How to crush the grains

[BrewingWisdom]

Is bulgar or other coarsely crushed grain part of the local diet

Yes it's called wheat or barley porridge.

Are there small household versions of those machines available?

In cities there is no such thing. But in villages some five decades back there was a stone mill operated by my great grand mother. Its basically two plates of stone and you grind grains between them . That's perfect for brewing purposes but hard to find these days.

 

[bracconiere]

maybe if you have access to a bench grinder to shorten the spikes.....

https://www.daraz.pk/products/goglo...0e.searchlist.list.19.28d149cfS35Fet&search=1
i was hoping they'd have a roller model or something....

 

[GoodTruble]

Just thinking outside box a bit, but........ could you put grains in a BIAB, place between two pieces of cardboard or wood, and just drive over it with a car? Or maybe two large slats if wood and just walk across it a few times?

 

[BrewingWisdom]

@bracconiere dude looks like we just complicate things. A simple spices blender in my home got the job done. In the image below you can see the coarsely crushed wheat and barley grains. A barley grain is with husk.
Tell me is that much good enough for a mash?

 

[bracconiere]

Tell me is that much good enough for a mash?

looks like a passable crush....but no it's not enough for a 'mash' you need to fill up like a 5 gallon bucket of it....that might be enough for a glass?

another question that hasn't been asked...how big a batch are you trying to brew? i mean, i think most are thinking at least a gallon, and a spice grinder would take a week of small batches....what did that weight, figure ~10lbs for 5 gallons, ~20lbs for 10 gallons....

but i'm an american, maybe there could be some useful stuff in the 1 gallon brewers thread?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/1-gallon-brewers-unite.311884/
i'm sure some of them didn't want to sport for a grain mill! and figured creative ways for a twelve pack brew....

when i brew my 10 gallon batches i fill my 10 gallon cooler up to about the 7 gallon mark with crushed grain.....

 

[BrewingWisdom]

looks like a passable crush....but no it's not enough for a 'mash' you need to fill up like a 5 gallon bucket of it....that might be enough for a glass?

another question that hasn't been asked...how big a batch are you trying to brew? i mean, i think most are thinking at least a gallon, and a spice grinder would take a week of small batches....what did that weight, figure ~10lbs for 5 gallons, ~20lbs for 10 gallons....

but i'm an american, maybe there could be some useful stuff in the 1 gallon brewers thread?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/1-gallon-brewers-unite.311884/
i'm sure some of them didn't want to sport for a grain mill! and figured creative ways for a twelve pack brew....

when i brew my 10 gallon batches i fill my 10 gallon cooler up to about the 7 gallon mark with crushed grain.....

That was just a sample to show you. I fed that to the birds.
I intend to brew a 8 litres batch. My fermentation bucket size will be 10 litres. We use litres here not gallons.
How much barley and wheat will be required to brew 8 litres of beer?
And as a beginner I think it's a good idea to put both barley and wheat because wheat alone will be tricky. With a 50/50 ratio of wheat and barley will it be a wheat ale or barley ale? What do you call it?

 

[bracconiere]

What do you call it?

hefeweiezen....

3.78L to a gallon so like 2.5 gallons...still think you should pop into the 1 gallon thread...i think they'll have a lot of tricks to teach you.

(i was thinking along the lines of 23L at least, maybe 60L even.....)

 

[BrewingWisdom]

hefeweiezen....

3.78L to a gallon so like 2.5 gallons...still think you should pop into the 1 gallon thread...i think they'll have a lot of tricks to teach you.

(i was thinking along the lines of 23L at least, maybe 60L even.....)

So how much wheat and barley I need to brew a batch of 2.5 gallons with some good/decent ABV ofcourse?

 

[bracconiere]

So how much wheat and barley I need to brew a batch of 2.5 gallons with some good/decent ABV ofcourse?

1,150g's barley
910g's wheat..

should get you around 5% ABV

have you thought about how to sparge/strain it yet?

 

[BrewingWisdom]

1,150g's barley
910g's wheat..

should get you around 5% ABV

have you thought about how to sparge/strain it yet?

That's 1.1 kg barley and 0.9 kg wheat roughly.
Sparging is just for wetting the grain ,so that's not a big issue I think any cooking pot can be used to soak them or can also use a water sprayer. And I can use the strainer I have in kitchen or a cheese cloth can also be used.

