Grain obliterator for BIAB brewing (finer crush the better)

[mtb]

Note the word "obliterator", not "mill". I BIAB so I have little need to maintain a balance between coarse & fine crush. I simply want to punish the grain in as quick and efficient a manner as possible.

Is my best option to simply buy a blender or has someone come across something that does the job better? I'm conscious of the potential for excessive flour and I imagine that would be my main concern.

 

[manticle]

If you obliterate, you will get flour.

 

[MHB]

I don't know of anything that does a better job than a decent mill, nor a faster one.
Brew in a bag also benefits from not pulverising the husks for a couple of reasons.
When you lift the bag, without some decent husk fragments it can be very slow to drain.
Pulverised husks are much more likely to release tannins affecting the flavour of the beer. if you want to a dunk sparge, without husk it can be like a massive dough ball, making it hard to get the water into and out of the grist.
Very fine grist will elute through the bag more, leading to more trub...

If you have a decent retailer get a couple of identical small grain bills cracked at different gaps, (I know my local can crack down to 0.1mm just as easily as at any other setting) try them, evaluate ease of handling, yield, trub, flavour and anything else that interests you.

Personally I'm not convinced by some of the assumptions that people make about BIAB, particularly regarding grain crushing.
Mark

 

[Phoney]

Your ordinary kitchen food processor will turn grain into flour. Give it a go with a small batch.

But as mentioned above, you'll quickly discover that it's a hinderance rather than a benefit, even in BIAB.

 

[mtb]

Hmm alright. I'd better stick with a mill then.
In that case I need to buy a new one as my eBay knockoff gives me the *****

 

[earle]

Takes a long time to blender grain as well.

I BIAB and picked up one like this a few years back but with a metal shroud over the top section of the grinding discs. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/500gm-CAST-IRON-HAND-OPERATED-CORN-GRAIN-WHEAT-SPICE-GRINDER-CRUSHER-MILL-NEW-AU-/201488314450?hash=item2ee9a3b052:g:fhwAAOSwhkRWejmJ

Popped a bolt in where the handle and drive it with my trusty ozito drill.

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

has someone come across something that does the job better?

A Buhler Miag disc mill is the obvious answer but assuming you haven't got a lazy few $k for one of those: a decent quality coffee grinder.

In the lab at the maltings we used a Mazzer coffee grinder on the barley samples as it was quicker and easier than putting them through the Buhler. Result is 100% flour and I fully concur with Mark above: if you smash it that hard you'll die of boredom before you get good extraction.

 

[nosco]

I reckon the finer crush for biab idea is a bit of a myth. It works to a degree but a dunk or other sparge could have the same effect.

I have only ever used the Biabiacus (from Biabrewer.info) for my brews and using the standard crush that my LHBS does has always given me close to OG. If my memory serves me (it usually doesnt) they do not advocate a finer crush at Biabrewer.info so I dont think the spread sheet accounts for this either.

I did a double batch of wheat beer once and double crushed the wheat because thats what "they" say to do. Just to see what would happen. I dont squeeze the bag any more but I had to this time. All the extra wheat flour had soaked up an extra 10lt from my pre boil volume. I did come in a bit over OG. Im not sure if it was from the finer crush or the "sparge" I started to bring it up to volume.

 

[Coldspace]

I've used a couple of diff types of mills, none compare to the mash master twin fluted.
Only way to go for the price....l