Cracking grain by hand sucks!

[Zacharomyces]

My drill battery died right after I began cracking 12 Lbs of grain today...... At first I thought it would take no time at all to do the rest, but it took for friggin' ever! Let this be a lesson, make sure your all charged up, have an extra battery or better yet, a drill with a chord! Have fun brewing! I know I will!

-Zach

 

[Spyk'd]

My drill battery died right after I began cracking 12 Lbs of grain today...... At first I thought it would take no time at all to do the rest, but it took for friggin' ever! Let this be a lesson, make sure your all charged up, have an extra battery or better yet, a drill with a chord! Have fun brewing! I know I will!

-Zach

By hand with a mill? Easy.


Try doing it with a rolling pin...

 

[DeathBrewer]

lol, that's what I thought this thread was about. cracking more than a pound of grains by hand is a serious PITA.

i had 12 lbs of grain in my car once and was on my way home...i turned that car around quick to make it back to LHBS in time before they closed. i need a mill :cross:

 

[jeff967]

busted DIY grainmill,12# of grain,a cookie sheet, and a wine bottle, all added up to a damn long brew day/night. but we got it done

 

[brewt00l]

I did 7lbs by hand last week for the premier brew w/ my BC...I don't really see what the fuss is all about. Sure, that was a small bill but it was pretty easy all things considered.

 

[EvilTOJ]

There's an easier way than cranking the mill by hand. Use the vehicle/plywood/driveway method

 

[rabidgerbil]

There's an easier way than cranking the mill by hand. Use the vehicle/plywood/driveway method

If you use oak plywood, does that impart a nice barrel aged flavor?
Or maybe beechwood plywood to speed up the conditioning?

 

[Funkenjaeger]

My cordless died on me during milling once. I gave the battery 10 minutes on the charger and was then able to finish off the 3-4 pounds of grain I had left to mill. Then again, my drill does have a very fast charger (Ryobi).

Now I've got a corded drill and have no intention of going back to cordless, because of the stress on the battery and gearbox - I'm not too interested in having to buy a new cordless anytime soon. Even a cheap corded drill is practically bulletproof when compared to many cordless drills.

 

[malkore]

i always run my barley crusher by hand. i figure the exercise negates the beer i'm drinking while I brew

I thought this thread was about REAL crushing by hand...with a rolling pin. now that process SUCKS bad.

 

[Kevin Dean]

It took me longer to measure out my grain that run it through the Barley Crusher by hand-crank.

I think I would stop brewing if I had to crush grain by hand with the rolling pin method, even if I was only doing extract with steeping batches. That is a PITA from the few times I've done it and it's certainly not something I'd enjoy doing on a regular basis.