grinding malt

[Mark1964]

I ground some malt yesterday for a starter. Used 8 ounces pale malt but I used a Kenwood miller the type that attactches to a food processor. It ground it to a powder. Any way put grain in pan with water left at 66 degrees 90 mins later tested gravity it was nearly 1.090 I was proper shocked. Just wondered what would happen if I ground up 4 kilo for a brew :thumb:

 

[evanvine]

Just wondered what would happen if I ground up 4 kilo for a brew

Be careful Mark, you could well end up with a "set" mash and unable to sparge.
Did it once with a coffee grinder and an electric drill, lesson learnt!

 

[LeedsBrewer]

yeah thats what i was thinking too :hmm:

 

[Mark1964]

I was not going to use the herms to do it also would put grain in a mesh bag. Probably not going to bother though

 

[Aleman]

Gravity will depend on the grain:liquor ratio as well as the grind at 2.5L/Kg then you would expect to achieve a gravity of around 1.075 . . . I got caught out one year when I hit a gravity of 1.093 . . . it was someone else's kit and we were using a lower liquor:grist ratio.

Grind also has an effect, and for lab mashes to determine total extract they do grind the malt to a powder . . .but these mashes are never more than 1L (in total), so draining a mash is never a problem. . . . with 4Kg . . . I reckon you would end up with concrete.

You have demonstrated one way of achieving > 100% efficiency by using an extra fine grind as Actual Extract is based on a coarse grind lab mash . ..Grind finer than that and you get more out

 

[Mark1964]

wont be using that method for an actual brew but for making wort starters its not bad. I did water it down to 1.040 for the yeast

 

[Swift Pint]

could this be a good approach for BIAB then? Stuck mashes wouldn't be an issue.
Grinding a whole batch's worth of malt might take a while though...

 

[Mark1964]

yes it would but you would get 100% of the grain in your brews and a good strong starting gravity

 

[Mad Dog]

Your stuck sparge would occur inside the bag. Outer malt would get steeped, then a layer of glue, then the inner would be in touched by water. