Milling Grain with Omega 8006 Masticating Juicer

I have the wonderful Omega 8006 Masitcating Juicer. It is a great tool. The wife and kids love it, its great. I highly recommend it for so many reasons.

BUT... What if it could grind grain? I looks like it could certainly do it... albiet slowly and probably would only be useful for a BIAB crush which is fine with me.... Has anyone used their Omega juicer to grind grain?

I'm going to get some C40 with my next batch and give it a go. I'll post results as they come in.

Here is the juicer for those who wonder...

http://www.omegajuicers.com/juicers/masticating-juicers/juicer-8006.html

It truly does wonderful things with food.

Don't juicers work by shredding everything to a fine pulp then doing a centrifugal thing to separate the juice from the pulp? I couldn't imagine that would be good for brewing as you really want to maintain the husk as much as possible, the more damage to it the greater the extraction of tannins.

Yes.. a centrifugal(sp?) juicer does work that way. The type you are thinking of is basically a cheese grater that spins very very fast to shred anything that touches it to release the juice. But a masticating juicer like the Omega works like screw at very low rpms. It takes the food and screws it slowly through a small aperture. There is an option to 'grind' things like nuts and cofee beans. I was wondering if it wouldn't make an excellent grind for BIAB. I will try it in the next two weeks and let you know.

The link you posted shows this juicer to be a $300 retail machine. For about $30 you can get a Corona style mill that is made specifically for milling grain and not chance making a mess of or damaging the juicer.

@RM-MN - I know. I've been looking at mills for a while. The OMEGA was a gift to the family. And it was worth it (use a bed bath and beyond coupon to get it down 20% cheaper....) If it can also grind grain then it will be even more useful than it already is.

How you described it working, I would avoid it, again too much damage to the husk. Ideally you want to do as little damage to the husk to get it to release the endosperm which is what the roller mills are designed to do. It aids both in keeping tannin extraction low and allowing water to flow through the grain mass.

Bensiff said:

How you described it working, I would avoid it, again too much damage to the husk. Ideally you want to do as little damage to the husk to get it to release the endosperm which is what the roller mills are designed to do. It aids both in keeping tannin extraction low and allowing water to flow through the grain mass.

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If he were to brew BIAB as he says in his first post, the torn husks are of no consequence. I do all mine with a grain mill and the husks are shredded. I'm just more concerned with damaging a nice piece of equipment.

Shredded husks are more likely to lead to astringency in your beer, in addition to having potential clarity issues due to the additional polyphenols. It is the reason commercial breweries don't grind the malt into a fine powder in order to get 100% extract efficiency. You lower your costs, but make horrible beer in the process.

RM-MN said:

If he were to brew BIAB as he says in his first post, the torn husks are of no consequence. I do all mine with a grain mill and the husks are shredded. I'm just more concerned with damaging a nice piece of equipment.

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I've never done the BIAB but I would still imagine you want some good flow through the grains in the bag to get a good rinse. But, even if I'm wrong with that, it also has to do with extracting tannins from the husks. And like you said, I bet putting 15lbs of grain through something like a juicer would be pretty rough on that piece of equipment.

A quick update... Do not use the juicer i referenced earlier to grind malt. It sounds awful going through the machine and you just get particulate matter as output. It isn't crushing the grains, it is grinding them to a coarse powder. Also it would take forever to do.

The machine makes an amazing beet/carrot/celery/apple juice drink, but isn't suited to milling brewing grains.

Does anyone grind grain with the Omega NC800?

Just imagine a small stone from a bag of grain getting into that kind of machine...

Cheers!

If you don't have a grain mill and want to cheap out use an old blender. I did it once while I was waiting on my Barley Crusher. It will damage the husk a bit more, and the 'crush' won't be as even but it does work. Only do a small bit at a time and pulse the blades.

Personally I wouldn't risk using an expensive juicer trying to grind grain.