Total Disaster

[PKay]

My first go at All Grain Brewing was a total crash and burn.

All my new equipment turned up: Grainfather Mill, Grainfather S40 boiler and a box with the grain etc.

On the day, everything was cleaned, the S40 was heating and I started to mill the grain.

After about 1kg of milling, the Grainfather mill stopped working.
I called the supplier and response was 'send it back'.
Oh great, another 2 weeks (or more) of waiting.
It was suggested I use a pestle and mortar to finish milling.
Yeh right, I don't think so.
So I used my coffee grinder and that easily milled the grain however it was to fine, like coffee...

Put the 'grist' into the S40 basket and turned on the pump.
The water would not go through and the pump was running dry.

So I used my brand new plastic paddle to stir the grist. The handle snapped.
Repaired the crappy plastic paddle with some steel tube.

I had to constantly stir the grist for the next hour to get the water to circulate.

Anyway got to Primary fermentation stage and had a quick taste: The beer was revolting.
It tasted like bitter lawn clippings.

On the phone to the supplier.
Was advised that is might get better and to persevere..

Well after 2 weeks in the bottle, it was totally undrinkable.
Had to pour the whole batch down the sink.

Question:
Was it the constant stirring at the start that released all the badness?

 

[clickeral]

Milling that fine would have caused a lot of issues.

 

[bradmcm]

100% it was your coffee mill. The grain crush needs to be so the grain cracks into 4-6 solid pieces and the husk to be intact.
The astringency was from the powdered husks.
https://www.brewersfriend.com/2009/03/28/best-grind-setting-for-grains/Either wait for your mill to be repaired or buy a pre-milled all-grain kit or get your homebrew store to crush your grains in the meantime.

 

[MHB]

Not really the issue - or not all of it

Brewers using filter presses to separate sweet water from grist crush in a hammer mill which produces powder, from the husks to (under 0.2mm). All the Coopers beers are milled this way.
Not saying that fine husk fragments wont exacerbate the extraction of tannins (well Polyphenols) but if your pH is in the right range (5 to 5.4pH); the temperature is kept under 80oC; you aren’t over sparging (especially with hot high pH (high in carbonates) water)) it really isn’t going to be the cause.
Mark

Edit
Refferring to tast, naturally too fine will make flow through the grist a problem.
M

 

[dkril]

We've all had brew days like that!

Sometimes it's almost enough to make a man go teetotal!

 

[MHB]

Nah!

 

[dkril]

Nah!

I did say "almost".

Better teetotal than VB. Or XXXX Gold .

 

[Malchizedec]

Sounds like my own first ever brew day... except I dropped and shattered my lid.

it'll get better

 

[Dave70]

My first go at All Grain Brewing was a total crash and burn.

All my new equipment turned up: Grainfather Mill, Grainfather S40 boiler and a box with the grain etc.

On the day, everything was cleaned, the S40 was heating and I started to mill the grain.

After about 1kg of milling, the Grainfather mill stopped working.

I'm a can do kind of guy, however, its at that point I would have concluded the cosmos was trying to tell me something and that something is slip down the bottle-o and grab a box of LCPA and pack it in.
But the urge to use new equipment is extremely powerful.

Having said that, I once neglected to tick the 'milled' box when ordering grain and put over a kilo of spec and wheat malt through the old Sunbeam café series.
Its a burr grinder and if I'm honest, didn't make a bad fist of it on the coarse setting.

It took quite some time though and the garage had that acrid plastic stink that only comes from electrical appliances pushed to the limit for days. She was toasty warm by the time that last hopper of crystal fed through believe you me.

 

[PKay]

OK guys n girls, thanks for the input.

What have I learnt not to end up with drain cleaner?

This is my take on it:

With my equipment and limited knowledge, to mill the grain to the point of coffee grounds,
will result in disaster.

Simple as that.

And when I have created the 'perfect' beer I will thank you once again.

Cheers!

 

[Vini2ton]

Chin up mate. Just go back and assess how you went wrong and keep having a crack. It's meant to be an enjoyable hobby. Cynical old fart I am reckons the drinking is the best bit of the fun. I BIAB and get the suppliers to mill my grain. After many years of very basic processes, I still love those simple things we all do. The smell of the hops and malt, watching the fermentation and the final drinking of our efforts. You'll be right. And...there always is the bottle shop to drown our sorrows after lack lustre efforts.

 

[TwoCrows]

Check your mash temp with a known trusted thermometer.

As stated above ... buy a milled grain and test your system.
Don't go crazy on your sparge running's don't go under 1.015 to be safe.

 

[Drubbing]

I just moved to AG from kits and partials, with a simple digiboil setup and BIAB. I buy my grain premilled and go with store recipes.

I've done 2 brews in the Digiboil and screwed up everything (differently) on each one. Wrong mash temp, failure to maintain it, boils that resulted in reduced batch sizes, gravity numbers that were way off. Nothing wrong with the beers, they probably just don't taste quite like the recipes intended.

So, with pre milled grain, lots of stuff can go wrong and you can still get a good result. Try that for a few brews before millling your own.

 

[An Ankoù]

We've all had brew days like that!

Sometimes it's almost enough to make a man go teetotal!

Steady on, old chap!

 

[An Ankoù]

OK guys n girls, thanks for the input.

What have I learnt not to end up with drain cleaner?

This is my take on it:

With my equipment and limited knowledge, to mill the grain to the point of coffee grounds,
will result in disaster.

Simple as that.

And when I have created the 'perfect' beer I will thank you once again.

Cheers!

I agree with @TwoCrows . Buy some milled grain while your mill is being fixed, Get to know what correctly milled grain is supposed to look like before milling your own. Learn how to use your equipment one piece at a time then incorporate another bit, in this case the mill. I've been using milled grains for decades and it lasts for years if stored properly. Only invested in my own mill because I wanted to build up stock of longer-lasting whole grain before Brexit supply problems kicked in. Glad I did.