Rolling Pin Crush

[pdfmorais]

Hi,

I'm new to home brewing and a didn't have a chance yet to buy a rolling mill. I'm kind of short on budget and at this time is an impossible acquisition.

I've read somewhere on the web about using rolling pins to crush the grain. I've already tried it with a small amount of grain and it worked really well! But sometimes it crushes the grain too much and I get a little bit of grain powder/flour.

If anyone here uses this method, I would like to know if is best to remove the powder before the mash or just put it all inside the mash tun. If I put the powder inside the mash tun, wont I have problems filtering the wort later? And if I don’t put the powder in, wont I loose some important components of the grain for the mash?
(sorry for the bad English...)

Thanks in advance...

Pedro

 

[CUrchin]

Corona mill is something like $25. If you are doing all but a very small amount you'll be better off. My opinion, of course....

 

[Hopper5000]

What kind of all-grain brewing are you doing? Brew in a bag (BIAB) or with a mash tun that had a false bottom or sceen?

You basically want to crush the grain enough so the husks are still in tact but the powder comes out (if you are doing BIAB then you can crush it quite a bit without worrying). If you crush the grain too much then you might get a stuck sparge which you don't want to deal with (again, if you are doing BIAB this isn' a concern).

The powder/flour is what has the enzymes and starch that convert into fermentable sugars for the beer yeast so you should include all of it.

I think people don't use a rolling pin usually because it might not crush the grain well/consistently enough and it would take quite some time to roll crush 10-20lb of grain.

 

[phug]

Tried it once. Never again

 

[acidrain]

If you're BIAB, you could even use a blender and cut it very fine.
For FB/bazooka/manifold lautering, I wouldn't even try it.

Why can't you get it milled where you buy the grains? Order them on line already milled if your LHBS won't/can't do it.

 

[RM-MN]

Moisten the grain and let it sit for a bit, maybe half an hour or a bit more, then try rolling it. That moistening will soften the kernels so they are easier to flatten and will make less flour.

 

[Billy-Klubb]

did it and hated it. before I got a Colona, I used a cheap coffee grinder. now I have a Barley Crusher from NB and look back on my younger self as a primate.

 

[pdfmorais]

I don't BIAB... I brew in a mash tun* (cooler) with no valve and no false bottom.* I know this is not the best setup but that's the only one available for the moment. I've Just started brewing* (only one brew yet lol) and some day soon i'll have a better setup. But for now, and Just to get familiar with the whole process, the one i Got Will do Just fine. I've liked that idea of moistening the grain so I can crush it without making much flour. I use brewtarget to do the math about temperatures. If I moisten the grain, wont the calculations be wrong because I added some water that the software didnt "know"? Or is it ok to crush it and let it dry for some hours? Wont i get mold on it?

 

[RM-MN]

The amount of water that the grain needs to soften is pretty small and I doubt it would throw off your temperature calculations much. You don't need to soak the grain, just get it moist. Some people will use a spray bottle to "mist" it. It won't hurt it a bit to crush it and then let it dry either.

 

[pdfmorais]

Thanks everybody for the inputs... I'll try RM-MN's method next saturday.

 

[IslandLizard]

If you don't use a valve in your mash tun, how do you get the wort out? Scoop the mash into a strainer?

If you can get some fine mesh voile curtain material you can line your cooler with that. Then when it's time to lauter grab the voile hanging over the sides, bundle together and lift up, let it drain over another vessel while putting the wort into your kettle. Then put the "bag" back in the cooler, sparge and repeat. You could sparge a 2nd time if you want, splitting the sparge water equally between the 2 sparges.

I use Brew365's mash calculator and know my strike water needs to be 6 degrees F higher than calculated (5.5 gallon batches). I preheat the cooler with hotter strike water and add the grain when my exact strike temp (calculated +6) is reached. Why the extra 6 degrees? Stirring the mash while the cooler lid is off loses a lot of heat. After the good stir I cover the mash by laying a piece of aluminum foil over it. Then close the lid. With that method, my mash temp is exactly where I want it to be. It slides 2 degrees over an hour (never open it until then).

Your numbers may be a bit different depending on your system. Just keep notes for the next time, to zero in.

