I've found preparing the night before for the next brew session very relaxing. Instead of using my electric drill to grind the grain, I have returned it to the shelf it lives on in my garage awaitng my next home improvement .
This might be a long post.. sorry about that.
The night before brew day I find enjoyment in weighing out the grains, crushing them and I also weigh out the hops. For the last few brews I've made I hand grind the grain.
The ground grains go into a HomeDepot orange bucket covered with Al. Hops measured and weighed to into seal-able plastic bags. Water additions (this is my first time) also went into one of those plastic bags. Lastly, put a whirfloc tablet and a Servomyces yeast nutrient into plastic bag. I marked it at 15, and also noted IC. All the hop bags have a number on them which I use to know the timing of each of them.
Tonight I was a little upset at myself because when I ordered grain, I accidentally ordered crushed grain, for the base grain. 10lbs of crushed Marris Otter. Well I weighed all the grains out, including the pre crushed Otter.. Broke out the Barley Crusher and started grinding. It was a failure at first.
I've double ground grain before. Didn't think it would eff any thing up doing it again. Well about 2 pounds into the hand grind.. the crusher stopped working. I thought maybe the flour of the pre crushed grain just didn't provide enough "traction" to pull the rest in. I shook the crap out of the mill, trying to get the flour part to the bottom and into the bucket I was using.
Didn't work. I finally got my drill and hooked it up to the Barley Crusher.. it worked. Got around 12 lbs of grain crushed. Bummed me out a little. I was so looking forward to grinding the grain by hand.
It's all good though. Grain, hops, water adjustments are all weighed out.
Tomorrow morning all I need to do is make some beer!.
This might be a long post.. sorry about that.
The night before brew day I find enjoyment in weighing out the grains, crushing them and I also weigh out the hops. For the last few brews I've made I hand grind the grain.
The ground grains go into a HomeDepot orange bucket covered with Al. Hops measured and weighed to into seal-able plastic bags. Water additions (this is my first time) also went into one of those plastic bags. Lastly, put a whirfloc tablet and a Servomyces yeast nutrient into plastic bag. I marked it at 15, and also noted IC. All the hop bags have a number on them which I use to know the timing of each of them.
Tonight I was a little upset at myself because when I ordered grain, I accidentally ordered crushed grain, for the base grain. 10lbs of crushed Marris Otter. Well I weighed all the grains out, including the pre crushed Otter.. Broke out the Barley Crusher and started grinding. It was a failure at first.
I've double ground grain before. Didn't think it would eff any thing up doing it again. Well about 2 pounds into the hand grind.. the crusher stopped working. I thought maybe the flour of the pre crushed grain just didn't provide enough "traction" to pull the rest in. I shook the crap out of the mill, trying to get the flour part to the bottom and into the bucket I was using.
Didn't work. I finally got my drill and hooked it up to the Barley Crusher.. it worked. Got around 12 lbs of grain crushed. Bummed me out a little. I was so looking forward to grinding the grain by hand.
It's all good though. Grain, hops, water adjustments are all weighed out.
Tomorrow morning all I need to do is make some beer!.