How many use blenders for grain milling?

[OkanaganMike]

How many of you cowboys use blenders to mill your grain vs a barley mill? I'm wondering if I need to spend the money on a mill for crush size consistency or can a guy get away with using equipment he has in the kitchen already?

What if blender is glass? Is that safer than plastic?

 

[Bobcatbrewing42]

Sounds like a good way to get too much finely ground barley and end up with a stuck sparge or runnings full of powdered grain.
I got a used Victorio mill for $10 and that thing has been a workhorse. Hooked to my drill, I grind 20+ pounds in a few minutes. You can adjust it on the fly with a simple wingnut. I meant to buy a barley crusher or similar but, "it ain't broken" so I'm not fixing it.

 

[Kampenken]

Not me. $100 for a cereal killer mill, and I've saved that much in grain costs by purchasing in bulk within ~8-10 batches.

 

[sensortech]

Definitely don't want to use a blender.

 

[Samuelouellette]

Used to do it with a blender with BIAB. Switched to grain mill and no more grain trub in my beers! It's alright with BIAB but not so with MLT.

 

[JohnSand]

I BIAB, and have used only a blender for dozens of batches. No problems.

 

[vincentAlpha]

I tried using a blender and a food processor to make some milled grain even finer(not for mashing). Can't say as it accomplished much asides from making a lot of noise. If you are in the states and on a tight budget get a Corona style mill, if you can splurge a bit get a roller mill (here in Canada the Corona style was only about $30 savings, you can guess which one I spent my money on). Best investment I've made yet.

 

[OkanaganMike]

My LHBS has a barley crusher for $155. I was a bit worried using the missus blender and buggerin it up. Her favorite tale is of how I wrecked her hair dryer putting up the Christmas lights (but thats another story )
I reckoned I could use the blender and if it went a bit fine no worries as it would likely most come out with the bag. Up to now, I've only had the LHBS guy mill mine. He only charges 15cents a pound but the problem is, he's an hour and half away each way so I can't bulk buy without it going stale before I use it.

 

[d3track]

One of the Keyes in "crush" vs "shredding" (blender) is the ability to keep the husk more intact helping to create a medium that is better for lautering. You may want to take that into consideration before running grain through a blender for a couple hours.

 

[C-Rider]

I use a blender and can turn grain into flour in no time at all. 7 lbs in 10 minutes. Who's a afraid of flour doing BIAB??? I have one of be bags from the guy that posts here. Name starts with a W but can't remember it off hand and I'm to lazy to search. LOL With a good bag you WILL NOT GET any more trub than w/crushed grain. My eff went up about 5% when I switch to the blender. I'm getting about 85% eff now.

 

[C-Rider]

Used to do it with a blender with BIAB. Switched to grain mill and no more grain trub in my beers! It's alright with BIAB but not so with MLT.

This is the BIAB section so yea, it's OK Go for it.

 

[TexasWine]

Can't speak from brewing experience, but I can say that my wife uses our Blendtec to make flour from a variety of grains on at least a weekly basis. Turns it to complete flour in a matter of seconds and it uses a plastic blending container.

If l were to use it, I'd back down on the blending time. One drawback of going to flour, and I mean fine flour like you buy at the store, not a cornmeal like consistency, would be severe dough balls when mashing in. You can eventually work them out, but it can be a hassle. For reference, I've milled with a gap as fine as 0.010. Lot's of dough balls with that.

 

[Psylocide]

I use a blender. Works fine for now.

Also make smoothies in there... my favorite is 1 orange, 1 banana, 1 cup whole milk, handful of strawberries, handful of blueberries, 2 scoops vanilla protein powder, handful of ice.

Not sure if I could make those in a mill.

 

[JohnSand]

Texas makes a good point. I don't grind mine into flour, just until no more solid grains are visible. I do it a scoop at a time (1-2 cups?) on chop. I have timed it, grinding 11lbs in 15 minutes while heating strike water. You'll know if you add too much, it won't mix thoroughly. Too little, it will fly around the pitcher.

 

[RM-MN]

Can't speak from brewing experience, but I can say that my wife uses our Blendtec to make flour from a variety of grains on at least a weekly basis. Turns it to complete flour in a matter of seconds and it uses a plastic blending container.

If l were to use it, I'd back down on the blending time. One drawback of going to flour, and I mean fine flour like you buy at the store, not a cornmeal like consistency, would be severe dough balls when mashing in. You can eventually work them out, but it can be a hassle. For reference, I've milled with a gap as fine as 0.010. Lot's of dough balls with that.

My wire whisk seems to make short work of those doughballs. I used to try to stir them in with a big spoon but the whisk is much easier.

