milled grain consistency

[idkid]

would it be possible to just mill your grain to almost flour consistency and add rice hulls...wouldn't this improve efficiency and the rice hulls keep it from getting stuck...in addition how much hulls would you use...thanks

 

[Desert_Sky]

give it a shot and let us know how it goes.

your going to have the consistancy of paste though, so good luck. but yes, in theory your efficiency would gothrough the roof

 

[cweston]

Of course, rice hulls cost money, too. You could put that money into more grain and the end result might be about the same.

 

[Kaiser]

yes, this will work. But because you are shredding the husks to flour, you can expect a greater tannin extraction which may lead to a less desirable beer at the end.

One way of avoiding the husk shreddage is to condition the grain husks with moisture to make them more flexible. Then you can mill much finer while still being able to keep the husks from being milled into flour. The large flour content in the mash will give you problems during lautering if you don't be careful or add rice hulls.

Kai

 

[aseelye]

yes, this will work. But because you are shredding the husks to flour, you can expect a greater tannin extraction which may lead to a less desirable beer at the end.

One way of avoiding the husk shreddage is to condition the grain husks with moisture to make them more flexible. Then you can mill much finer while still being able to keep the husks from being milled into flour. The large flour content in the mash will give you problems during lautering if you don't be careful or add rice hulls.

Kai

Would it be possible to grind the grain into flour if it's wet? I'm under the impression that it must be dry in order to make it brittle enough to make into a find powder.

 

[Kaiser]

Would it be possible to grind the grain into flour if it's wet? I'm under the impression that it must be dry in order to make it brittle enough to make into a find powder.

When conditioning the malt, the malt will not be wet. Only the moisture of the husks is slightly raised, but the endosperm stays dry. If the malt is wet or to moist, you will make a mess and clump the rollers with a malt flour dough.

I plan to write something about this on the wiki but haven't gotten there yet. Though I'm using this technique to get a better crush I haven't seen the dramatic differences in lauter performance/efficiency that I expected.

Kai

 

[casebrew]

I think it was the Elder God of Homebrewing (Charlie P) that said to taste everything, at every step. In this case, I have never checked for conversion with Iodine. I just sample some of the mash. My mill is set about .040, makes some flour, some grits, and hulls. Then during the mash all the good stuff gets dissolved. In about 1/2 hour. Then, it takes me a while to heat the sparge water. I've never bothered with any programs, never checked efficiency. Never brewed a bad batch. Never had any crunchy endosperm in the waste grist, it all gets dissolved in an hour in the tun. I'd reccomend you find some other battle to fight.

Move along, these are not the gains you are looking for.

 

[david_42]

As Kaiser points out, reducing the grain to flour without doing the same to the husk is tricky. Realistically, you won't gain much and you'll have more problems with the sparge. As a test, take some of your used grain, rinse it several times (to remove the sugars your sparging missed), then dry it. Grind to flour and steep it. Check the gravity and use iodine to test for starches. You'll be surprised at how little is left.

 

[zoebisch01]

Yeah, it's kind of like blood from a stone on a homebrew scale. If you want to bolster efficiency you can possibly look into different setups rather than the crush. A good crush is what you need, anything more and you're asking for other issues to come center stage.