How Do You Crack Grains?

[braufrau]

Hi All,


last night I cracked some crystal grains in my good processor before steeping and this
morning I was looking at the remains before chucking them at the chickens
and it seemed I had a high percentage that weren't cracked.

How do you do it?

I have an indian wet grinder thingo for making rice cakes. I guess I could
use that, but that might be going to the other extreme!

Maybe I just needed to run the food processor longer.

-braufrau

 

[Steve]

with the love of my life of course:

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...c=13371&hl=

purchased mill from craftbrewer $95 :super:

Cheers
Steve

 

[tipsy_mcstagger]

Tried grain for the first time in my last brew & I just used a big wooden chopping board and a big rolling pin. It was pretty slow but for 200g its was okay. definately cracked all the grain.

 

[Pumpy]

Tried grain for the first time in my last brew & I just used a big wooden chopping board and a big rolling pin. It was pretty slow but for 200g its was okay. definately cracked all the grain.

Tipsy
You should be able to buy you grains cracked if you are buying from a HBS itis less of a problem

Pumpy

 

[Bazza]

I use a big granite mortar & pestle for grains (I only use up to 300-500g per batch). Works OK until I buy a mill....along with everything else I need to buy...

 

[Simon W]

I've done the same since my homemade mill died(too slack to fix it), getting the base malt cracked at the LHBS and using a mortar and pestle to crack the specialties.

 

[albrews]

Hi All,
last night I cracked some crystal grains in my good processor before steeping and this
morning I was looking at the remains before chucking them at the chickens
and it seemed I had a high percentage that weren't cracked.

How do you do it?

I have an indian wet grinder thingo for making rice cakes. I guess I could
use that, but that might be going to the other extreme!

Maybe I just needed to run the food processor longer.

-braufrau

hi, until you have a mill, a small pulsing coffee grinder or spice grinder will do the trick. the food processor
method or blender pulsed should be ok. they say don't grind to a flour or dust ,but just break the grain.
crystal is mostly for steeping anyway.

cheers alan

 

[Weizguy]

Yeah, the crystal just needs to be cracked/ centre exposed.
That will allow the steeping water to access and dissolve the caramelised sugars inside the husk.

Too much grinding, food-processing or milling will powder the husks and allow the steeping water to leech too much tannin from the grains. You'll get an astringent, mouth-puckering brew. Yuk! :huh:
For crystal grains, I'd put the grain in a heavy duty ziploc bag and belt it with a mallet (rubber or meat mallet) until all (or most) of the grains are broken open.
Or you can buy them milled at the lhbs. Most mail-order hbs's will mill-to-order as well.

Hope this adds value to your brewing experience.

Seth out

 

[sah]

Hi Braufrau,

Put out the feelers for an all grain brewer close to you. Most brewers would be more than happy for you to drop around and mill a small amount of grain. You can swap some beers.

Fill out your location in your profile so that it shows up with your posts.

regards
Scott

 

[Aaron]

I have a barley crusher but you may not want to get a mill until you know you want to stick with grain brewing. Any shop that sells grain should be able to crush it for you.

Kai can show you how it's done if he posts the video I took of him crushing some grain the old fashioned way on a brew day at his place.

 

[braufrau]

Thanks guys. Looks like I need to work out some sort of mallet or pestle type setup before the next brew.

Hope last nights effort didn't result in too much astringency!

-braufrau

 

[stillscottish]

I hate to admit it but I'm using a sunbeam coffee grinder at the moment. It's a burr grinder with the gap wound out so it crushes rather than grinds.
I've got 1 roller made for my mill at the moment but I haven't been able to use the lathe at work recently to finish the second one.

Campbell

 

[Tony]

this works OK

 

[albrews]

this works OK

hi, do you have a pic of the rollers inside the crusher?

cheers alan

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

Tony.....

Why does your mill look very similar to the one you made for me....

Yep..they are solid stainless rollers....

 

[Tony]

Ahhhhhhhh one of my babies

I have 6 children....... 3 are human 1 lives in my garage, redbeard adopted one and so did Ducatiboy Stu.

2 inch diameter, 10 onch long 316 stainless and let me tell ya, when your cracking 12 KG of grain you need the motor. Stu realllllllllly needs the motor
Do a search for "grain mill" and sort by may name. you should find plenty of pics i have posted of it for people in hte past

cheers

 

[braufrau]

Popped into the jovial monk the other day and they will crack
whatever amount of grain I need for a recipe with 24 hours notice.

Problem solved!

-braufrau

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

MMMm...The Monk is still alive....

 

[yardy]

I use the Ross Mill.

 

[Thunderlips]

How do you do it?

I use a Phil Mill, bought from Grain&Grape.
http://www.listermann.com/Store/Details.asp?ID=589
I bought a Marga Mill before that but it's unmodified and I didn't know about the modification before buying the Phil Mill. Anyway, the Phil Mill works a treat. It's got a little dial on it to set the roller space.