Crushing Grain Without a Mill

[BottlesCansCraft]

Hi All,

A recent order with maltmiller for fine crushed maris otter resulted in a delivery of uncrushed maris otter. I don't have a mill, or know anyone that does, and checked with my local brewshop and they don't either (found it strange they bought it in crushed, but hey).

Any suggestions on what I could do with it to get it mashable? would a food processor sufficiently break it up or just completely destroy it?

Any help would be awesome, thanks

 

[MickDundee]

Hi All,

A recent order with maltmiller for fine crushed maris otter resulted in a delivery of uncrushed maris otter. I don't have a mill, or know anyone that does, and checked with my local brewshop and they don't either (found it strange they bought it in crushed, but hey).

Any suggestions on what I could do with it to get it mashable? would a food processor sufficiently break it up or just completely destroy it?

Any help would be awesome, thanks

When I was in this situation I asked on a Facebook brewing group and amazingly someone about 5 miles from my house said I could use his.

You could also ask your local microbrewery if they are still operating but a lot will just buy their grain already crushed.


I think the general consensus at the time was that only a grain mill would do.

 

[MyQul]

Unless you can find someone near to mill it for you it's extremely hard ( almost impossible) to crush without some sort of mill.

It's worth buying one of these cheapo mills

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Home-Cas...212537?hash=item3b16e58af9:g:rp0AAOSwsZJbPx6K
Once you have it you can buy your base malt crushed but have large stocks/variety of specialty malts whole which will keep for months and years until you need it. This is what I do

 

[phildo79]

I was about to buy one and then came across this review...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/custome...iewpnt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B07PWLR9LB#R2VYY20QKENKV8

 

[An Ankoù]

In fairness they are pretty crap and it takes ages to crush 5Kg of malt, but they do work. If you think it's worth paying £14-20 for a one-off then do it. I also had a 25Kg sack of malt from Brouwland, who don't supply crushed. I quickly found out it's more convenient and cheaper to order malt from the UK even with carriage factored in.

 

[MickDundee]

I was about to buy one and then came across this review...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/custome...iewpnt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B07PWLR9LB#R2VYY20QKENKV8

He’s struggling to crush popcorn kernels though. Those things are solid. I have a much more expensive and popular 2 roller mill and it won’t grind wheat malt even with my super powerful power drill behind the controls.

 

[MyQul]

I was about to buy one and then came across this review...

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/custome...iewpnt?ie=UTF8&ASIN=B07PWLR9LB#R2VYY20QKENKV8

Tbh, they're a bit hit and miss. I have one. Periodically the forum will find a product and several forumites will all buy it and compare. This happened with these mills a few years ago (which is when I bought mine). Some people binned there's almost immediately or others (like Dutto) modified them to attach a drill and 'grain catching' bucket.

I've never had a problem with mine. It mills grain. Which is what you want it to do. However trying to mill several kilos is a nightmare, unless you do it in batches over a few days, because it takes so long. However for several hundred grammes for specialty malt it's great

 

[HarryFlatters]

I've used my blender before, which made a very fine grind. I wouldn't recommend it, but it made beer.

If you do use something like that, use a BIAB bag if you have one else you'll end up with a very cloudy wort because of the flour produced.

 

[cushyno]

Back in Feb I bought one of those Corona knock-off mills from the bay for a little over £11 including postage. With a little tinkering it has been well worth the money and time.

Previously my BH efficiency was all over the place with pre-crushed grain, anywhere from 63-74%. I now run all of my grain through the mill including any pre-crushed I still have left. I'm now reliably getting 76% ± 2% and it takes a matter of minutes to crush if you drive it with a drill. Without the drill it took about 20 mins for 5kg of grain.

So much more predictable than pre-crushed.