.
Unless you brew a LOT, buying crushed grain in bulk is a bad investment. Stale grain makes bad beer. But uncrushed grain will last a long, long time, and after just a few sacks will pay for the cost of the mill.
Take a look at the NB web site: 50# sacks of domestic base malts cost $35; that’s $0.70 per pound. Buy it one pound at a time and it cost $1.49 per pound or more. That comes out to a savings of $40 per sack.
Buy a good mill. You’ll be happy you did.
