Buy new grains or crush em myself?

Newbie here....

Forgot to get the grains crushed....

After reading pages and pages on this topic, I attempted and crushed them myself. It took awhile and used a rolling pin just enough where I could see they cracked. I'm sure theyre all not cracked...

Should I make a run and buy new grain that is already crushed or use what I have? The grain is carapils if that matters. Any opinions and attempts to poke fun at the new guy are welcome....thanks

Starting batch #1 tomorrow.

I found that having my own mill and the ability to crush the grain myself was invaluable to producing better beer along with increased savings. I usually crush my grain much more than the homebrew shop did and as a result ended up with a much better efficiency. I don't know if you have access to a roller mill before you brew but when I'm in Mexico I use one of these

http://backyardbrewer.blogspot.com/2012/01/cheap-malt-mill.html

with good results. You can often find these in grocery stores where they sell whole food/grains. Cheers.

mark
www.backyardbrewer.blogspot.com

I already crushed them ( if you call it that) as instructed , but ya think I should just use them or buy new? It's my first brew and not sure how bad getting a 'generic' crush would have if any. Midwest said no worries, do I trust him??

You probably won't hit your og, this will result in lower ABV, but I am not sure if that warrants buying all new grains. It will still taste like beer and be easily drinkable (hopefully).

In the end though, its up to you to decide.

if you are just steeping carapils you will be fine - you aren't really getting much if any fermentables from that - mainly just add some body and help with head retention

you can try crushing/rolling them some more if you want - you really just need to crack them for steeping purposes

not worth getting more unless you live really close to a homebrew store

I used the flat end of a meat cleaver once. Put them in 2 ziplock, 1 gallon bags and tap away.. I plan on getting a corona mill for the future, similar to the one mbird showed..

terrapinj said:

if you are just steeping carapils you will be fine - you aren't really getting much if any fermentables from that - mainly just add some body and help with head retention

you can try crushing/rolling them some more if you want - you really just need to crack them for steeping purposes

not worth getting more unless you live really close to a homebrew store

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+1+1 I imagine they are steeping grains for use in a kit? Used with extract just for flavor and body? For steeping you can crush as much as you want, no worry about a stuck sparge there. Enjoy your day!

I would get those crushed,carapils are about the worst grain along with white wheat malt to crush without a grind mill. Recrush your grains. Ive used a wine bottle /cutting board lined with a paperbag. I could only do a few oz at a time. Youll appreciate a mill once you get one.

How much grain are you talking about? Are the grains going to be mashed or steeped? What type of grains?

I've thrown mine in a blender before, slow speed and a little at a time. Just mind it closely or you'll have grain dust

Agree with above, what % of the grist is the CaraPils? It's definitely not a diastatic malt, but, it's only used for head retention, right? Not sure what kind of effect a poor grind would have. Couldn't hurt to hit it again with a rolling pin, (or blender), but honestly, it's not going to effect the flavor of your brew, and as long as the rest of your brew is successful, you should have decent head retention anyways.

I agree with the previous posters, if its just some steeping grain you'll be fine, it's not going to have a big effect if your crush is not quite right. For steeping grain or mashing in a bag you can get away with using a coffee grinder or blender.

Using a kit, I don't think that you will see enough benefit to buying new grain. Crush em as much as you can and toss them in. At the end of the day, you are going to have beer. It may not be the exact beer that you wanted, but guess what, it hardly ever is anyway but you have a unique creation that you made yourself!

You should elbow drop them. That way you get a workout AND learn the value of a grain crusher

mbird said:

I found that having my own mill and the ability to crush the grain myself was invaluable to producing better beer along with increased savings. I usually crush my grain much more than the homebrew shop did and as a result ended up with a much better efficiency. I don't know if you have access to a roller mill before you brew but when I'm in Mexico I use one of these

http://backyardbrewer.blogspot.com/2012/01/cheap-malt-mill.html

with good results. You can often find these in grocery stores where they sell whole food/grains. Cheers.

Click to expand...

Wow! I have one of those! Does grinding up the grains take a long time?

I'm so going to use this next time!

Thats pretty much a corona mill, i have and love mine.You have to adjust the wing nut to get the crush you want.3 pounds of grain takes me 5 or 10 min, you can hook a drill up using a bolt or something but i just do the grunt work.Looks like that could use a bigger hopper, i would make one out of something or just use some kind of funnel,im shure some kind of plastic thing would make a bigger hopper.
You could make a hopper out of of some kind of plastic bottle by cutting it out to fit around it snug,if there is not a bigger hopper option.

mbird said:

when I'm in Mexico I use one of these]

Click to expand...

Is this similar? 25 bucks seems a steal.

http://www.discounttommy.com/p-189-...or-use-as-a-nut-mill.aspx?CAWELAID=1057724161