Crushing Grain In the Brewhouse

I know from Papazian and other sources that malted grain contains lactobacillus that are released into the air with the dust of crushing the malt.

My wife wants to buy the nice multi-purpose (grinding/cracking/crushing) Country Living Grain Mill http://countrylivinggrainmills.com/index.php
and mount it in our kitchen. I suggested the garage but she does not want to have to grind flour in the garage in January - which I understand.

The grain mill will be about 8 feet away from the stove and sink. I brew in the kitchen and am worried about crushing my grains that close to the brewhouse.

Thoughts I have had to minimize the risk:

• Crush grain the day before, never on brew day
• No grinding flour or similar on brew day
• Throw a sheet up and over the area while I crush - since I will be doing partial mashes, only 4 to 5 lbs of grain will be crushed per session, which is not too long to spend hanging out under a sheet using the mill
• When the grains go in the pot for mashing, clean and then sanitize all surfaces that might come into contact with post boil implements - this should be SOP anyway
• Convince wife to mount the grain mill in the garage and I will brave the cold to use the mill in the garage
• Crush at the LHBS and not mill anything else on brew day

Any other thoughts?

Whats the worry? When you boil you murder any nasties in the wort until the temp drops far enough. Haven't read much on all grain but reading up on it. Not seen that tidbit yet.

It is not the boiled wort I am worried about, it is the rest of the items in the kitchen that might get malt dust on them.

Kind of wish I had your delima. If my wife told me she wanted a grain mill, I would have to pinch myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming.

Seriously, I look forward to hearing what the experts say about your concern. I've not thought about that before.

I used to mill my grain about 6' from where I brewed. I had a string of lacto infections. I moved my mill to the shed where I keep my lawnmower. No problem since then. (Fingers crossed)

My first, and best solution would be that YOU mill the grain for her when it is bitter cold.

I would suggest not milling grain in the kitchen or wherever you are brewing for the reasons you mentioned. Instead, consider getting a portable heater to use in the garage. I have a tank mounted radiant propane heater that I use for cold weather brewing and I think it would be ideal for your garage. Milling the grain doesn't take very long and you typically don't do it very often. As someone suggested, offer to do all of the milling for you and your wife. Slightly off topic, but that mill you linked to is very pricey at $409 plus shipping. It's not motorized and it appears to be a burr type mill more suitable to producing bread flower than brewing grist. I'm not sure there is a mill that will do both well. You might consider getting a dedicated malt mill and separate one for your wifes needs. I don't know if your wife has a mixer, but there is probably a good chance that she does and it might be a Kitchen Aid. If so, you can get a mill attachment that I am sure would work for her for a lot less money and it would be motorized: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007LY40E/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Catt22: thanks for the reply.

That mill can be had for about $395, including shipping, but it is well rated and has been used by many to crush grain and mill flour. Part of the reason the wife wants it is that it does not require electricity.

I agree, switching to boiling in the garage or on the deck and filling the fermenter outside would also solve the problem.

I've read enough in threads about contamination from mills that I wouldn't want the milling to go on anywhere that it might contaminate my brewing process. I mill and brew in the garage, but the milling's done the day before....and the only things that are stored in the garage besides the mill are the MLT, burner, and propane tanks. All the other brew gear lives in the basement except on brew day.

I just wouldn't want all that grain dust flying around inside the house because it's dust flying around the house period.

You could also set up a dust collection hood and run your shop vac while milling.

JKoravos said:

You could also set up a dust collection hood and run your shop vac while milling.

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It would be prudent to equip the shop vac with a HEPA filter if you go this route. Otherwise you would only be making the situation worse as the exhaust from the shop vac will contain very small malt flour dust. It might not even be visible, but there will surely be some and it only takes a tiny bit of it to ruin a beer. I would think that the lacto issue may be common to more than just malted grain, so the wife milling wheat and such could also be a potential problem. I don't know this for certain. Just a guess really, but might be something to look into.

Bobby_M said:

I just wouldn't want all that grain dust flying around inside the house because it's dust flying around the house period.

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That pretty much sealed the deal for the garage and the wife agrees.
Cracking / Crushing / Grinding / Milling anything in the house is going to put dust in the air in the house.

I must be the odd duck here as I always crush in the garage and brew in the garage. I have never had an infection yet.

Trust me, your kitchen is full of lactic and acetic acid producing bacteria already.

I crush in the garage right next to my brewstand, right where I fill my fermenter. So far so good. It's not like we're milling in the open fermenter room.

Bobby_M said:

I crush in the garage right next to my brewstand, right where I fill my fermenter. So far so good. It's not like we're milling in the open fermenter room.

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Same here.

Only, I crush next to the side door and always have a fan to draw the dust out. Just because it's, well, dusty.

Meantime, I keep all my fermenters and my cabinet closed and well away. Unless you live in a HEPA bubble, there is bacteria everywhere anyways.

A bit of common sense goes a long way. Which, prolly explains why LGI had problems. He don't make sense and he is definitely not common.

I mill within 1ft of my boil kettle and where I rack the wort, all the dust has settled by the time you are done brewing and ANY dust flying around is covered in bugs.

If you mill at the store you will have dust fluing around when you dump it into your mash tun. I mill directly into my mash tun and don't really have any dust get out. If you are really concerned about it why don't you just go mill outside?

I don't see that much dust around after milling, but I use a hand crank instead of a 426 Hemi to power my mill. Maybe the slow rpm's keep the dust down?

-OCD

I think it has a lot to do with your mill design too. My mounting board completely covers the receiving bucket and the roller area is completely contained also.

The biggest risk for infections due to grain dust or whatever is when pitching the yeast. I make it a habit to fill my fermenter through the hole in the bucket lid to minimize the exposure. Everything else is pre-boil and I don't worry about it. I do mill the grain just outside of my garage and I usually hose down the area while conducting the rest of the operations. No infections so far and I've been doing it this way for awhile.

beerocd said:

I don't see that much dust around after milling, but I use a hand crank instead of a 426 Hemi to power my mill. Maybe the slow rpm's keep the dust down?

-OCD

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Mines a 900ci Catterpillar. What's yer point? It about the torque man, not the RPM's.

I recently tried wet conditioning the malt prior to milling. It worked very well and resulted in no visible dust. I mill at a relatively slow 115 rpm, so the mill didn't produce much dust to begin with. I did the conditioning mostly out of curiosity to see what difference it would make. It will be standard procedure from now on.