If you are not conditioning your grain, check this out

Hey all,

So I found this link on line after someone posted something about conditioning your grain before your crush. Check it out.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Malt_Conditioning

I just followed all of the steps listed and it is awesome. I crushed on almost the smallest crush setting for both malt and barley (for the barley crusher it's 45deg angle to the right if you are looking at both nobs from the shaft side) and the hulls are mostly intact except that some are split in half. The wheat crush is beautiful. This took about 30min of prep time the night before brew day... this goes up there with making a starter for me. I will let you know in a few days if I got a stuck mash, but from the looks of it, I don't think I will.

Nice find. I don't read the wiki enough.

So not only did I actually not have a stuck lauter, I also hit 95% efficiency. I did do a double decoction mash, hit all my temps etc, but still... 95% I am not kidding, 3# pilsner malt, 3# light wheat and I hit and OG of about 38 or 39. Even with 50% wheat malt and no rice hulls I still managed to hit really spectacular numbers and didn't get a stuck sparge.

I batch sparge btw. I am going to do this from now on a few days before brew day. I ended up prepping the grain about 2 days before and just like the wiki says there was no problem with the grain going bad or anything.

asterix404 said:

So not only did I actually not have a stuck lauter, I also hit 95% efficiency. I did do a double decoction mash, hit all my temps etc, but still... 95% I am not kidding, 3# pilsner malt, 3# light wheat and I hit and OG of about 38 or 39. Even with 50% wheat malt and no rice hulls I still managed to hit really spectacular numbers and didn't get a stuck sparge.

I batch sparge btw. I am going to do this from now on a few days before brew day. I ended up prepping the grain about 2 days before and just like the wiki says there was no problem with the grain going bad or anything.

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*Slowly pulls his glasses off*

...Mother of God..

Yea, I just hope that this process is repeatable. It can significantly cut down my brew time... I mean, typically I get 75%, but that could also be because I only infusion mash with no dough in at a strike temp to hit 152. I want to try this set up with an infusion mash with an acid rest at 100 for 30min with 1/4 strike water, and do an infusion up to 152 with the rest.

Oh btw, this was a very thin decoction with 2qt/pound, pulled out a relatively thick decoction, brought the first up to 150 and let sit for 10min, brought it up to 162, let it slowly rise to 168 and then off to boiling for 20min. By this point, there was very little water to boil off, but some.

The second decoction was about the same but I brought the temp up from 150-167 over about 20min, and boiling for another 20. Added it all back, let it mash for 45min at 152, withdrew the liquor, sparged to 170 with 3g with a strong stir and 10min wait. I did very long pulls, it took about 15min to drain out the 3g.

I couldn't believe the reading so I checked my hydrometer with water and it rang in very close to 1.001 and I took it again and hit 38 or 39 with 5.5g at about 70. 6# of grain.... it should ferment out to 3 or 2 since it's a sour.

I malt condition 20 minutes before dough in.

_

Anyone ever consider using steam to condition the malt before crushing? I have a portable steam cleaner I use on wheels, bbq, kitchen floors etc. I think i will try this with a 1/2 lb of dry and 1/2 lb of steamed 2 row and post the results. If steam works more efficiently than spraying and stirring 20-30lb of grain, that would definitely rock.

I conditioned my malt for.the first time last week, and I lost 6 points, but I didnt move my mill settings, I may try it again with a tighter crush.

I don't find malt conditioning to improve eff, it does however improve your grain bed flow. Your crush might not need to condition the malt. You can definitely tighten the gap and you'll get more flour from the crush. I find that raising my grain bed and wort to mash out temp alone makes for higher efficiency.

My experiences.

flananuts said:

I don't find malt conditioning to improve eff, it does however improve your grain bed flow. Your crush might not need to condition the malt. You can definitely tighten the gap and you'll get more flour from the crush. I find that raising my grain bed and wort to mash out temp alone makes for higher efficiency.

My experiences.

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there is your increased efficiency. looked at another way; if you widened the gap on the mill your efficiency would go down. without that tighter mill it would not matter how hot you mash out.

flananuts said:

Anyone ever consider using steam to condition the malt before crushing? I have a portable steam cleaner I use on wheels, bbq, kitchen floors etc. I think i will try this with a 1/2 lb of dry and 1/2 lb of steamed 2 row and post the results. If steam works more efficiently than spraying and stirring 20-30lb of grain, that would definitely rock.

Click to expand...

I would think that steam would be a bad idea, since the steam would be hot enough to denature the enzymes in your malt.

The linked wiki states that you can use low temp steam. I'm intrigued...may try this next brew.

I have conditioned my malts 15-20 minutes before brewing as well. I dump the grains by the half pound (a little less than 1 solo cup btw) into a large bin and spray them with a spray bottle at each dump.

I dont do it every time, only when I feel like I have some extra time to burn (rarely). I havent done it enough times to say for sure whether it increases efficiency, but I can say that I was able to crank down the gap on my corona mill while the crushed grains still 'looked' good. And I didnt have stuck sparges.

It would be nice to rig up some sort of simple automatic sprayer, I would be more likely to do it every brewday then.

I knew I scanned all todays posts for a reason. I just sparged a "hoptober" clone attempt - and I conditioned for about 15 minutes before grinding on my mill - much nicer crush than normal. big hulls, small particles and a very easy mash and sparge.

so far so good, I will have to track my efficiency as the boil starts.

either way, it seems worth it to do conditioning if I have time - which if I have time to brew I have time to condition.

can you condition your malt when using corona grinder?

Been doing this with my corona ever since I ran across that same article. It's great. To some of the previous posts, the point is to be able to crush tighter while still keeping the husks relatively intact. In essence you're grinding the starches finer (better and quicker conversion) while keeping your husks more intact (better lautering). If you condition and do nothing to your gap, then I can see why there might be a decrease in efficiency. The husk is more pliable and might not crack as easily.

My process:
I crush the night before. I put a thin layer (a little less than 1/4") in the bottom of a wide under-bed tupperware storage container. I mist it down with a spray bottle and mix up the grains by hand. Add another layer, repeat. I let sit for 10 min while staging my other brew gear for the next morning. After 10-15 min, I crush and store the grain in a Homer bucket until the next morning.