Crushing grain without a mill

[archthered]

Long story short- I need to crush 3 lbs. of grain but I don't have a mill. I was thinking of smacking it around with my meat tenderizer until it looks good, or using the small coffee grinder I have if the tenderizer doesn't work, but I'd like your suggestions.

This is only about 1/3 of the grain bill so the lower efficiency if it isn't quite a perfect crush won't ruin the beer, also I'm already going to need to use rice hulls so mangling some of the husks won't be the end of the world since I can just add more rice hulls.

Short story long- I got a gift card for Northern Brewer for Christmas, because that's the best way to get usable brew stuff from my family, and I used it to order some grain rather than go to my LHBS. Somehow I ordered all but 3 pounds crushed, I checked the original order and it seems I screwed up not them. I don't have any friends that homebrew so I can't mooch a mill and it seems incredibly tacky and potentially insulting to take the grain I got from Northern Brewer to the LHBS. Keep in mind the only LBHS around is run out of the owners basement and while he has some regular hours he CAN be available you basically need to schedule time to go through the store or pick up orders (he has a good website so it's actually pretty easy to arrange things but it's not like you can just walk in during business hours). As I said it seems like a real d!(k move to make him take the time out of his day for a non-sale! On top of that I haven't placed an order with him in quite a while (insert long uninteresting story about why I haven't brewed in months), and I don't know when I will be placing another order since I got a couple batches worth of stuff from Northern Brewer. Since I'm not really a good customer or friend of the LHBS guy I really don't want to bug him with this since I feel like that will only ensure I never become a customer he looks forward to. Any suggestions are welcome.

P.S. Check your order 3 times!

 

[doogster]

I once resorted to a rolling ping. Was a longgggg time ago and I don't really recall how it all turned out, but I seem to remember it had at least cracked the kernels open.

 

[lump42]

Meat tenderizer, hammer, rolling pin, large rock all would break the grain open. For 3lbs I might consider a blender or food processor. None of those are ideal but should work. Unless you really go to town on it, you may get a lower efficiency. It could also make sparging difficult if you fly or batch sparge.

I agree it would be in poor form to bring outside grain to the LHBS. Just out of curiosity, you wouldn't be in central KY. This sound familiar to a shop near me.

 

[Cavpilot2000]

DOn't waste time with a rolling pin. Many many many years ago when I was an extract brewing apprentice, that's how I did it a few times.
It doesn't take much grain to form a mutually supportive pattern that distributes the force of the rolling pin too much to be effective. So then you have to spread it out so you are only rolling a few grains at a time and it takes forever if you have any decent amount.

A hammer, meat tenderizer (a hammer of sorts) or a food processor is what I would recommend.

 

[bracconiere]

For 3lbs I might consider a blender or food processor. None of those are ideal but should work. .

+1

 

[catdaddy66]

I have used a rolling pin with small amounts (<1#) and it does work, but it is labor intensive. I broke a mean sweat. Food processor is a good idea but don't powderize it by going too long.

With 3#'s I would use the processor.

 

[IslandLizard]

If it's only 1/3 of the grain bill, you can grind it almost to dust without a problem. The rest of the grist will provide the mash bed. I doubt you'd even need rice hulls unless you got lots of wheat or rye in it.

Use a food processor or blender, but even a spinner type coffee grinder will work fine.

Now I did burn out the bearing in a (cheap) blender when trying to grind coffee beans in it...

 

[Cavpilot2000]

I like the hammer route, but then again, that's probably because I'm also a blacksmith.

When you're a smith, there's no problem that can't be solved with a hot enough fire and a hammer...

 

[archthered]

Thanks for all your thoughts so far. I never thought of the food processor and I'm leaning that way since I have one and it sounds much easier than smacking away with the meat tenderizer.

Just out of curiosity, you wouldn't be in central KY. This sound familiar to a shop near me.

No, I live in northwest MO. I have a feeling that the basement setup just works in places without a large homebrew crowd.

 

[passedpawn]

I'd go with the food processor. paper shredder also works awesome if you have the same one I do.

 

[catdaddy66]

I'd go with the food processor. paper shredder also works awesome if you have the same one I do.

Paper shredder?? Hmmmm...

Now you have my mind turning!

 

[parjay]

FWIW I took some outside grains to my homebrew shop the other day that were pre-milled very poorly. I was overly apologetic about how I always buy my grains there and the one time I didn't...yada yada. The owner looked at me like I was an idiot and told me to feel free to use their mill whenever something like that happened. I purchased some other goods to make myself feel better, but he had absolutely no problem with me skipping that step.

 

[Beerwildered]

You can use any of the above methods, but I would recommend saving it for last when doughing in - that way the rest of your grain bill will filter it.

 

[passedpawn]

Paper shredder?? Hmmmm...

Now you have my mind turning!

Paper Shredder Mill

 

[BalloonGuy]

You could always email lhbs and tell him the truth. Maybe he will do it to earn future business or charge you a few bucks. I had to do that a few months back. I have bought everything from the local store since then. They did it for free and we’re super cool about it.

 

[C-Rider]

You could do 3 lbs in a blender in about 4 min. I do 2 g patches and often d as much as 6 lbs in my blender. Never takes more than 5 min and I'm producing almost flour as I BIAB.

 

[Homergah]

I cannot imagine how Charlie ever got any grain crushed with that roller pin method. I tried that many years ago on my first partial mash. After about 15 minutes of that nonsense I was thinking, "that Papazian is full of s×#t". I enlisted the coffee grinder because food processors hadn't been invented yet.

 

[Kirkwooder]

You could make a real good friend of the LHBS guy and go buy a mill from him, or maybe just the 3# of grain you need for the beer your doing.

 

[Oyarsa]

I just bought some grain from Ace Hardware and they milled it for me. If you have one nearby you could call and ask if they would be willing. It might not be that way at all Ace, though. The one I go to has a pretty significant homebrewing section.

I used the rolling pin method before I found out Ace would do it. It didn't seem that labor intensive to me, but made a bit of a mess even though I had the grain in a ziplock bag.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Paper Shredder Mill

Interesting, but run something through to get the oil and metallic dust off it first. A rolling pin works, and yes, it will give you a little workout too. After crushing about a half pound that way I decided to get a corona type mill, but mostly get grains milled at LHBS.

 

[deadwolfbones]

I've used a rubber mallet on grain that's inside a ziploc freezer bag. It works pretty well. Put it on a thin towel on top of a hard, smooth surface to prevent the bag from getting too torn up.

 

[Cantina De Jefe]

Paper Shredder Mill

That is the sexiest paper shreder i ever saw. Please tell me you did this at work.

 

[Kirkwooder]

As a business owner and employer, I would hope that is your own paper shredder, at home.

 

[Cantina De Jefe]

As a business owner and employer, I would hope that is your own paper shredder, at home.

Ask the secretary to clear the jam. I'm too busy with all this beer i have to drink.

 

[passedpawn]

Ask the secretary to clear the jam. I'm too busy with all this beer i have to drink.

haha.

 

[passedpawn]

Interesting, but run something through to get the oil and metallic dust off it first.

It's one of those food-safe shredders. No worries. You should see it julienne carrots.

 

[applescrap]

Paper Shredder Mill

Yes sir. Hopper?

 

[Zambezi Special]

Would a pestle and mortar work?
And I have heard of people using a pasta machine.

 

[dkeller12]

I have heard people placing the grain in a Ziploc bag and running over it with the car a few times. I have never done this, but I would think it may work. I have used the rolling bin method and that truly stinks as it takes forever. Good luck.

 

[Soulshine2]

It's one of those food-safe shredders. No worries. You should see it julienne carrots.

french style green beans are better

 

[Soulshine2]

If I was in your position I would do the food processor or coffee grinder unless you have a tractor supply or hardware store and they might have some hand crank flour mills . THEN you should buy yourself a mill so this never is an issue again.

 

[JohnSand]

I used a $5 garage sale Waring blender for several years. The only trick to it is how much to grind at once. Too little just flies around in the jar, too much won't whirlpool through.

 

[SmokeyRydr]

Long story short- I need to crush 3 lbs. of grain but I don't have a mill. I was thinking of smacking it around with my meat tenderizer until it looks good, or using the small coffee grinder I have if the tenderizer doesn't work, but I'd like your suggestions.

This is only about 1/3 of the grain bill so the lower efficiency if it isn't quite a perfect crush won't ruin the beer, also I'm already going to need to use rice hulls so mangling some of the husks won't be the end of the world since I can just add more rice hulls.

Short story long- I got a gift card for Northern Brewer for Christmas, because that's the best way to get usable brew stuff from my family, and I used it to order some grain rather than go to my LHBS. Somehow I ordered all but 3 pounds crushed, I checked the original order and it seems I screwed up not them. I don't have any friends that homebrew so I can't mooch a mill and it seems incredibly tacky and potentially insulting to take the grain I got from Northern Brewer to the LHBS. Keep in mind the only LBHS around is run out of the owners basement and while he has some regular hours he CAN be available you basically need to schedule time to go through the store or pick up orders (he has a good website so it's actually pretty easy to arrange things but it's not like you can just walk in during business hours). As I said it seems like a real d!(k move to make him take the time out of his day for a non-sale! On top of that I haven't placed an order with him in quite a while (insert long uninteresting story about why I haven't brewed in months), and I don't know when I will be placing another order since I got a couple batches worth of stuff from Northern Brewer. Since I'm not really a good customer or friend of the LHBS guy I really don't want to bug him with this since I feel like that will only ensure I never become a customer he looks forward to. Any suggestions are welcome.

P.S. Check your order 3 times!

If you have patronized the LBHS before and you got a gift card for somewhere else, I don't think it a dick move at all. Just a little awkward.

1) it's only 3 damn #
2) brewing is largely about community
3) it's a good story to share with owner
4) you aren't cheating in your LBHS by using a gift.

Just make sure you buy your next batch of ingredients from LBHS.

Cheers

 

[archthered]

Just a follow up- I used the food processor and it worked well enough. It was kind of inconsistent with some of the grain being basically dust while a fair bit was virtually untouched. As I said it worked well enough because I hit my target gravity exactly. I did kind of layer my grain in way I normally don't, I put my rice hulls in the bottom, then the stuff I had that has hulls and was crushed properly, then my rye, and I threw the stuff I crushed in the food processor in on top of it all as suggested above.

Thanks

 

[Toastman]

I came into this situation recently. I moved to central Mexico and I'd stock up on supplies whenever I'd drive back to the US. Because of my move though I've not been doing AG and have switched to extract/partial mash. Lo and behold in a different city I moved to is a product supplier. Has been great because LBHS just don't exist too much. Or finding/buying equipment. But this past week I went to get small amounts of grain. Their milling machine is down. So I had to figure how to crush this. I tried 4 ways.
1. Rolling pin--takes forever with marginal effect.
2. Car -- double bagged it and rolled over it a few times in my Jeep. NO good. Tried to also bag it, lay plywood on it, roll over it,..not much effect.
3. Coffee Burr Grinder- I have a Cuisinart DBM-8. On the lowest setting it definitely worked still made it into too fine a powder
4. Nutribullet- I used the "milling blade" that comes with it. This worked the best! I went a cup of grain at a time and did a 1 second pulse, rest, then another 1 second pulse. Easier to control too if you need to pulse more.
Results were much better and I went through the grain in short order. Pic attached shows the burr grinder on the left and the result from the Nutribullet. This might really be tough if it was an AG batch but for the few pounds you might use in a partial, it works good. Hope this helps anyone else caught in a spot.

 

[bracconiere]

2. Car -- double bagged it and rolled over it a few times in my Jeep. NO good. Tried to also bag it, lay plywood on it, roll over it,..not much effect.

LOL, i believe that was said tongue and cheek... (but surprised it didn't have any effect?)

 

[Ragman]

If the LHBS has the same grain in stock I would just go buy the 3lbs, crush it and take the loss. Would definitely keep me from making the same mistake or give me more incentive to buy a mill