Practical Marga Alternative For Grain Crushing?

[merrick]

Hi All,

I am now the proud owner of my first bag of grain. My next step is crushing it. I am not yet at the Marga Mill level so I'm looking for practical suggestions and methods to achieve this. I've considered the rolling pin method. I've also thought about laying the grain on railway tracks which would give a more consistent crush. However, for safety reasons I'd prefer to do it indoors. I've also seen mention of juicers, processors, squishers and kitchen whizzers, but without words of wisdom from the AHB collective, I might finish up with something resembling talcum powder. At this stage of my brewing 'apprenticeship' I will be BIABing, which may or may not make a difference.
All practical suggestions gratefully received.

Cheers,

Merrick

 

[brettprevans]

rolling pin, metal baseball bat (my recently disguarded method) etc are all suitable. although I wouldnt want to ddo an AG batch of 5kg that way. I used a hand held food processor laast time on a slow speed and in bursts, just to crack it up a bit. My grain bag did an awsome job of keeping out all the little bits and I was happy enough. Then I decided to get my marga and love it. too much time wasting and inconsistency with the other methods.

there is a thread on cruching grain with a heap of suggested alternatives. I just cant find it atm.

 

[NickB]

Before I got my mill*, I just used a blender. Make sure you only fill it 1/3 or 1/2 full, give a few bursts and check the crush. You want as many husks intact as possible, and as little flour as you can, but there's a middle ground in there, which is some flour, and all grains at least cracked, with no whole grains remaining.

Give it a go. It's thought you can extract some tannins from the husks if you pulverize them, but I've not experienced that!

At worst, give it a go, and see how it turns out.... Of course, there may be another member around your area that might lend you the use of their mill...!
Hope this helps!

Cheers


*My "mill" is a converted hand-cranked coffee grinder, which I pulled apart, and made a hopper for. It actually works a treat, and crushes really well with a drill powering it...

Here's some pics!

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[troydo]

coffee grinder ehh.......

i may own an cafe coffee grinder......
i wonder if i wound out the grind to be quite course....
may have to order a bit extra grain next time and have a play...

 

[Duff]

Why not take advantage of the high AUD$ and order a Barley Crusher or Crankenstein online from the US? Would be here next week if you wanted.

 

[NickB]

coffee grinder ehh.......

i may own an cafe coffee grinder......
i wonder if i wound out the grind to be quite course....
may have to order a bit extra grain next time and have a play...

Why not! If it saves spending on a "real" mill for a while, then go for it! Just for the record, once I go my mill dialed in, my efficiency went from around the 60% mark to well above 75%, and I've stopped using Rice Gulls :beerbang:

Cheers

 

[haysie]

@ $250 for a barley crusher....... which I then have too assemble, crank it by hand :angry: , cut out/make bench tops/hopper yada yada.......then waste how many kilos of grain getting the adjustments right <_< doesnt seem to cut it.
Although on the other hand travelling back n forth picking up crushed grain paying petrol/etag n time doesnt cut it much either <_< .
Good call Duff, I will follow that up.

 

[Hargie]

...get a crankenstein and get on with it...

 

[user3673]

coffee grinder ehh.......

i may own an cafe coffee grinder......
i wonder if i wound out the grind to be quite course....
may have to order a bit extra grain next time and have a play...

Funny I tried the very same thing yesterday, all it made was course flour :angry:

 

[NickB]

Depends what sort of coffee grinder it is. Mine was a hand cranked model, with a small hopper (maybe 200g), made of copper and wood, and crushes at the bottom. Other models may act differently, but I did find that using the drill actually gave a much better crush than the hand crank, as it was more even.

Cheers

 

[Duff]

@ $250 for a barley crusher....... which I then have too assemble, crank it by hand :angry: , cut out/make bench tops/hopper yada yada.......then waste how many kilos of grain getting the adjustments right <_< doesnt seem to cut it.

When I bought mine it was around $220 delivered in 4 - 5 days. And the Aussie dollar was in the 70's somewhere, not as high now. You should be able to get one under $200. Only assembly required was opening the box, it is pre-done - with a base!

 

[Samwise Gamgee]

I believe Grain and Grape are now the Oz distributor. What Haysie said sounds about right if you wanna buy from G&G

Not sure of BC will deal direct anymore to Oz public

 

[Sammus]

coffee grinders are bad, especially good ones (hehe) because you have to grind coffee to many evenly sized particles, and good burr grinders do exactly that, grind. For grain you want to crush, its a bit different. I guess if its only for specialty grain or something that you dont have to mash and lauter itd probably be ok though..

 

[NickB]

That's what my inital reaction to my grinder was, but now it's dialled in it's great! I'll post a pic or three of my crush once the Bulk Buy gets here (hopefully soon - itching to brew, it's been weeks!)

 

[haysie]

I did hear a AHB member trial the garden mulcher for a crush, cant find the thread ATM, birds enjoyed a good feed .... 3 doors up

 

[goatherder]

@ $250 for a barley crusher....... which I then have too assemble, crank it by hand :angry: , cut out/make bench tops/hopper yada yada.......then waste how many kilos of grain getting the adjustments right <_< doesnt seem to cut it.
Although on the other hand travelling back n forth picking up crushed grain paying petrol/etag n time doesnt cut it much either <_< .
Good call Duff, I will follow that up.

Assembling the hopper took 10 minutes. I crank it with a battery drill. I made a base from some scrap timber in about 20 mins. Out of the box I got 70% efficiency - same as I did from the LHBS. Haven't touched the adjuster knob yet. No grain wasted.

Best $250 I ever spent.

 

[merrick]

Thanks for some great ideas! I was wondering whether the fact I'm doing a BIAB would be less demanding on the quality of crush/grind? Or have I got it all wrong?

Merrick

 

[Maple]

who did you guys get the barley crusher from in the US? i'm looking at either that or the crankandstein 3D, but not sure about shipping and haven't looked too close as it'll be my xmas pressie from the dogs (I think SWMBO will buy that.. )

 

[driveitlikeustoleit]

I'm in the process of fitting out our marga. Made base board to sit in top of mash tun. Thought i'd be smart n try to power it with a rotisserie motor. At 2-2.4 rpm. Dumb arse! grain should be cracked by turn of the century. Gonna try the cheapo drill next.

 

[merrick]

Thanks for some great ideas! I was wondering whether the fact I'm doing a BIAB would be less demanding on the quality of crush/grind? Or have I got it all wrong?

Merrick

I think the thread got hijacked after the above. Anybody got some guiding words?

Merrick