First time conditioning grain before grind....

Don't think I'll go back to dry crushing.

Spritzed 5 lbs of barley malt down with a spray bottle and let it sit for 20 minutes. Ran it through at the usual 0.032" (0.8mm) gap. This gap always looked a little too coarse but I was afraid to go finer. Too many grains just were not crushed as well as I thought they should be at this gap.

Reset the gap to 0.026" (0.65mm) and re-crushed. Awesome! Small bits of grain with hulls in very large pieces. Best crush ever. Interested to see how the efficiency is.

Did 2 pounds of wheat malt too. Don't think it helped it as much but I don't think it hurt either.

Hard to describe how wet I got it. Once I got little pieces of debris sticking to the inside of the plastic bag I sprayed it in, I called it good. Sprayed a little and tossed it around a little until I got there.

All the Best,
D. White

I started conditioning my grains about 2 years ago. Generally do it the same way, except I use my bucket and mix the grain by hand to see how it feels. Then double mill at 0.039. I saw an initial jump of about 7% in my mash efficiency and as much as a 15% increase on pilsen based beers.

First I have heard of this. I BIAB and have a corona that cracks pretty fine so not sure if this is for me or not but I will follow this thread and try to read about it now.

JohnnyBrewGood said:

First I have heard of this. I BIAB and have a corona that cracks pretty fine so not sure if this is for me or not but I will follow this thread and try to read about it now.

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Most likely for BIAB it wouldn't matter. Pre-wetting or conditioning the grain helps keep the husks together better instead of shredding them with a tighter mill setting. It helps more for batch and fly sparging.

I started conditioning some time ago. 2% water by weight is what I use. I spray the night before and let it sit in a bucket covered with tin foil. Not air tight, but the foil probably does cut down on evaporation. I am probably risking growing some nasties overnight, but so far no issues. Grain does not feel wet when I crush in the morning. I crush at 0.040 and get 75% efficiency. I started conditioning to improve lautering. Hulls are in far better shape than when I crushed without conditioning.

CA_Mouse said:

Most likely for BIAB it wouldn't matter. Pre-wetting or conditioning the grain helps keep the husks together better instead of shredding them with a tighter mill setting. It helps more for batch and fly sparging.

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Ah, thanks

I use a criteria for wetting that is visual and hands on. I spritz water on the grain until the grain no longer produces any dust while I'm mixing it and my hands are neither dusty or moist. Don't over wet your grain or the flour will cake onto the rollers and clog your mill.

mabrungard said:

Don't over wet your grain or the flour will cake onto the rollers and clog your mill.

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+1 to this! Especially if you are dealing with a grist that has a high percentage of wheat malt. Turns into concrete on the mill rollers.

dwhite60 said:

Reset the gap to 0.026" (0.65mm) and re-crushed. Awesome! Small bits of grain with hulls in very large pieces. Best crush ever. Interested to see how the efficiency is.

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Just a note, but you can get a bit closer than that. I learned how to do this from Kai's site and followed his direction to mill at 0.55mm (0.022").

Also, you should be milling your wheat separately from the rest of your grain. Even going as tight as 0.55mm will not crush the wheat. What I usually do is condition the wheat (separately) first, then let that rest while I condition the barley. Then set my gap to 0.41mm (0.012") and mill the wheat. Now regap to 0.55mm and run the barley through. Finally, mix the milled wheat with the milled barley.