Where do you mill your grain?

I mill my own grain at home. I have heard that the grain dust can potentially contaminate wort, but I mill my grain right next to my brew rig. Does anyone mill outside or in the garage to prevent contamination? I mill into a garbage can with a grain bag covering the opening. Doesn't seem to have any negative effect so far. Just curious of other homebrewer's procedures.

 

Unless you're milling grain near already boiled and cooled wort I can't see how it would be an issue.

 

I mill huge amounts of grain 15 feet from my kettles in my brew room and I have never had an issue. At the brewery, we typically mill 2700+ lbs of grain 5 feet from the mash vessel with no issues ever. Don't worry about it....

 

Sure grain dust will contaminate your wort. That is how I made a kettle sour; mash normally then bring down to around 100 degrees F, add a hand full of un-crushed grain and hold at 100 degrees for a day or two.
But normal brewing I don't handle grain after it comes to a boil, so no risk.

 

General sanitation practice would be to keep milling dust away from where you pitch yeast into open containers of cooled wort. In general. I mill in my basement where the fermchamber sits, but I run box fax with furnace filter bungied to it as poor man's dust collector. I actually pitch the yeast in the horribly unsanitary garage where I brew. All manner of ickies there, I just try not to, say, stir cooled wort with the shovel I removed skunk poo from yard. Things like that.

Relax.

 

I mill in my kitchen. I also mash and boil in my kitchen. I also keg in my kitchen. Oh, and I also pour beer from my kegerator in my kitchen since my kegerator is in my kitchen. My kitchen is small... but cool.


Rev.

 

I worry more about grain dust in my lungs. Made me wheeze for a day or more afterwards. Had to get a proper dust mask to prevent that from happening.

 

Thanks for all the replies. Good to know I'm not the only crazy one.

 

I always mill outside to keep the dust out of the house. I don't have a garage to brew in. But as long as you're not putting the dust in to chilled wort you'll be fine.

 

That dust does get everywhere. EVERY-where. It's like slicing open a bag of DME and smashing it with a mallet. That kind of thing. Less fun; still messy.

 

Im not sure how you guys are milling your stuff that dust gets everywhere. I have my mill mounted atop a 5 gallon bucket lid , then set the lot on the bucket it goes to ,affix my drill motor and mill. I get very little amount of dust outside the bucket.

 

I pour it into my mill slowly so not too much goes airborne. Definitely nowhere near as bad as DME! I haaaated DME lol.


Rev.

 

rdwahahb

 

Wrong wrong wrong.
Again.
Wrong.

If it's not messy, it's not right.

Wait. Maybe that's cooking. Or religion.

Never mind.

 

My lhbs mills my grain for me. I want to get a mill but have not pulled the trigger yet.

 

I mill wherever is convenient. The mill is mounted to a bucket that is fully capped, so milling dust is not an issue.

 

Same here. With the mill over the bucket I never see dust escaping during the milling. However there is always dust stuck all over the mill and wherever I store it between brew days gets unbelievably dusty no matter how much I try to clean the mill off after use.

 

fwiw I mill in my work shop which is about 30 feet from my humble brewery. It's mostly because of the scads of bench space and ease of cleaning the solid composite floor there vs the brewery which is fairly tight and has a parquet wood floor.

Perhaps more importantly I keep all my fermentors and kegs tight when not in use so stray lactobacillus-laced dust doesn't find its way in. I don't worry about the hot side gear at all - it gets dusted pretty well anyway when pouring 20-40 pounds of grain in the mlt, even with the ventilation system running flat out...

Cheers!

 

I bet at parties everyone congregates in the kitchen....

 

No, unfortunately my kitchen is a small kitchen. Would be so excited to have an even bigger kitchen, but my kitchen does the job.

Kitchen....

K I T C H E N.


Rev.

 

Out on the back patio, about 15 minutes before mash in.

 

I brew in my garage, but mill in the outbuilding I use as a wood shop.

 

Mill in the garage, to keep dust out of the house. Also makes the wife happy.

 

Grind my grains down in a blender, mash in a kettle, then lauter out to boil on the stove.
All done in the kitchen. My grain weights are calculated for 70% mash efficiency but depending on the malts used I can get up to 80%. Best efficiencies with Vienna and wheat, worst was the Victory Pilsner mix that got microwaved to zonk the weevils.

 

I mill right outside the garage door about 15 minutes before mash in. Mainly because it’s the closet plug to where I brew.

 

I typically mill in my garage. It's not for worry of any contamination as much as it's an attached garage and the floor is easy to clean. I haven't had an issue since, but one of my first couple batches with my own grain bill, there was a small pebble in the grain, it caught between the rollers and with the torque of my drill, sent 5 pounds of grain onto the floor. That would have been a nightmare to clean up inside my house. So I just continue to do it out there, in case anything stupid ever happens again. Plus, it's just a quick sweep into the flower garden at the front of our house for a little extra fertilizer.

 

My newly purchased mill will be used exclusively outside on the porch to avoid any dust inside the house, which would put my significant other over the top in regards to my brewing hobby. The DME comment is so true, that stuff gets everywhere and is ridiculously a PITA to use. I hope my improved grain efficiency with the mill will make DME use a thing of the past!