 

[IslandLizard]

With a 50/50 ratio of wheat and barley will it be a wheat ale or barley ale? What do you call it?

When using higher amounts of wheat in the grist, say over 30%,* the remainder being barley and/or other grains, the beer can be called a wheat beer. For certain beer styles, such as (Belgian) WitBier, 50% or more of (raw, unmalted) wheat would be considered appropriate. The remainder would be a barley base malt such as a Pale malt or even Pilsner malt.

* That minimum of 30% of wheat is not etched in stone, can be even lower, to be called a wheat beer. As long as wheat character can be identified, such as haziness, flavor, mouthfeel, it can be a called a wheat beer.

 

[bracconiere]

Sparging is just for wetting the grain ,so that's not a big issue

no sparging is getting as much sugar out of the mash kernels as possible...strike water is for wetting....called doughing in....a cheese cloth BIAB would be something so up the 1 gallon people's avenue....

 

[bracconiere]

haziness, flavor, mouthfeel, it can be a called a wheat beer.

i just am hoping we get some trans global beer brewed somehow, and call it 'neat' beer!

 

[IslandLizard]

With a 50/50 ratio of wheat and barley will it be a wheat ale or barley ale? What do you call it?

hefeweiezen....

Hefeweizen is a certain style of German wheat beer. It's typical characteristics are mostly due to the use of certain yeast strains that yield specific flavors and the classic permanent yeasty haze or "yeast cloudiness" associated with Hefeweizens.

 

[BrewingWisdom]

When using higher amounts of wheat in the grist, say over 30%,* the remainder being barley and/or other grains, the beer can be called a wheat beer. For certain beer styles, such as (Belgian) WitBier, 50% or more of (raw, unmalted) wheat would be considered appropriate. The remainder would be a barley base malt such as a Pale malt or even Pilsner malt.

* That minimum of 30% of wheat is not etched in stone, can be even lower, to be called a wheat beer. As long as wheat character can be identified, such as haziness, flavor, mouthfeel, it can be a called a wheat beer.

Now that's the most correct definition of a wheat beer

 

[jtratcliff]

You should check out threads about BIAB... Brew in a bag...

You put your grains in a giant tea bag, essentially.

 

[Beermeister32]

There was a thread here discussing the use of a paper shredder to mill grain. Sounds like it might apply:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/paper-shredder-mill.203515/

 

[gonpce]

Been using a Corona grinder several years. Works fine and cheap like me

 

[Beermeister32]

The guy is in Pakistan with limited beer resources.

 

[hout17]

Here's a great thread to give you an idea of what your crush should look like.

A good book on the modern process his 'How To Brew' by John Palmer link to old free version.

If you can access Amazon (I'm pretty sure you can for digital content) you can buy the digital version (Kindle version) of 'How To Brew' 4th edition as well as a book called 'Historical Brewing Techniques' by Lars Marius Garshol.

These should give you all the tools you need to develop your brewing technique with the resources available to you.

Good luck!

 

[hotbeer]

Are coffee grinders good and strong enough to crush wheat and barley?

This is just like the one I use. It use to be my grandparents coffee grinder from the middle or first half of the 20th Century....

https://www.ebay.com/itm/2344532329...yC4nuN5fIPnjyif5wdMiBYD2_saYKjuhoCkJIQAvD_BwE
I can grind very fine with it. And I get better than 84% efficiency from my mash with the grains ground and I'm not running it on the finest setting. Mostly because it's harder on the arm to turn and it takes longer per unit of malt ground. I could run it through twice, but I think 84% efficiency is good enough.

Though If you are willing to pay the prices eBay wants for these things, you can get a more proper for malts 2 or maybe a 3 roller mill for less.

I think the Corona mill is very similar in design, but for some reason believe they don't grind quite as fine as these old style coffee mills. But I've never seen a corona mill in use so I certainly don't know for sure.

If you use a coffee mill, you might want to use more rice hulls in your mash. They don't quite leave as much of the hull as whole as a good roller crush will. Though for BIAB it may not be as much of an issue depending on how you BIAB.

 

[passedpawn]

I milled barley with a paper shredder once. Worked pretty well (I put it through two times). I suppose not all paper shredders work like this one, though.

More here:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/paper-shredder-mill.203515/