# How To Crush A Small Amount Of Grain



## Rod (16/4/12)

I purchased by mistake a kilo of light lager grain , uncrushed, which I plan to use in a light pilsener

Going to use dried light malt extract and some grain

but to the point

cannot return grain to exchange for crushed or get the HBS to mill

Can grind as follows

1) small amounts at a time in a coffee grinder in which I can adjust size , perculator to very fine

2) food processor

3) pasta maker with adjustable size

4) rolling pin  

plan to steep 30 minutes @ 68 degrees in a bag on the stove top , remove bag and spent grain then add more water and dried malt extract and boil with hops


can I grind it very fine , and get better extraction 

no squeezing , so minimal tannins


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## Fourstar (16/4/12)

Food processor is probably going to be the best bet. Not the most consistent crush but nothing over the top and you wont be turning your husk into dust like with the coffee grinder.

I'd do it in 200g lots and pulse it several times until it looks relatively broken up. Even if you do have some untouched kernels your efficiency shouldn't be too poor.


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## glenwal (16/4/12)

Rod said:


> can I grind it very fine , and get better extraction


As far as I'm aware, a finer grind won't give you better efficiency, you'll just end up with alot more trub (so potentially worse efficiency if it means you leave more in the pot)


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## merlin032 (16/4/12)

suggest you do what you can to insulate the pot to keep the temp up. You're using a type of grain that requires a mash, so you may not get the same extraction from steeping like you can with specialty malts. I would increase the time to the full 60 min and keep the temp as close to 68 as you can, wrap towels around the pot etc.

Your extraction may not be brilliant due to the no-sparge, but since you're using extract you can always just keep an eye on the gravity and add more extract / water as necessary.

Something like this would be a good idea...

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=38674


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## Nick JD (16/4/12)

Blenders that crush ice are wicked for milling grain. I put 400g in at a time and turn it to 3 (ice mode).

Takes about 10 seconds to smash 400g to smithereens. 

I get 80% efficiency, no sparge. Wort goes crystal clear into the fermenter - no tannins, or any of the other bad things that people who don't use this method assume.

Plenty of commercial breweries mill their grain to a dust. You've drank beer made from super-fine milled grain.


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## Amber Fluid (16/4/12)

I am surprised your HBS won't do it for you...... nevertheless, take a look at the map in my signature and see if there is anyone close to you someone close by might have a mill you could use. Obviously 1kg won't take long through a mill.


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## Murcluf (16/4/12)

Amber Fluid said:


> I am surprised your HBS won't do it for you...... nevertheless, take a look at the map in my signature and see if there is anyone close to you someone close by might have a mill you could use. Obviously 1kg won't take long through a mill.


+1 Exactly what I thought, a kilo of malt would only take 2 minutes through a mill even turn by hand


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## bignath (16/4/12)

when i was brewing with kits and adding spec malts to beers i used to use a meat tenderiser (steel mallet hammer type thing). Actually worked pretty well. 

Get a chopping board, and put 200g at a time in a ziplock bag and beat the shit out of it. Doesn't take long.


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## Yob (16/4/12)

Big Nath said:


> Get a chopping board, and put 200g at a time in a ziplock bag and beat the shit out of it. Doesn't take long.



whay is it so many of lifes problems are easily solved with hammers? :lol:


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## Acasta (16/4/12)

I used a coffee grinder during the early days when I BAIBed. So if your grain bag is fine (like voile) you will be fine. Just make sure to use finnings and that will help drop out the finer particles.


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## Rod (16/4/12)

Acasta said:


> I used a coffee grinder during the early days when I BAIBed. So if your grain bag is fine (like voile) you will be fine. Just make sure to use finnings and that will help drop out the finer particles.



grain bag is voile

will give the coffee grinder ( maybe too small ) or the food processor ago this time ( depending on volume )

will weigh it out a go from there

thanks


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## MHB (16/4/12)

I dont like coffee grinders or food processors for cracking malt, commercial brewers might crush very fine what they dont do is mill the husks to powder (unless they have a mash filter), my mill came from a small brewery (30 HL) and when I got it, it still had the setting marked on the adjuster for a single pass, at that setting using Australian Lager and then the same malt in a coffee grinder.
Fractioned up and you get something like this
The top left is before sieving, the top row came from fractioning the milled malt, bottom row from a 60 second burst in a coffee grinder, there was nothing retained on the 2mm mesh.
Thats going through a 2mm, 1mm and 0.5mm sieve set as you can see with the milled malt the two biggest piles are the >2mm and <0.5mm, lots of fines for efficiency and lots of big husk bits for good lautering.
Mark
View attachment 53789


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## Bribie G (16/4/12)

Mark, a bit off topic because the OP is only doing a small quantity, but I know you have a BIAB "experimental" setup, have you tried the bottom row results in your photo for a BIAB brew?

