How Fine Does My Grain Need To Be Milled?

[bourbonandoj]

About to brew my first AG. How fine does my grain need to be milled? Do I need to spend hours with a coffee grinder or can I give it a quick bash? Any help greatly appreciated.

 

[seemax]

Enough to crack the husk...

Using my insinkerator I end up crushing too much, it's a bit flourey. Doesn't worry me though since I BIAB. Some photos in this thread...

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum/inde...showtopic=35948

 

[RdeVjun]

About to brew my first AG. How fine does my grain need to be milled? Do I need to spend hours with a coffee grinder or can I give it a quick bash? Any help greatly appreciated.

Do you BIAB or use a vessel with a manifold? With BIAB the crush isn't critical and it can accept a fine grind almost down to flour, but you can't get away with that if there's a manifold in the mash tun. If you do BIAB and are using an electric coffee/ spice grinder, you're better off crushing smaller individual batches and you want to smash every grain open, so it will take a fair amount of effort (spousie may not forgive you if you burn it out too BTW!).
If you're using a manifold of some kind, I'd not recommend a coffee grinder, the grains need to be cracked much more carefully to leave the husk as intact possible- roller mills do this quite well and there are a few choices. I'm fairly pleased with my Marga mill's performance but there are quite a few other makes that perform just as well.

There's an AHB article too, a few pics but not much text unfortunately, Braukaiser has a useful section though, the analysis is targeted more towards manifold- style mash tun though. Good luck with it!

 

[Smashin]

... Do I need to spend hours with a coffee grinder...

yes, my first ag years ago was with the old style coffee grinder, took me near 3 hrs to crush 5kg,

ah those were the days.

 

[chappo1970]

Do you BIAB or use a vessel with a manifold? With BIAB the crush isn't critical and it can accept a fine grind almost down to flour, but you can't get away with that if there's a manifold in the mash tun. If you do BIAB and are using an electric coffee/ spice grinder, you're better off crushing smaller individual batches and you want to smash every grain open, so it will take a fair amount of effort (spousie may not forgive you if you burn it out too BTW!).
If you're using a manifold of some kind, I'd not recommend a coffee grinder, the grains need to be cracked much more carefully to leave the husk as intact possible- roller mills do this quite well and there are a few choices. I'm fairly pleased with my Marga mill's performance but there are quite a few other makes that perform just as well.

There's an AHB article too, a few pics but not much text unfortunately, Braukaiser has a useful section though, the analysis is targeted more towards manifold- style mash tun though. Good luck with it!

Great advice there Ralph, Kudos mate!

My 2c would be for you to have your grain milled if at all possible by your local homebrew store or from one of the sponsors. Just advise them of your mashing/lautering/brewing method so that they can adjust the crush to suit your brewing. That way you can achieve your desired result and be rewarded to switching to AG. Being your first AG there is plenty to concentrate on other than worrying about your crush. That can come later once you get a few under your belt.

If you can't or too remote to get your grain pre-milled then definitely run with Rdevjun (who I wish had an easier nick to remember how to speel )



Chap Chap

 

[bourbonandoj]

Thanks people. I am using my esky with a false bottom I am yet to design/buy/manufacture and I am not BIAB. It it easier for me to BIAB? Do the results vary?

 

[chappo1970]

Wow now that is a loaded question. So I'll try to be impartial as I can be.

BIAB is a great process to produce AG beers. It's cheap to set yourself up and very practical in it's application. You only need one vessel, a way to heat that vessel and bag (swiss voile). There has been some great beers produced and many beers have now that have won numerous awards. It does however have some limitations but as a noob AGer these shouldn't worry you at this stage.

A traditional 3 vessel, hot liquor tun (HLT), mash lauter tun (MLT) and a kettle/boiler is required equipment wise. It can be set up as cheap as you want or as expensive as you want. This all depends on how thrifty and make do you are really. Also helps if you're a little handy with the tools. The greatest asset to 3V or even 2V systems/processes is the greater control over the entire process of brewing beer. That said anyone and I domean anyone doing tradition brewing can make a mealof it on any given day which also goes for BIAB brewers.

Basically the two are merely differing processes and only ultimately you can make that decision for yourself as to the best direction. Read the BIAB thread, BribieG did a great article on the process not too long ago. Also read up on 2/3V brewing. Weight it up and go with what suits YOU best.

If you have any questions feel free to PM me B and I'll see if I can answer your questions and or point you in the right direction.

Cheers

Chap Chap

 

[RdeVjun]

Great advice there Ralph, Kudos mate!

My 2c would be for you to have your grain milled if at all possible by your local homebrew store or from one of the sponsors. Just advise them of your mashing/lautering/brewing method so that they can adjust the crush to suit your brewing. That way you can achieve your desired result and be rewarded to switching to AG. Being your first AG there is plenty to concentrate on other than worrying about your crush. That can come later once you get a few under your belt.

If you can't or too remote to get your grain pre-milled then definitely run with Rdevjun (who I wish had an easier nick to remember how to speel )



Chap Chap

Thanks mate! I agree with you though, best bet is to get the supplier or LHBS to crush it, that's if they're up for it. First AG brewday doesn't need these sorts of embuggerances, but its all part of the enriching educational experience!

Yeah, a pretty naff and unhelpful choice of moniker I'll admit, but you can call me what you like- I'll answer to most names! Reminds me, one day at work when we upgraded our PABX to digital it came with the ability to display caller's name on the handset if it was an internal call, our admin staff asked if anyone wanted to change their name, one guy said yep, he'd like to change his to Dwight Yoakam please! (An american country singer, the girls get all gooey over him.) :lol: