Does your local brew shop crush grain?

[robertbartsch]

My local brew shop is in the basement of a TrueValue hardware store and no one from the store is downstairs much.

Anyway, I see a grain crusher down there, so I suppose I should ask if they crush whole grains the next time I visit.

Is this service usually without cost?

Thx...

 

[sfrice80]

Yes, mine does and its free but I also have the convenience of having a NorthernBrewer shop within minutes of my house.

 

[Dave258]

Yes, mine does and its free but I also have the convenience of having a NorthernBrewer shop within minutes of my house.

Showoff!

My local brew shop is in the basement of a TrueValue hardware store and no one from the store is downstairs much.

Anyway, I see a grain crusher down there, so I suppose I should ask if they crush whole grains the next time I visit.

Is this service usually without cost?

Thx...

My Brother in law goes to a brew shop in a True Value hardware store with the same situation. They have a mill, and he asked if they crush grain, and I think they said no, because of the dust.
The closest LHBS to me will crush 5lbs. for free but charges I think $.50 per pound over 5 lbs.
That is why I finally got a Barley Crusher!

 

[sfrice80]

Showoff!


My Brother in law goes to a brew shop in a True Value hardware store with the same situation. They have a mill, and he asked if they crush grain, and I think they said no, because of the dust.
The closest LHBS to me will crush 5lbs. for free but charges I think $.50 per pound over 5 lbs.
That is why I finally got a Barley Crusher!

Yes I know it causes immediate envy! I'm actually depressed that I will have to move away in 4 years and probably to an area with a much smaller home brew community.

 

[SumnerH]

Ours will crush a few pounds for you, but not a whole lot (it's a hand-crank crusher). They'll also let you rent the crusher for like $1 for an hour to stand in the corner and crush as much as you want yourself.

 

[QuixoticDevice]

Yeah, NB will do it for you for free. Though you have to remember to ask. I got a kit from them a while ago with specialty grains that I forgot to have crushed. Ruined a perfectly good cutting board trying to crush them myself...

 

[Special Hops]

I send my LHBS (which it the local brewery) an e-mail with what I need and ask them to crush it. I go in the next day and it's all crushed in a big bag with my name on it (like 30 lbs worth for some batches). I walk in, pay, and get out. They rock!

 

[Prime]

My LHBS crushes grain for free, but I've only done it with grain I've bought there. Not sure if they would let me walk in with grain purchased elsewhere and do it.

 

[mattd2]

Ours will crush a few pounds for you, but not a whole lot (it's a hand-crank crusher). They'll also let you rent the crusher for like $1 for an hour to stand in the corner and crush as much as you want yourself.

Hahaha, I can just see some guy coming into the store looking at getting started in brewing, walks in see to some customer standing in the corner and asked the store owner whats going on..
Store owner: He tried to tell me that there is no reason to secondary so I made him go stand in the corner and think about what he has done.

 

[jasonsbeer]

Hahaha, I can just see some guy coming into the store looking at getting started in brewing, walks in see to some customer standing in the corner and asked the store owner whats going on..
Store owner: He tried to tell me that there is no reason to secondary so I made him go stand in the corner and think about what he has done.

Not only is he in the corner, but he has to do all the crushing by hand.

My LHBS has a hand crank crusher over by the grains. I use it when I buy grains there.

 

[slowbie]

I've recently moved and both my old and new LHBS let you crush grain you buy from them for free. The old one even told me once that if I have to buy a 1 lb bag of specialty grains I could grind what I need and bring the rest back to grind whenever I needed it.

 

[copper]

LHBS has a couple of grain crushers on hand. One old one that's powered by an electric drill, and a newer (and much quieter) mill that uses a small electric motor. Both I think are hand built.

 

[BillTheSlink]

My local home brew supply is listerman'shttp://www.listermann.com/ who is a retailer, wholesaler, and does a mail order business. He has two mills. One is driven by a drill and is small for malts like black Patton, but the other is huge and fully adjustable and electric. he will grind for a newbie or someone having trouble, but you are encouraged to serve yourself just like measuring out your own grains from the barrels and yeast and hops out of the walk in freezer and the cooler.

 

[coastwx]

American Brewmaster in Raleigh has an electric mill and allows free crushing. I think they allow essentially unlimited crushing. Since I got my drill powered corona mill working, I can do it almost as quick at home now.

 

[Homercidal]

My LHBS used to have two hand crank coronas. Mill your own. Now they have a single motorized crusher, Crush your own.

The newer, closer LHBS has a drill-powered crusher. Crush your own.

I had built a crusher before I went AG, so I usually just had to crush a small amount of steeping grain at the store.

