gturner6ppc
Well-Known Member
I'm doughing in a one-pound batch of pale ale malt and am trying to cope with a milling job from the brewstore that's leaving quite a few grains completely intact, plus lots of big huge grits. Two nights ago on a 3/4-lb mash I used my Corona mill to further grind the grains, trying to do so only slightly so as not to do too much damage to the husks, but I still got a stuck sparge because the damage was a bit too much, plus my grain bed was too deep (18 inches - more on this in a moment).
Anyway, tonight I did the dough-in at 3/4 quart per pound (which is 3/4 quarts for this tiny batch), poured off some excess water with a strainer, and then ran the grain through the Corona mill. The husks look much better this time and there are no large grits or dough-balls left. So I added it back to the liquid and added another cup of dough-in water to bring it to 1 qt/lb. Then I stirred it around with a hand mixer mounted with bread-tines.
I've read that many breweries do wet grinding by spraying the grain with hot water a few minutes prior to the grind to soften the husks and prevent them from shattering, yet still keeping the endosperm dry so it cracks. I've also read that some breweries are experimenting with underwater milling.
I'm tempted to make some custom tines for my hand mixer that would be two cylinders (a mini-roller mill) just to squash dough balls.
Anyway, has anybody else tried wet milling?
Side note: After my small batch experiment with fescue malt, I'm trying to refine my lautering system. Major breweries prefer a 12 inch to 18 inch grain bed, so a few quick calculations showed I could get away with using a small diameter tube as a lauter tun - or more appropriately a 'lauter tube'.
For this I'm using a 4-foot 1-5/8" diameter polycarbonate tube from Lowes, which is actually a safety sleeve for a 4-foot T12 fluorescent lamp. The cost is $3.58. To this I glued a 1-1/4" PVC fitting (slip to threaded adapter) which fits perfectly, using a Loctite plastic glue that's designed for hard-to-glue plastics like PTFE, polyethylene, etc. Screwed onto the 1-1/4" fittings is a 1-1/4" to 1/2" reducer, into which goes a 2-1/2 inch by 1/2" stub, followed by a 1/2" brass ball valve, followed by another stub, followed by a barbed hose fitting.
So I have ball valves at each end, which unscrew at the 1-1/4" diameter fitting to allow the mash to be added. On the bottom end I've stuffed some Scotch-brite stripping pads to act as a false bottom. The polycarbonate tube is thin enough that I can squeeze it to relieve a stuck grain bed, and having a ball valve at each end means I can also flip it upside down to release and repack the grain bed, or even reverse the direction of the lautering. Not only that, but I can leave it at an angle, so I could have a 4 foot grain bed with only one foot of head-pressure, which I guess would be tubular tilt lautering. To maintain temperature to some degree, the tube is wrapped in some pipe-insulation (1" diameter which leaves about a 1-inch open viewing window). The pipe insulation was $1.38. The two ball valves were about $6.50. I threw the whole thing together in about 20 minutes.
End note: It's getting near time to do a Christmas brew, and last year the elves got so drunk off a 5 gallon batch that several passed out face down in the cookie dough. It was sad.
So I'm setting them up to brew two beers at a time.
Actually this setup is to allow small experimental batches using 1/2 to 1-1/2 pounds of grain to debug mashing, lautering, test efficiency, etc, all on the convenience of a kitchen stove top with a sauce-pan.
Anyway, tonight I did the dough-in at 3/4 quart per pound (which is 3/4 quarts for this tiny batch), poured off some excess water with a strainer, and then ran the grain through the Corona mill. The husks look much better this time and there are no large grits or dough-balls left. So I added it back to the liquid and added another cup of dough-in water to bring it to 1 qt/lb. Then I stirred it around with a hand mixer mounted with bread-tines.
I've read that many breweries do wet grinding by spraying the grain with hot water a few minutes prior to the grind to soften the husks and prevent them from shattering, yet still keeping the endosperm dry so it cracks. I've also read that some breweries are experimenting with underwater milling.
I'm tempted to make some custom tines for my hand mixer that would be two cylinders (a mini-roller mill) just to squash dough balls.
Anyway, has anybody else tried wet milling?
Side note: After my small batch experiment with fescue malt, I'm trying to refine my lautering system. Major breweries prefer a 12 inch to 18 inch grain bed, so a few quick calculations showed I could get away with using a small diameter tube as a lauter tun - or more appropriately a 'lauter tube'.
For this I'm using a 4-foot 1-5/8" diameter polycarbonate tube from Lowes, which is actually a safety sleeve for a 4-foot T12 fluorescent lamp. The cost is $3.58. To this I glued a 1-1/4" PVC fitting (slip to threaded adapter) which fits perfectly, using a Loctite plastic glue that's designed for hard-to-glue plastics like PTFE, polyethylene, etc. Screwed onto the 1-1/4" fittings is a 1-1/4" to 1/2" reducer, into which goes a 2-1/2 inch by 1/2" stub, followed by a 1/2" brass ball valve, followed by another stub, followed by a barbed hose fitting.
So I have ball valves at each end, which unscrew at the 1-1/4" diameter fitting to allow the mash to be added. On the bottom end I've stuffed some Scotch-brite stripping pads to act as a false bottom. The polycarbonate tube is thin enough that I can squeeze it to relieve a stuck grain bed, and having a ball valve at each end means I can also flip it upside down to release and repack the grain bed, or even reverse the direction of the lautering. Not only that, but I can leave it at an angle, so I could have a 4 foot grain bed with only one foot of head-pressure, which I guess would be tubular tilt lautering. To maintain temperature to some degree, the tube is wrapped in some pipe-insulation (1" diameter which leaves about a 1-inch open viewing window). The pipe insulation was $1.38. The two ball valves were about $6.50. I threw the whole thing together in about 20 minutes.
End note: It's getting near time to do a Christmas brew, and last year the elves got so drunk off a 5 gallon batch that several passed out face down in the cookie dough. It was sad.
So I'm setting them up to brew two beers at a time.
Actually this setup is to allow small experimental batches using 1/2 to 1-1/2 pounds of grain to debug mashing, lautering, test efficiency, etc, all on the convenience of a kitchen stove top with a sauce-pan.
