Milling grains, how important?

[Stand]

"You have your way. I have my way. As for the right way, the correct way, and the only way, it does not exist." -Nietzsche

 

[eric19312]

I find owning a mill takes a lot of stress out of planning a brew day. Hand in hand with my own mill is simplification of my grain bills.

I buy grain in bulk and store the grain unground in 5 gallon buckets with gamma seal lids. By focusing on simple grain bills I don't need to keep that many varieties on hand. I generally stock pilsner and pale as base malts, 15-20L caramel/crystal, flaked corn and maybe a pound or two of something for color. The base malts I buy in 50-55 pound sacks and the others I get usually 10 pounds at a time. I buy the grain to resupply my grain inventory when I happen to be out and about near one of the three LHBS in my area. If for some reason I needed a special grain for a recipe I'd probably order that online - but haven't felt a need to do that for a very long time.

I practice similar strategies with my hops and yeast. Maintain inventory of what I expect to need as opposed to buying for specific batches. These inventories make it possible for me to have a brew day when an opportunity presents as opposed to needing to plan a brew for a week or so in advance.

 

[RPh_Guy]

What a pretentious moke!

Lol, I had to look up "moke". Looks like a British / Aussie thing.

 

[lump42]

I find owning a mill takes a lot of stress out of planning a brew day. Hand in hand with my own mill is simplification of my grain bills.

I buy grain in bulk and store the grain unground in 5 gallon buckets with gamma seal lids. By focusing on simple grain bills I don't need to keep that many varieties on hand. I generally stock pilsner and pale as base malts, 15-20L caramel/crystal, flaked corn and maybe a pound or two of something for color. The base malts I buy in 50-55 pound sacks and the others I get usually 10 pounds at a time. I buy the grain to resupply my grain inventory when I happen to be out and about near one of the three LHBS in my area. If for some reason I needed a special grain for a recipe I'd probably order that online - but haven't felt a need to do that for a very long time.

I practice similar strategies with my hops and yeast. Maintain inventory of what I expect to need as opposed to buying for specific batches. These inventories make it possible for me to have a brew day when an opportunity presents as opposed to needing to plan a brew for a week or so in advance.

I do the same with my grains. There's not a close LHBS, so if I have grains on hand I can brew without 2 weeks of planning.

Bulk hops and combo of dry yeast and overbuilt starters make up the rest.

 

[VirginiaHops1]

Lol, I had to look up "moke". Looks like a British / Aussie thing.

Or he meant mook? That is definitely a thing here, and one of my favorite words Although I normally use it affectionately

 

[VirginiaHops1]

The last sentence in my post is the important part, and should imply what you bring up regarding style, @VirginiaHops1. No intention of being a ******. I'm simply stating a relevant fact.

I didn't get the sense you were trying to be a prick, but it seemed to come across just a little bit high & mighty. I think my processes are extremely tight, definitely much tighter than my neighbor and fellow brewer(and good friend) who lives down the street from me, but although we discuss brewing and trade info a lot I try really really hard to never imply my methods are better and his stuff is in any way inferior. It's just a bad look I think. After all we're talking about beer, and a completely subjective medium of judging it(taste). Again, I don't really think you meant it that way and your posts are almost always informative and congenial so I definitely don't think you're a ******.

 

[bracconiere]

Lol, I had to look up "moke". Looks like a British / Aussie thing.

for the people too lazy, it means *******/donkey.....i see we're already on to hugging though, lol

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Kunze, Wolfgang. Technology Malting and Brewing, 6th English edition, VLB Berlin 2019.

Thanks. I checked the price ( ) & added the title to my wish list.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

the cat

Could it be that the cat is back (link, link)?

 

[Robert65]

Thanks. I checked the price ( ) & added the title to my wish list.

I can't personally vouch for this website, but this is the best price anybody's found that I'm aware of, it was shared on the LOB forum by someone who did buy it there
http://corporatediscountbooks.com/

 

[lump42]

Could it be that the cat is back (link, link)?

I saw that. I've been waiting to see if it goes anywhere interesting.

 

[Hoppy_Sanchez]

Invest in a mill if you stock bulk grain at home. You’ll notice an efficiency difference being able to set your mill gap to a finer crush. What I like about having a mill is prepping for brew days in advance. Whether it’s the day of, night before, or days to weeks to your brew date. I’ve never noticed a difference in flavor to using grains I’ve crushed from the day of to weeks prior in using them. Shop around find the right mill that suits you. Maintenance shouldn’t be forgotten, especially if you brew quite often. I have had a barley crusher for 5+ years and it just recently it started to slip on me. I just can’t crush as fine as in once did.

 

[Jag75]

Speaking of milling this looks like a nice deal.

MoreBeer https://www.morebeer.com/dod

 

[Stand]

I have had my Barley Crusher for 9 years, and it is about toast. I am waiting for Morebeer to get a Maltzilla to upgrade.

Those look slick. https://www.kegland.com.au/maltzill...amond-grain-mill-premium-diamond-rollers.html

 

[NitrogenWidget]

I biab and found efficiency was not so great.
I then went the corona mill in a bucket route I found on here and my efficiency went pretty high.

