Graining crushing without a mill

[stakka82]

I think nicks post was fairly appropriate... I have a mill now but when I do a small test batch on the old big w I still use my trusty ice capable blender. Most people have emalready in the kitchen, and like nick says, they smash 300-409g lots in seconds. One run, spec grains for 5 litre batch in under ten secs, with something the op may already have in the kitchen.

 

[manticle]

I agree with bum. There is a prevalence of people missing the main points in OPs and suggesting practices, etc. that don't take the op or the op's experience level into account. Temp control is a constant one.
Hopefully the OP sees there are a range of options available but a mill and a 25 kg sack of grain is among the last of them.

 

[Nick JD]

on seeing your thread i do this too mate, and love how easy it is. i biab and when i mash in, i get dough-ball city, so by the time it takes me to locate them all and get the mash under way, it's literally 5-10 minutes later. is this a problem (apart from being annoying)?

do you use any sort of calculator to figure out the amount of water and temp to get to your desired temps? i'd like to try this. i'm sick of dough balls because i know i take a hit in efficiency because of them.

I apply no heat to my pot until boiling the wort. The pot is filled with around 9L of hot tap water (and due to different hot water temps, this is where I can't give you a definitive guide) so at dough in, I have around 13L of mash that's in the early 50s. By the time the coffee kettle has boiled and I've smashed most big doughballs, I've done a 10 minute protein rest. Adding ~2L of boiling water brings it up to around 62C (if it's a degree or so here and there it doesn't matter) and by the time I've given it a bit of a stir and a mash and boiled the kettle again I've done a 10-15 minute beta rest for lots of maltose. When milling to fliour this rest needn't be long.

Then the next additions of boiling water are all about hitting the alpha rest. Usually I got for 67C, but sometimes I might only want lower, or higher depending on style. It's at this stage where I hit the temp and insulate the pot. By this stage there isn't a single doughball in the mash.

It's all about doughing in below 58C where the flour becomes sticky. But it means you are controlling your mash much better. Also means you can mash anywhere there is a power socket.

The key to doing it the first time round is to dough in with less water than you think as you can always add more boiling and cold to end up with 18L of mash volume and the correct final rest temp. Experiment.

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I'm with mants, agree with bum.

Which is incredible on a number of counts.

And poofteenth is an awesome word.

Just to add to the haze the topic title reads "graining crushing....".

Maybe that confused some people.... just sayin'.

Seriously, for 5L - get it crushed at the brewshop. 25kg and a mill is if you're producing enough beer to warrant it. You are unlikely to ever produce that much beer, when brewing 5L at a time. If your brew shop doesn't do it, shop elsewhere.