I don't know why dust would be such a big deal. I think it would be worth it to please your customers by offering the convenience. Just shopvac once in a while.

 

[mullenite]

My LHBS crushes grains, twice even.

 

[oceanselv]

The LHBS here will crush any grains you purchase from them free.

 

[Bassman]

My LHBS will crush for free. They also want you to weigh and bag your own grains. So I bag by batch and they are more than happy to crush away.

 

[BuonAnno]

I'm amazed that all places don't do it for free. My store is awesome and they do it for free. My kid loves coming with me because he thinks the mill is magical and just stares at it.

 

[camiller]

One of the LHBS (that I never go to) charges to crush grain and only what you buy there.

The other LHBS (that I work at part time) will crush your grain in any amount even if you carry it in and we don't know you or where you bought it. It is a drill driven Barley Crusher but if I can scrounge the parts I might set it up with a motor sometime.

 

[TheMan]

The two by me will mill it if you buy it from them. If not, they charge.

Eventually I ventured into bulk grain, due to the fact that Mid Country is 45 mins away...I opted to buy sacks of grain and now have a 3 roller monster mill that essentially pays for itself.

 

[JJL]

Mine charges more for crushed grain, but if you buy whole grain, you can crush it yourself at the shop. I just avoided the whole issue and bought a grain mill. It's a little pricey, but my crush is better than the LHBS anyday.

 

[3bals]

Yes, mine does and its free but I also have the convenience of having a NorthernBrewer shop within minutes of my house.

Like you, I can drive by 3 LHBS's on my way home from work. The only problem is that they don't open until 10 am and I get off my work shift at 8 am, so I hav to do some other things for a couple hours.

 

[david_42]

Mine has two mills and Dog help you if you put specialty grains in the main mill. That's strictly for pale/pilsner base malts. Nothing over 10L.

 

[beowulf]

We have 2 LHBS in town, right next to each other. One will crush if you buy it from them (barleycrusher w/drill), the other charges per pound, even if you buy it from him.

 

[humann_brewing]

local crushes for free but I like to have grain on hand at the house.

 

[GregR]

the home brew mart here has a nice big crusher for you to use. go in, get the grain, put in in the crusher. no charge.

 

[brad26]

My LHBS doesn't crush grains for you but they have a grain mill that they allow customers to use free of charge. It's nice, but it can be awkward crushing 10 pounds of malt in the middle of a cramped store.

 

[BillTheSlink]

My LHBS used to have two hand crank coronas. Mill your own. Now they have a single motorized crusher, Crush your own.

The newer, closer LHBS has a drill-powered crusher. Crush your own.

I had built a crusher before I went AG, so I usually just had to crush a small amount of steeping grain at the store.

I don't know why dust would be such a big deal. I think it would be worth it to please your customers by offering the convenience. Just shopvac once in a while.

Remember though, it is not just dust but finely crushed grain dust. I have often wondered how my LHBS keeps the rats at bay, especially if you look at the crumbling building and how much grain and dust is around since their business is pretty high volume. That being said, I have never so much as seen an ant in the place. If you saw the outside of the place though it might scare you off. It was in a pretty seedy area, but they are building a lot of high rent office towers just down the block. My guess is since he is getting up there he is waiting for the expansion to get just a little closer and then he'll sell his corner lot for the price of a gold mine. Of course we'll be screwed then.

 

[7HockeyDad]

I'm in Homer's area and use one of the same LHBS. They put in a motorized monster mill that crushes lickety split. They used to have the hand cranks that customers could use. I think it came down to keeping the employees and owner sane more than anything. Rather than listening to someone crank a handle for 20 minutes, it now takes about 30 seconds of racket. You don't have to worry about waiting to crush grain anymore either.

Oh... and after hearing others experience, I don't think I can ever move away from here without dropping a couple Bens on a mill now.

 

[rico567]

What passes for our LHBS has a hand-crank crusher that's free for anyone to use, but it looks like a toy and I don't buy much grain there anyway (it's just a corner of a giant chain package store, and I suspect that a lot of their supplies have been around too long), preferring to go fresher. That usually means Midwest, and although I had them crush my first few AG kits (they do kits for free, but charge to crush a whole 50 pound bag), I ended up shelling out $20 for a Corona-type mill, and now I'm quite happy crushing my own.

 

[LaurieGator]

I know our local one here in Gilbert, AZ will crush for free. I also haven't been charged at the one out in Glendale, AZ either.

I like to crush my own, so I have a Barley Crusher and mill mine while the water is warming up. No brew day is complete without the use of Power Tools