Grain Crushing Location

[Phunhog]

I finally ordered a Barley Crusher through AHS the other day and now I have a question. I thought I remember reading something that you shouldn't crush your grain in the same area you ferment. Something about lacto liking the grain dust??? Anyways I usually do all my brewing/fermenting in the garage, how concerned do I need to be about crushing the grain there? How about storage of grain? As always thanks for all your responses. Al

 

[samc]

It does kick up a ton of dust when you crush the grain. I always crush outside on my deck and fermenting closet is in the garage. Better safe....

 

[DrawTap88]

I brew in the garage and ferment in the basement. Obviously there's a short period of time that my beer and fermenter is exposed to the same area that I crushed in.

In order to keep the dust down and somewhat out of my brewing area (garage) I crush over a 5 gallong Home Depot bucket that is nearly completely covered by the base of the crusher. I also do it outside of the garage so that any dust that does escape the bucket gets blown away. I also crean my crusher off with a brush at the end of the driveway.

 

[maida7]

yeah there is lactobacilis all over the grain. Any time you touch grain you are carrying the bacteria. The mash ton is totally infected. There is also wild yeast and other nasties just about anyplace. In your hair, on your breath, everywhere!

BUT...

If your good with cleaning and sanitizing, keep your fermenters closed, etc... you should not have a problem. RDWHAHB

 

[HumanGarbage]

I now crush outside. Got a sweet pedio infection from grinding in the same room as the fermenters.

Fricken infection was hard to rid myself of. New plastic fementers, hose, racking cane were required once it had taken hold. Luckily the batches infected weren't really ruined (tasted fine) but the pedio film in the bottle necks made my brew look like crap.

I vote for as far away as is reasonable in your circumstances. Maida7 is right, grain is just coated in nasty stuff. Not worth risking any sort of contamination if possible...

 

[sensortech]

Pre-conditioning your grain with water also keeps the dust down. I take a spray bottle and mist my grains in the bucket and wait about 10 minutes before I crush.