I will always go to the HBS for beers with lots of specialty grains because it's easier and not going to break the bank.
I have them crush it then I run it through my mill again before I brew.

but, having 100lbs of Wheat, pils, pale on hand to make a smash or ipa is a great thing because I can just grind up and brew.
and majority of my beers are made with basemalts or combinations of basemalts because I like things simple.

 

[augiedoggy]

I have never seen anything more than anecdotal evidence that grain needs to be milled immediately before being used. Hell, some breweries buy bags of grain pre-milled.

I was surprised at the number of breweries I spoke with that do this very thing... some of them make damn good and popular beer as well...
In theory it can have a negative impact on freshness... but in a market where much of the beer people are used to drinking does not have this "freshness" or its covered up with pastries, hops and or fruit flavors it may be a moot point for many.

Personally I sometimes mill the day before and sometimes the morning of the brewday and have never noticed this "difference".... then again I'm not the type spend a lot of time swirling and sniffing my beers and describing the nuances either so many im just a "moke" I belive the grain likely starts oxidizing regardless of whether its fully cracked open or not and since we dont do LODO brewing at the pub its kind of a moot point.
I do find it almost comical how trends change here.. a few years ago most here were using copper chillers and aerating thier mashes with fancy spinning or blingly sprinkling sparge arms and now weve gone to this extreme buying mills with diamond encrusted rollers. Next we will be storing our unmilled grain in tanks purged with CO2..

What about just throwing the grain into a giant oxygen deprived blender with the mash water and blending it up with NO oxygen exposure? Surely that will result in superior taste for all? (I am kidding here) On a serious note, while I have no doubt LODO technics and maintaining as much fresh flavor as possible does have flavor advantages, I think there is a point of diminishing returns for this and this is why so many breweries dont concern themselves with it as most beer drinkers likely cant discern the difference with what they choose to drink.

 

[augiedoggy]

It would be nice if someone actually experimented with this to see if people (besides the brewer) can pick out a discernible difference between the two... I have read that Briess states the same 6 month shelf life for both thier milled and unmilled grain and 18 months for the roasted varieties. I would think that like bread vs bread crumbs the whole grain should keep longer than milled so I was surprised to read this. it makes me wonder how oxygen permeable the husks actually are.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

I usually buy 100lbs at a time and put it in a dog food storage container.
I've never noticed a difference between when the grain was received or it had been there half a yr or more and i never had problems with friends drinking it.

i'm sure after some point it may not be as good, but if it's kept dry, IDK.
I suppose someone could just put 10lbs of grain aside for a yr and order some new stuff then brew two batches to see if there is a difference.
If there is, it still might not tell you anything since they will be made with different crops possibly.

 

[RPh_Guy]

What about just throwing the grain into a giant oxygen deprived blender with the mash water and blending it up with NO oxygen exposure? Surely that will result in superior taste for all? (I am kidding here)

Actually the grain is submerged in degassed water and then milled. It's called wet milling, and it's practiced by some German commercial breweries. Unfortunately it's not really practical at a home brew level.

I've used old milled grain. It tastes horrible, metallic. I've made low oxygen beers. They're beyond awesome.
It's like someone asking you if dry hopping actually increases the hop flavor. You know it dramatically changes a beer's flavor because you've done it, and it's such a big difference you don't need an "experiment" to know. You can tell people it does, and even cite studies, reference authors, explain the science, etc. But they'll never believe you until they try it themselves.

 

[FloppyKnockers]

I'll go...
I got a mill for a very different reason than the lot of you. My homebrew supply is also a taphouse/brewery. They don't mill your order until you get there to pick it up. Sometimes it's brew-day for them too which could occupy the grain mill for a little longer than I'd like to be there for. Not that I mind sitting around all day and drinking beer, but I don't like to drive right afterwards. By taking the milling out of the equation I am able to have a pint, pick up my order, and move on.

The added bonus is getting base grains by the bag. It's a small monetary savings, but a savings nonetheless.

The night before brew-day I measure everything out into my grain bucket. On brew-day after I start the water I mill the grains.

As far as freshness... the jury is out on that one.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

I found a 1 gallon chocolate porter beer kit at the salvation army store once.
the gallon jug and cap for fermenting was there along with pre-milled grain and a bag.
I bought it for cheap and sat on it for almost a yr so who knows how old it was.
I just wanted the jug and fermentation lock cap.
I brewed it.
It was an amazing beer.

 

[burntchef]

I mill the morning of the brew. If I mill the day before I get to plastered waiting for the hlt to come up to temp. lol It keeps me occupied while waiting.
Eric

 

[beerisyummy]

Thank you all for the spirited discussion. My LHBS is just 4 miles away, and I am not really interested in LODO. So I think I will stay the course for now, although, as has been pointed out, grain mills are not very expensive, so I'm also thinking ... why not? Out of all the great ideas here, I think I appreciate the coffee analogy the most.

Keeping Calm and Brewing On.

 

[augiedoggy]

being able to mill your own has more of an advantage as far as dialing in efficiency and repeatability if not anything else in my opinion. and you can get a solid mill for under $100 these days. (just avoid the barley crusher IMO)