My mill just produces "standard" crush such as you display on the top row of your photo so this question is just academic. However one thing I have noticed is that since trying to achieve something like Whale Ale, that you introduced me to, :chug: I have been regularly using fifty / fifty ale and wheat mashes. 

I often read complaints that a lot of wheat can cause stuck mashes because wheat malt is huskless, and you might be advised to use rice hulls etc, but in the case of my BIAB brews I never have this problem - it drains as freely as an all barley malt brew.


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## MHB (16/4/12)

Mostly I was replying to the assertion that breweries mill fine, which some do, and therefore its fine to use a food processor.
By highlighting there are fundamental differences between what happens in a food processor and what comes out of a mill. I can only hope that at some time a brewer who is trying to lauter will be saved a very slow and frustrating brew day.
Fine milled malt is not the same as pulverised malt, whether or not this will have much impact on a BIAB brewer is not really what I was concerned about.
Mark


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## davelovesbeer (16/4/12)

Surely someone nearby has a mill and could do it for you. 

I can do it down in sutho if you like, bit of a hike though.


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## pk.sax (16/4/12)

Rod said:


> 4) rolling pin


Be a man!


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## Nick JD (17/4/12)

I wouldn't use a food processor to mill grain. They don't work well at all. Great for mixing cakes - but if you want to mill grains with a kitchen implement you already own the blender and the goffee grinder are the best options.


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## Yob (17/4/12)

Nick JD said:


> ...but if you want to mill grains with a kitchen implement you already own the blender and the goffee grinder are the best options.



^^^^^... for BIAB...^^^^^


...grinders etc are shite if mashing with any other system... will tend to want to compact and the result is a stuck mash... (did for me in my partials a number of times)

If I was having to crush a small amount of grain it would totally be with the rolling pin... or the hammer option which I quite like the sound of... 

Yob


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## bignath (17/4/12)

iamozziyob said:


> ^^^^^... for BIAB...^^^^^
> 
> 
> ...grinders etc are shite if mashing with any other system... will tend to want to compact and the result is a stuck mash... (did for me in my partials a number of times)
> ...



yeah the hammer/tenderiser is a good option Yob. Just make sure you do it in a ziplock or similar bag with the air pushed out, otherwise grain and shit will fly everywhere.

rolling pin not so good. It sounds like a good idea, but it's a crapload of hard work to crush with a rolling pin. The grain keeps getting moved around the table/chopping block and struggles to stay still so the pin struggles to roll over the top of it.


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## Mikedub (17/4/12)

Ive used the zip lock and hammer method a few times, bit of technique needed as even with a rubber mallet its easy to split the bag, I keep the grain in the bag to a single layer, about 70g at a time for your standard bag, I find hammering in time to music works best, maybe not Slayer, but not Michael Bolton either, if you know what I mean 
have also tried a Wizz Stick, its good way to spread grain to every corner of your kitchen


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## warra48 (17/4/12)

Q: The best way to crush a small amount of grain?

A: The same way you crush a large amount of grain.

I'm happy for you, or any AHB member, to call along at my place and use my MillMaster to crush their grain. I'll even adjust the gap to your preference.
So long as it is geographically convenient for you, I guess.


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## Ducatiboy stu (17/4/12)




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## barls (17/4/12)

depends if your up for a drive im over near ryde bring it over and ill run it through. just pm me first.


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## DJR (17/4/12)

Go talk to Pat at Absolute Homebrew at St Marys and get him to crush it for you I'm sure he will help

Otherwise rolling pin with the grain in a big ziplock bag or very light use of a blender


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## QldKev (17/4/12)

No car fans here eh?

Put it in a zip lock bag and drive the V8 commodore over it a few times :lol: 
sorry, I'll go back to the other forum


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## stux (17/4/12)

QldKev said:


> No car fans here eh?
> 
> Put it in a zip lock bag and drive the V8 commodore over it a few times :lol:
> sorry, I'll go back to the other forum



Time for the TopGear V8 Blender me thinks


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## Ducatiboy stu (17/4/12)




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## Rod (18/4/12)

I ended up crushing a small amount fo grain using the coffee grinder on the coarse setting

looked OK , remained in the voile bag

I made a recipe from the Brewing classic styles book by Jamil Zainasheff and John Palmer

I made the OLD BLACK BEAR brew 

short on the steeping grain by 75 g so used a bit of the uncrushed lager grain which I 'crushed'

because it was not the dark grain it then made the recipe OLD BROWNE BEAR

bubbling away now


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## Maheel (18/4/12)

Ducatiboy stu said:


> View attachment 53814




what the hell is that Ducatiboy ? is it some Ducati engineering device, a clutch basket tightener ?


