Malt Conditioning... WOW it rocks!

[disney7]

Thought I'd post my experience here:

Conditioned 20 lbs of malt with 6.4 oz of water and crushed with a .019 gap on a MonsterMill 2.0.

I'd done a test run or two and this batch came out just like the test runs... nice and fluffy with most of the hulls intact.

I batch sparge with a 1" braid. I had no problems with draining/sparging.

This is my third AG batch. With the first two I was stuck at 62% efficiency. With this batch I hit 75% which is right where I'd like to be. For the first two batches I was using malt milled by the brew supply shop.

 

[400d]

hey guys, I want to condition and mill my grains 48 hours before my brewday. do you thing that could be a problem, and do you think the malt could spoil over that time, considering the 2% extra moisture in it?

I keep my milled grains in plastic bags, so I thought this fact might also increase the possibility of spoilage.

maybe I'm wrong. I'd like to be wrong on this one.

please comment

cheers!

 

[RighteousFire]

Most likely. I wouldn't risk it.

 

[bob1852]

hey guys, I want to condition and mill my grains 48 hours before my brewday. do you thing that could be a problem, and do you think the malt could spoil over that time, considering the 2% extra moisture in it?

I keep my milled grains in plastic bags, so I thought this fact might also increase the possibility of spoilage.

maybe I'm wrong. I'd like to be wrong on this one.

please comment

cheers!

Why are you conditioning that far in advance?

Also, for what it is worth, Kaiser has said that conditioning overnight won't lead to spoilage.

Can conditioned malt be crushed the night before brewing?: Yes it can. The added moisture is not enough to cause spoilage.

http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Malt_Conditioning

 

[ten80]

Adding moisture to grains and letting them sit in a bag is asking for some nice Lactobacillus growth unless you keep the grains quite cold.

 

[pjj2ba]

I think you'll be fine since you are milling it right away. I would not condition the malt and then store it. The act of milling will distribute the water throughout the grain and it is such a small amount I don't think any bug will be able to use it to grow.

I am assuming you are only using a minimum of water. I use 100 ml for about 8 lbs of grain

 

[Foosier]

Isn't all of our grain contaminated with Lactobacillus? I can't imagine that such a small amount of water would make the lacto grow so much overnight that it would effect your mash. This is especially true since you will be boiling and killing all the nasties anyway. That said, I would not store for any length of time as I think you could get some interesting mold growths with moisture in a sealed container of grain. Can you say "Growth medium"?

 

[ten80]

Foosier, you are correct about molds and it is the same for Lactobacillus; adding water may provide the required moisture for microbes (yeast, bacteria, fungi, molds, etc) to grow. I would not want to find out the hard way.

 

[MW66]

I know that it looks like a better crush, but honestly this is something that I will never do. I currently get 80% efficiency and never had a stuck mash. I don't see adding any extra steps because I don't believe that it would make my beer significantly better. I'm not knocking it, but this isn't for me.


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[bob1852]

I know that it looks like a better crush, but honestly this is something that I will never do. I currently get 80% efficiency and never had a stuck mash. I don't see adding any extra steps because I don't believe that it would make my beer significantly better. I'm not knocking it, but this isn't for me.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

It significantly cuts down on dust when I'm milling. Don't need to clean the mill at all. That alone is worth it for me.

 

[ten80]

mill dust spread about the brew room could also be a source of contamination when brewing/bottling/transfering beer

 

[Silentnoiz]

It significantly cuts down on dust when I'm milling. Don't need to clean the mill at all. That alone is worth it for me.

How do you accomplish that? When I condition, that's when I need to clean my mill. The rollers get caked with moist grain. I think I've been using 2% of the grain bill weight in water. Tips?

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Home Brew mobile app

 

[bob1852]

How long are waiting between conditioning and milling?

Maybe you're not mixing well enough?

I wait a couple hours and the grain feels dry to the touch.

 

[Silentnoiz]

Less than 30 minutes. I'll have to try adding some time between conditioning and milling and see if that helps. Thanks!

Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Home Brew mobile app

 

[stickyfinger]

Holy ****e! I just tried malt conditioning last weekend after having some slow recirculation in my HERMS. It was FANTASTIC!. I used a mill gap of 0.030" and used 2% by weight water mixed into the malt with about a 15 minute rest before crushing. I would HIGHLY recommend trying this!! I had around 93% conversion efficiency, which is near my highest achieved, AND I had excellent recirculation. I think I might try to go to 0.025" mill gap and see if I can get a little better conversion efficiency.