Malt Density

[chovain]

I'm sure this has been addressed before, but I've searched and searched, and can't find anything.

Does anyone have approximate densities for both cracked and uncracked malt? To put it another way, how much space does a kilogram of grain take up before and after cracking?

I have a couple of rough figures in my head, but I'm not sure if they're right. I think I fit about 5kg uncracked grain in a 9L bucket. It seems to take about 40-50% more space when cracked. Does that seem right?

 

[NickB]

Not sure of the "official" numbers, but I cracked 8kg of grain into a 15L bucket yesterday, and could probably fit another kilo in.

1kg/2L is what I work with for my specialties (uncracked).

I would have thought that the density would be similar between cracked and uncracked. It's not like you're magically making more grain when you crack it!

Cheers

 

[chovain]

Not sure of the "official" numbers, but I cracked 8kg of grain into a 15L bucket yesterday, and could probably fit another kilo in.

1kg/2L is what I work with for my specialties (uncracked).

I would have thought that the density would be similar between cracked and uncracked. It's not like you're magically making more grain when you crack it!

Cheers

2 L/kg seems pretty close to what I thought. When you crack grain, I expect it should take up more space because the husk is torn open so will appear to be longer and/or fatter. The grain itself doesn't take any more space, but I'd expect there to be more air in the mix (until you dough in, obviously). Image cracking the shells on a bag of nuts. Each nut is a nice tight package to begin with, but once they're cracked and tossed back into the bag, the kernel and shell halves don't fit so neatly.

I think I may need to do some experiments.

 

[underback]

I measure all my grains by litres. Works out pretty accurate or at least as accurate as I need to be. I figure on 1kg equaling 1.75 litres uncracked, and with my mill 2.5 litres cracked. Bugger using scales

Cheers