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## [email protected] (18/4/12)

Rod said:


> I ended up crushing a small amount fo grain using the coffee grinder on the coarse setting
> 
> looked OK , remained in the voile bag
> 
> ...



Yep a semi decent conical burr coffee grinder on a course setting will give an "ok" crush, something similar to using a corona mill i suspect.
I think on AHB when coffee grinder gets mentioned everyone just assumes you will be using the little chop chop spice / coffee grinder like what nickjd uses, which seem to give him decent results anyway.
Funny enough they are a rough as guts option for grinding your coffee very inconsistent.


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## Yuz (1/9/17)

Hey brewers,

I realise grains are meant to be milled / crushed, not ground to powder but I'm looking to see if it's possible at all to modify the blades of a juicer so it doesn't actually slice the grains but "beats" them, essentially breaking their shell / splitting them. 

I've just made my first concentrate brew but am really keen to try steeping some light grains to add to the next batch as a trial.

I can potentially modify (blunt and / or bend the cutting edges) this blender:





I can control the spindle speed to some extent. 
Should this be acceptable for preparing steeping grains?

Cheers!


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## Bonenose (1/9/17)

I would just buy milled grain, so much easier. Tried doing a kilo the other day with a rolling pin deadset pain in the arse.


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## Yuz (1/9/17)

Bonenose said:


> I would just buy milled grain, so much easier. Tried doing a kilo the other day with a rolling pin deadset pain in the arse.


Yeah, makes sense (for now anyway) - I'd only invest in the mill once I'm ready to go full swing AG.


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## Bonenose (1/9/17)

I think it would be exciting to crush my own grain and will probably look into it long term, but in the meantime I will keep buying milled grain have a mob of other things to sort out first before I get to that.


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## good4whatAlesU (2/9/17)

Our Kogan blender does just an Okay job, but efficiency is generally down compared to a proper crush.

Usually I get around 1.050 with a pre-crush grain order compared with only 1.044 or similar with the blender.

I'm on the lookout for a second hand grain mill aa I'm keen to get more consistency in my brewing.


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## good4whatAlesU (2/9/17)

Edit: It's possible to buy individual steel rollers relatively cheaply, it would be a fun little project if a person had the time;

https://www.ebay.com.au/p/25mm-x-11.../1845478031?iid=351408418286&trdt=0&rdtsrc=vi

http://vi.raptor.ebaydesc.com/ws/eB...=184169&pm=1&ds=0&t=1504302645636&cspheader=1


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## wide eyed and legless (2/9/17)

good4whatAlesU said:


> Our Kogan blender does just an Okay job, but efficiency is generally down compared to a proper crush.
> 
> Usually I get around 1.050 with a pre-crush grain order compared with only 1.044 or similar with the blender.
> 
> I'm on the lookout for a second hand grain mill aa I'm keen to get more consistency in my brewing.


I have a Barley Crusher mill I no longer use, I will have a root through the shed and find it I know there is a hopper with it but no base board. I was going to use it for the harder grains but couldn't be bothered setting it up.
Your welcome to it, the drive shaft is very slightly bent but still works ok.


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## good4whatAlesU (2/9/17)

wide eyed and legless said:


> I have a Barley Crusher mill I no longer use, I will have a root through the shed and find it I know there is a hopper with it but no base board. I was going to use it for the harder grains but couldn't be bothered setting it up.
> Your welcome to it, the drive shaft is very slightly bent but still works ok.


Brilliant weal, happy to work out a price that suits if you're interested in letting it go. Cheers mate.


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## wide eyed and legless (2/9/17)

Don't want anything for it it's been sitting idle for a while now just send me your address and I will get it posted out, do you need a handle or will you be using a drill?


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## good4whatAlesU (2/9/17)

Awesome mate, at least let me fix you up for postage? PM sent.

edit: or let me send you a six pack of best.


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## SeeFar (29/11/17)

I crushed my own spec grain on the weekend, about 300+ gms of it, 3 different types. I put enough in a ziplock to have about a 5-10mm pile and rolled away. I found the back a slight annoyance and ended up doing it on a large chooping board. Doing much more than 3-400gm might get a bit tiresome but this amount was fine. 

It gave a very 'real' sense to making beer. Almost felt like growing a lumberjack beard, getting a sleeve tat and wearing suspenders. Almost.....


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## Hpal (29/11/17)

mortar and pestle would work well


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