Crushed vs uncrushed crystal malt

[Deam]

When I was at my local homebrew shop I bought a pound of light crystal malt for a hefeweizen I'm brewing. I thought the guy was going to weigh out a half pound and mill it for me, but I just realized all he did was weight it out.

I've already added it (in a grain bag) to my water to start making the wort. Should I take it out, crush up the other half pound I have, and use that instead? And if so, what's the best method to do at home without a mill?

Thanks in advance for the help.

-Deam

 

[dwarven_stout]

Crystal in a hefe? I tried that once. Won't do it again.

I'd leave it alone. If you decide you want to muck with it, you can use a blender to pulse the grain and crack it open, or you can use a rolling pin and a sack to crack it.

 

[Deam]

Thanks for the quick response. Why no crystal in a hefe? I got the recipe out of Brewer's Bible, made it once before and I think it turned out great.

Although now that I look at my grain bag I remember that at the store they didn't have any crystal so the guy recommended caramel malt instead.

 

[Golddiggie]

Deam, pst... Crystal malts and caramel malts are the same thing... Depending on the SRM/L level you'll get different flavors (and such) from the malt.

Did the yahoo at the HBS not even ask if you wanted it milled? Sounds like someone is in need of a biotch-slap...

 

[Germelli1]

Crystal and caramel are the same thing...something about germans and belgians calling it caramel, and everyone else calling it crystal.

You DEFINITELY ALWAYS want to crush it. Just use a rolling pin or empty bottle (beer, liquor, etc) to crush small amounts.

The only time I didn't crush malt is when I add a few oz of chocolate to my amber ale for color once

 

[dwarven_stout]

Mm. I put 8oz of C20 in a hefe waay back when I first started making my own recipes. Thought the finished beer attenuated fine but still tasted sweet in a way that I didn't care for. If it's working for you go for it!

 

[Germelli1]

Dean, did you go to the place in Falls Church. They guy that runs that store is a total ********* and everyone I know in the area avoids going there haha. MyLHBS to be exact

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

Personally I dont think crystal/caramel belong in a hefe.

Crystal is a hard/crunchy malt and CAN be crushed using a rolling pin.

M_C

 

[Deam]

Germelli1, they must have a pretty sorry track record if you were able to call it out exactly haha. Where do you go instead? Before moving out to DC I lived in Nashville, and the guys there at All Seasons garden and brewing were real friendly and helpful. So I'm not used to stuck-up attitudes when I shop for supplies :\

 

[Germelli1]

Germelli1, they must have a pretty sorry track record if you were able to call it out exactly haha. Where do you go instead? Before moving out to DC I lived in Nashville, and the guys there at All Seasons garden and brewing were real friendly and helpful. So I'm not used to stuck-up attitudes when I shop for supplies :\

I go to Jay's Brewing in Clifton, VA. A TINY shop, but Derek that works in there is cool as hell and buys pacman yeast (aka gives me a free tube of whatever I want) off of me whenever I get a jar of freshly washed yeast. Their prices are a bit high but understandable with real estate prices up here. I buy grains/hops in bulk, and wash yeast. So when I DO need something from a local store, it is nice to hang around and chat it up a bit. That is where the store in clifton blows MyLHBS out of the water.

The only problem is he doesn't carry Wyeast, so I have to suck it up and go deal with grumpy magee in Falls church when I needed French Saison yeast. Although he will order it in advance if you want (at least he has for me before).

Some other locals also like a store up in maryland, but I am not familiar with them so I can't make good/bad recommendations on them!

 

[Deam]

Hmm I'll probably have to put up with MyLHBS just because of the convenience - though next time I go I know not to make any assumptions about anything.

One more question - its been half a year since I brewed my last batch, and I forget whether I would dump the entire contents of my pot into my fermenting bucket, or if I'd siphon it in to reduce the amount of particles being passed.

I intend to rack to a secondary, and then from the secondary put it in a cornie keg (kegging for the first time too), so it looks to me like those two transfers alone would be plenty for separating out the trub, but I just want to confirm.

 

[Tombstone0]

Some other locals also like a store up in maryland, but I am not familiar with them so I can't make good/bad recommendations on them!

I don't know how far it is from you in relation to Jay's but I go to Maryland homebrew in Columbia, md. They just moved into a bigger place last week and the staff is really friendly.

 

[Germelli1]

Hmm I'll probably have to put up with MyLHBS just because of the convenience - though next time I go I know not to make any assumptions about anything.

One more question - its been half a year since I brewed my last batch, and I forget whether I would dump the entire contents of my pot into my fermenting bucket, or if I'd siphon it in to reduce the amount of particles being passed.

I intend to rack to a secondary, and then from the secondary put it in a cornie keg (kegging for the first time too), so it looks to me like those two transfers alone would be plenty for separating out the trub, but I just want to confirm.

This is really just personal preference! Some people separate the trub in the kettle with the whirlpool/siphon method, and some just dump it all in. But many people add .5 gallon of volume to their calculations to make up for trub loss, whether it is in the boil pot or the fermenter.

For me it personally depends on my goal with the individual batch. If I am going to reharvest yeast back, I try to separate the trub before it goes into the fermenter. But like my last batch that had some crazy ingredients, I wanted them all in the fermenter so I dumped the whole thing in!

 

[Tombstone0]

One more question - its been half a year since I brewed my last batch, and I forget whether I would dump the entire contents of my pot into my fermenting bucket, or if I'd siphon it in to reduce the amount of particles being passed.

People argue about this all the time. I've done it both ways and they've both turned out fine for me. These days I just dump it through a strainer, it's easier and faster than a syphon but still keeps a good amount if the trub out.

 

[Germelli1]

I don't know how far it is from you in relation to Jay's but I go to Maryland homebrew in Columbia, md. They just moved into a bigger place last week and the staff is really friendly.

Awesome! Thanks for the recommendation. I knew there was one in maryland a lot of people like, but I couldn't recall the name. Sounds like a good option for the DC folk!

Jay's is pretty close to me... like anywhere else in that area it is 20 minutes normally, 50 minutes with traffic haha. His store is different...just a counter front with equipment on display, and all the grains/hops/yeast in the back room. The grains he stores in bulk, then individually vacuum packs (and crushes for free if you want) the quantities you need.

 

[Germelli1]

People argue about this all the time. I've done it both ways and they've both turned out fine for me. These days I just dump it through a strainer, it's easier and faster than a syphon but still keeps a good amount if the trub out.

Right, and if you siphon it, remember it need to be areated. Pouring takes care of it for me, but you can siphon it through a strainer, shake the fermenter, stir insanely, hit with an oxygen system or any other of many methods.

 

[Tombstone0]

Awesome! Thanks for the recommendation. I knew there was one in maryland a lot of people like, but I couldn't recall the name. Sounds like a good option for the DC folk!

There's also Annapolis homebrew which might be closer depending on where you live. I've never been there so I don't know what it's like, but I've seen people mention it before and I think they were positive about it.

 

[Deam]

Thanks for all the help!