Hold down your barley crusher!

Just an FYI for those of you who are using or thinking of using a Barley Crusher / cordless drill / 5 gallon bucket for milling grains. I was brewing last night, had my 10.5 lb grain bill in the barley crusher hopper, on a 5 gallon bucket, ready to roll. :rockin: Hooked up the drill and started to mill. After about 2 lbs had been milled, my neighbor got my attention from across the street and I take my hand off the mill platform - the entire hopper/barley crusher/bucket lid do a 360 and most of my grain bill goes flying across the garage. I've done about 20 batches with this setup and this is the first time its happened. Hold that sucker down!

I picked up the grain best I could, complete with dead bugs, dog hair, and other stuff from the floor and continued the brewday. I dont think Palmer wrote about what off-flavors to expect from this... Maybe I can call it "garbage pail ale", since it was an APA.:cross:

Hahaha, I too have milled grain which was swept up off the floor.

Well...if it sucks at least you know which neighbor to give it to!

Haha, sirsloop did that very same thing onto my garage floor. Luckily I had just swept and powerwashed the floor the day before so it got swept up and mashed.

That's why I like mill bases that extend out under where the drill goes.

You are some sick bastards. Oh wait, it happened to me once, I did the same thing.

Pangea said:

...I take my hand off the mill platform - the entire hopper/barley crusher/bucket lid do a 360 and most of my grain bill goes flying across the garage.

Click to expand...

I did the same thing... the beer was called "Garage Floor Stout" after that.

I had a bag fall while milling at the LHBS one time and it got grain all over the floor. I just used it. The guy before me was milling 6 row so I'd like to think I got some extra diastatic power for my wheat grains off the dust on the floor

I wash my garage floor the day before every brew day.

It's like the frontline. No grain gets left behind.

Barley mill instructions should read:

0. Crack a homebrew
1. Put crusher on bucket.
2. Put grain in.
3. Put drill on handle.
4. Start drilling.
5. Swear a lot, detach drill.
6. Get yer wife to sweep up grain.
7. Pick out cat hair, dirt, etc....
8. Put grain back into crusher, top off with the 1/4 pound your wife missed and will find over the next 2 years and complain about every time she finds one.
8. Reattach drill.
9. Hold dow the crusher this time. Put the homebrew down for a couple minutes.
10. Crush grain
11. Finish homebrew

Not to laugh at your expense, but I would LOVE to see a video of this...

Funny, last night I noticed how it wanted to fall over with the drill attached. If I took the battery out, it stood on its own fine, though.
It is tricky to do, but if you fill the hopper, attach the drill, and start milling, you can use a scoop in the other hand to keep topping off the hopper until your bucket is light enough to pick up and empty it.
I think I would draw the line at dog hair!