 

[Black Island Brewer]

OP, you can disregard the comments from those who talk about not using a blender due to lautering - they didn't notice this is the BIAB forum. The blender should be fine, though, like @Samuelouellette, you might notice more fine material in your wort - let your experience guide you. Dough balls can definitely be a problem with a super fine grind, but like @RM-MN said, a whisk will knock them out, as will a large potato masher.
My only gripe about the blender is the amount of time it would take if you were doing large grain bills. @wilserbrewer has a great design for a corona-style mill mounted in a plastic bucket, and after making one, I like it better than my 2-roller mill I use for my traditional system (for BIAB I was double milling through my 2-roller).

 

[azazel1024]

BiaB and I use an immersion blender when I need to grind up some oats, but that is pretty much it. I grind all of mine at the LHBS. However, I do plan on (hopefully this summer?) on getting a decent mill so that I can buy a few bulk bags of some base malts to save some money. I may go in on a couple of bags of some others like roasted barley if I can find a few people to split a bag with me (I know a couple of homebrewers near me and I might also be able to get a couple of club members to go in on, say, splitting a bag of Crystal 60, or roasted barley or something, but most of my club members do not have mills).

I am thinking a bag of 2-row a bag of pilsner and maybe a bag of Vienna or munich is probably the way to go as I could probably use a whole bag of each in a 12-18 month time period.

 

[Hamaki]

I did early on, maybe 5 or 10 batches. I used a small, cheap food processor at first and killed it, then I went to the 60 year old Oster blender. I could only do 4 oz at a time or the grain would not turn over and I'd have flour at the bottom and intact grain on top. Took a long time. The other problem was that I was not getting consistent efficiency at least in part because milling was not repeatable from one batch to the next. Glad I bought a mill.

 

[kh54s10]

Since it appears this is for BIAB a blender should be fine. As stated it might take quite a while to blend a bigger batch. I would also wonder how long it will take before you burn out the blender motor. A corona mill can be found for about $25 - $35. Add a fairly heavy duty drill (which you might have already) and you can mill a 20 pound grain bill in just a few minutes. I takes me a lot longer to weigh out the grains than to mill them.

 

[firerat]

It'll work but it may take a while and it's won't take long to kill that blender as kh54s10 stated.

A corona mill and a drill in a 5 gallon bucket with an ugly hopper are the way to go. But you have to keep the hopper ugly. Dems the rules.

 

[OkanaganMike]

@ Black Island Brewer - Thanks - I figured the guys talking about lautering didn't realize I am using BIAB. I really like that Corona rig up of Wilserbrewer. Didn't realize the obvious that dust could be an issue when grinding but now I've got to think of that too. Thanks Everyone for your input!

 

[agrazela]

If you're still looking for input...

I started using a blender to "touch up" crushed grains, since I was getting inconsistent mash efficiency which I attributed to inconsistent crush between LHBS's, online vendors, etc. When I bought crushed grains and used them as-is, I'd vary between about 55% and 65% mash eff, with the occasional surprise 70%. Now I buy crushed grain, run it through the Ninja blender (6 cups, or about 1.5# at a time) for 15 sec on high, and I always get 75+/-3% now.

I did try buying uncrushed grain and using just the Ninja on that (6 cups, 60sec on high), but it didn't really crush the kernels, just shredded the husks, and I got really poor ~45% mash eff, more trub than I've ever seen, and astringent beer.

I do not have plans to store massive amounts of bulk grains, so I have no immediate plans to buy my own mill. I just plan to keep using the LHBS mill and the Ninja. I have no fear of burning out that blender with the grains, it hardly even strains.

BTW, some phone photos I took of the Okanagan when I was up there last June on a business trip, beautiful place!

 

[TexasWine]

My wire whisk seems to make short work of those doughballs. I used to try to stir them in with a big spoon but the whisk is much easier.

Completely agree. My wire whisk handles the ones I get pretty easily. I do a one-two punch with a spoon + whisk. Stir from the bottom with my spoon with my left hand, right hand is armed with the whisk to attack the dough balls as they come to the surface.

My point was that the more flour you make the more, and tougher, dough balls you'll have. The more dough balls you have, the more work it is to get rid of them.

Do you find it easier to handle dough balls in smaller batches like you typically working with versus a 5 gallon batch?

 

[OkanaganMike]

@Agrazela - Mash efficiency is a concern here too. I've read BIAB users don't get as high eff unless you grind finer and I was a little leery on how fine it was coming from the LHBS. I haven't done a great job of measuring my eff on the first 4 batches but will start next batch. Sounds like I've got nothing to lose making grains finer except for the additional trub and possible dough balls.

I saw your pics before reading your comment and thought Geez, San Diego looks a lot like here with their vineyards. They call the Okanagan the Napa of the North due our great climate for fruit and wine grape growing. Beautiful pics, looks like you were staying not far from me on the Westside close to Quails gate and Mission Hills Winery?