Anyone else enjoy hand milling?

I don't use a drill to run my mill, so I spend about 15-20 minutes per brew session milling my grain. Usually, this is done the day/night before to cut down on prep time. I feel it gives me a closer and more hands on feel to brewing and crafting my beer. I just love the process. The smell of the malt, the feel of the smooth handle on my hand, the pressure of the natural resistance of the grain... Its all part of the process. I love the craft part of this hobby, and this part brings me closer to the beer. Does anyone else have this experience?

I have gimpy wrists, elbows and shoulders from too many years of computer geekdom. I'm either in pain or can't feel my fingers after five minutes of it.

I'm with you, KAMMEE. I remember when I got my mill (a Barley Crusher) I thought sure I'd want to get the drill out to drive it. But, for the hell of it, I first wanted to try it by hand. The feel is fantastic. It is such a tactile experience! I know I am gushing, but it is honestly my favorite part of brew day. I did it just today, and was a tad sad that the flaked wheat I used, didn't need to be crushed. Luckily, there was pale malt in the bill, too! Mike

My daughter was furious with me the first time I let the LHBS grind my grain for me.
We'd been grinding by hand-crank together and I wasn't going to cost her any future opportunities. Good thing I had some adjuncts to grind or she'd have sent me back to the store for replacement grain.

We both enjoy the time and the connection.

I'm strong as an ox, but once I removed the handle and tried a drill, I was hooked. The handle never went back on.

I used to say the exact same thing as the OP, tho. Funny.

i always let my son hand crank for a minute or two. when he looses interest, i use the drill.

I ran one IIPA grainbill through mine by hand when I first got the mill, after that I dug out the drill. I get enough excercise at work, I don't need more at home.

azscoob said:

I ran one IIPA grainbill through mine by hand when I first got the mill, after that I dug out the drill. I get enough excercise at work, I don't need more at home.

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Sucks for your wife.


I enjoy hand milling, too. Something therapeutic about it.

shecky said:

Sucks for your wife.


I enjoy hand milling, too. Something therapeutic about it.

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Meh, let her do the work while I enjoy the ride.

KAMMEE said:

I don't use a drill to run my mill, so I spend about 15-20 minutes per brew session milling my grain. Usually, this is done the day/night before to cut down on prep time. I feel it gives me a closer and more hands on feel to brewing and crafting my beer. I just love the process. The smell of the malt, the feel of the smooth handle on my hand, the pressure of the natural resistance of the grain... Its all part of the process. I love the craft part of this hobby, and this part brings me closer to the beer. Does anyone else have this experience?

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I DISPISE hand milling.

Ah, No.

Simply. No.

Doesn't mean I haven't put my fair share of a few (hundreds) of pounds through my corona by hand though.

That's one of my favorite parts of brew day

I'm not going to say I'm a purist or anything, because I've been tempted to use a drill when I have a 15-16 pound grainbill, but it isn't a chore for me like some folks make it out to be, and opinions are highly variable in this area. Kegtoe, you have quite a milling set up there, and I can see setting something like that up if you wanted to do three or four brews in a day or if you were doing 10 and 20 gallon batches, then milling by hand just becomes unpractical. But for my five gallon batches, it only takes me about ten to fifteen minutes to weigh out the grains and mill them. Again, just wondered if there was anyone else out there like me that actually enjoys this part of brewday (or in my case brew day prep).

I don't enjoy it but I'm not bothered by it enough to buy a drill suitable for milling.

If I did 10+ gallon batches I would probably have a different opinion but since I normally do 1-3 gallon batches (and occasionally 5 gallons) it just isn't that big of a deal.

I love my corona. I just do partial mash beers, so the hand milling is just another hands-on part of home brewing.

I like to use northern brewers powered mill, takes 30 seconds to mill 12 pounds of grain and its free to use.

I'm three hours from either store. Little pricey to grind grain.

One of my favorite parts of the brew day is running 30 lbs of grain through my motorized mill.

I hand mill until the strike water is close to temp. then bust out the drill if I still have a few lbs to go. If my 5 year old is there she do some. She also loves to condition the grains with the spray bottle.