Forgot to say, a little flour when crushing is OK. And when using the voile you can grind very fine with a lot of powder, it gives high efficiency.

I'd definitely look for one of those $25 Chinese knock-off Corona mills, if you don't want to lay out the cash for a roller mill. Make a hopper from a large plastic water bottle. Look around for inspiration.

 

[pdfmorais]

Great idea! How did I never thought about it before?! That's Just what i Need...

I've registered the temperatures the Last(only) brew but haven't done the math yet. But it something close to your margin.

And I Will buy the corona mill as soon as I can.

Thanks for the info... it helped me a lot!

 

[Zuljin]

When I was doing extract with steeping grains, I used a rolling pin. It did well enough. Doing a whole AG that way? Nope. Not me.

We did our first AG with some uncrushed grain we lucked into. We tried crushing it with an ice crusher- one of those plug in types; an Oster brand I bought at Goodwill. It had a shaft with flails attached and spun around really fast. We made a hopper and a chute. Caught the grain in a bucket. It took three passes to get a useable crush, but still not a good crush.

When I did the rolling pin, I would spread the grain out in a one grain thick layer on top some newspaper. Later, I used brown craft paper. I'd fold the paper over the top of the layer of grain and roll across it while pressing down hard. Try as I did, I'd still have grain come out from under the paper and it would pile up between the layers. I was constantly having to rearrange my grain. That was still the best method I came up with.

How are you doing it? You may have a technique that someone could benefit from.

 

[Zuljin]

I've also used a Keystone 10. It's an American antique version of the Corona and the like. I used it with a power drill. It did much better than the rolling pin and ice crusher, but still not near as good, fast and easy as the roller mill from Austin Homebrew. Shop around. I got a really good mill at a really good sale price.

 

[pdfmorais]

I forgot to say that I'm only doing 3,5 to 4 L batches Lol. It takes only 1 to 1.5 kg of grain so for this amount I don't thing a rolling pin Will be a problem...

 

[IslandLizard]

With those relatively small volumes, either use a very small cooler as a mash tun, or better yet, mash in a large pot placed in a preheated (148-160F), turned off oven to keep temps better and steady. If the cooler mash tun is too large, there's excessive headspace and not enough mash volume to keep the temps on target.

I would stitch a bag from voile to fit the pot or small cooler for easy lautering. MIAB - Mash in a Bag!

 

[pdfmorais]

The cooler is only 10 liters. I mash About 6 liters to get 4 after 1 hour boiling.

My oven's weak so i'll isolate better the cooler with aluminium paper and I believe it Will be enough to hold My temps.

But the winning idea was the "mash in a bag" lol. I believe this Will eliminate the biggest problem I had.

 

[catdaddy66]

What kind of all-grain brewing are you doing? Brew in a bag (BIAB) or with a mash tun that had a false bottom or sceen?

You basically want to crush the grain enough so the husks are still in tact but the powder comes out (if you are doing BIAB then you can crush it quite a bit without worrying). If you crush the grain too much then you might get a stuck sparge which you don't want to deal with (again, if you are doing BIAB this isn' a concern).

The powder/flour is what has the enzymes and starch that convert into fermentable sugars for the beer yeast so you should include all of it.

I think people don't use a rolling pin usually because it might not crush the grain well/consistently enough and it would take quite some time to roll crush 10-20lb of grain.

I use a rolling pin for amounts no larger than one pound of grain. It is a CHORE, even at that small amount! I'll still do it but not for larger grists. My LHBS will grind it for me but a 15 minute ride isn't worth one pound of ground.

 

[PhillyMike]

Take it to your local home brew shop. They'll probably crush it free of charge.

And it's definitely worth the trip than trying the rolling pin method, which will have a very varied crush and potentially poor efficiency.

 

[pdfmorais]

The problem is that I Live in an island in the atlantic ocean. It's a 2 hours flight from Portugal and 5 from US lol. There is no local home brew store here...

 

[wilserbrewer]

Blender and BIAB or MIAB is my suggestion. I would BIAB and put the pot in a warm oven. I believe cooler tuns work better with larger more massive grain bills rather than a kilo for a 4 liter batch. Jmo's

The rolling pin premise is a throwback to extract / steeping grain brewing, I wouldn't wish it on my enemy