Can a malt mill be used to make bread flour?

[Kentish Mike]

Hi All,

So I have been considering making the switch to milling my own malt for a while, and as luck would have it, my wife recently brought up the idea of milling her own flour for bread baking.

Obviously I'm now wondering if I could be fortunate enough to please both her and myself with one purchase!

Does anyone know if their malt mill can be set fine enough for both jobs?

I would be pretty ecstatic if I can pull this one off

Cheers,
Mike

 

[foxy]

Hi All,

So I have been considering making the switch to milling my own malt for a while, and as luck would have it, my wife recently brought up the idea of milling her own flour for bread baking.

Obviously I'm now wondering if I could be fortunate enough to please both her and myself with one purchase!

Does anyone know if their malt mill can be set fine enough for both jobs?

I would be pretty ecstatic if I can pull this one off

Cheers,
Mike

I don't see any reason why not, get a mill with two driven rollers and an idler, if it doesn't work you can always say you tried. Whatever you do don't try and use malted grains in a bread. I tried it with only a small amount of malted rye and the loaf would have made a good door stop.

 

[Agentgonzo]

I would doubt it. Malt mills are set up to just crack the kernel open. They have teeth on them so you can't get the rollers that close together.

Flour mills are stone rollers that pulverise the starch into flour. I can't see a malt mill being able to do this.

Happy to be proved wrong though. Give it a try and let us know.

 

[soupdragon]

I used to work for Rank Hovis McDougall. It really isn't as simple as you might think. After the initial crushing of wheat it all needs separating into different particle sizes before being ground again. This gets repeated a few more times until there's no larger "bits" left and all the flour and bran/wheatgerm has been sifted out.
That's for white flour, you may have some limited success with brown if you can sieve out as much flour as you can, re grind what's left. The key is releasing as much of the white stuff as possible and getting that into flour, then the bran and other lumpy bits can be added back.
One thing to remember is bread making flour is much finer than you might think. So, grind, grind, grind and grind again. As @Agentgonzo has said a malt mill isn't the right piece of equipment to grind fine enough. Good luck

Cheers Tom

P.S. There are also many additives in bread flour, without them you may still struggle to bake good bread. British wheat is low in protein so needs wheat gluten added to make it a better product. Canadian wheat on the other hand is among the best for bread making and has a high protein content.

 

[MashBag]

I bake & brew. I have tried loads.

A quality flour mill (KoMo type) will of course do flour and spices.
Flour need sieving and standing.
And you will struggle to buy the best wheat in the first place.
It will also crack odd adjuncts in small quantities.

A simple beer mill is an utter waste of time. For anything.

I also have a Chinese blunt blitzer barstaed. Utterly scarey machine, which I have just this morning turned gravel into talcum powder. Useful.

So .... 1m dollar question... if you live in the UK,... why would you. If you can't buy the bread grain whole and beer grains come crushed for free.

Get a grip, get a hobby, get a flipping great television... No that quotes not going to work. Sorry.
Go and have a beer, and forget this silliness

 

[MashBag]

P.S. There are also many additives in bread flour, without them you may still struggle to bake good bread.

Cross that out, and go and stand in the corner.

Good bread does not need additives.

@Kentish Mike if your good lady wants a couple of tested recipes - short up.

 

[soupdragon]

Cross that out, and go and stand in the corner.

Good bread does not need additives.

@Kentish Mike if your good lady wants a couple of tested recipes - short up.

That comment was intended with the thought of home milling in mind. I wasn't actually referring to adding strange ingredients to the bread mix.

Standard strong bread flour from Aldi, same ingredients as all others I have used contains stuff......

They started adding Calcium carbonate years ago to reduce the number of cases of rickets, it's also a dough "improver". Started in the 1940's and it's been in there ever since. It's now in UK law or something that calcium carbonate, iron, niacin and thiamin need to be added.

Cheers Tom

 

[Nordwald]

I would doubt it. Malt mills are set up to just crack the kernel open. They have teeth on them so you can't get the rollers that close together.

Flour mills are stone rollers that pulverise the starch into flour. I can't see a malt mill being able to do this.

Happy to be proved wrong though. Give it a try and let us know.

Agreed. I tried it and as you say, two different things and in my experience, not possible. I bought a stone mill some time ago (video, rye flour).

 

[Nordwald]

I don't see any reason why not, get a mill with two driven rollers and an idler, if it doesn't work you can always say you tried. Whatever you do don't try and use malted grains in a bread. I tried it with only a small amount of malted rye and the loaf would have made a good door stop.

Especially in rye breads, which have plenty diastatic enzymes on there own, yep, malted rye flour will give a ferocious starch attack and a gummy brick, as you say. Not sure if anyone knows of it, but the German "Malzbrühstück"/Malzstück or malt-steeping stage is commonly used, however - simply rye flour and water held at amylase temps (usually, towards the beta-range, as bakers are just seeking short-chain sugars in their baking) for a matter of hours. Here's an example. In German, but google translate does well enough. (Note - Lutz Geißler is a phenomenal baker, author and teacher - but in my opinion his books and other writings have the temp wrong on his Malzstücks. He always has them at 75C, basically mash-out temp. I always do mine at 65C).

 

[foxy]

I have one mill just set to mill malted rye, I think the stainless knurled rollers wouldn't last too long if going for long-term use. I bought 25 kg of Wallaby bread flour today. For the cost of the flour $35 AUD it is hardly worth the effort of milling grains for bread.
But then again the OP's wife doesn't know that.

 

[Nordwald]

I have one mill just set to mill malted rye, I think the stainless knurled rollers wouldn't last too long if going for long-term use. I bought 25 kg of Wallaby bread flour today. For the cost of the flour $35 AUD it is hardly worth the effort of milling grains for bread.
But then again the OP's wife doesn't know that.

I mill different varieties of rye, whole wheat, spelt, einkorn, emmer, kamut and durum. It opens up a world I could never buy anywhere.

 

[MashBag]

Absolutely agree for locally grown or speciality grains. Mills do have a use, but you are not getting anywhere grinding grains you can buy already milled

 

[RoomWithABrew]

I tried it with only a small amount of malted rye and the loaf would have made a good door stop.

Interesting used some mild ale malt in my last loaf and it was suitable for construction. I put it down to overproofed and poor yeast performance. Will have to reassess this.

 

[MashBag]

I use flour from spend grains. At 2%
It does still have some power, so you do have to be more accurate proofing, else it will go over. Works well in a no-knead.

 

[RoomWithABrew]

I use flour from spend grains. At 2%
It does still have some power, so you do have to be more accurate proofing, else it will go over. Works well in a no-knead.

Thanks

 

[Kentish Mike]

Thanks for all the replies! The members of this forum really have a wealth of knowledge and I thoroughly appreciate your willingness to share.

Given what you've said, I think we'll be forgoing the milling for now, but I am curious, why do (seemingly) so many homebrewers mill their own malt? Is it about freshness?

 

[Stu's Brews]

why do (seemingly) so many homebrewers mill their own malt? Is it about freshness?

In a nutshell, yes. Although for some people it may just be the satisfaction of doing everything themselves.

Uncrushed grain has a longer shelf life than crushed grain. Some people like to buy uncrushed grain in 25kg sacks (generally because this is more cost effective) and then crush as needed for each brew.

 

[MashBag]

Thanks for all the replies! The members of this forum really have a wealth of knowledge and I thoroughly appreciate your willingness to share.

Given what you've said, I think we'll be forgoing the milling for now, but I am curious, why do (seemingly) so many homebrewers mill their own malt? Is it about freshness?

I think milling malt in the UK when you can buy it crushed at no extra cost, is a bit of a grind... Sorry I meant pointless.

And I have never had or heard of crushed grain going off, if properly stored.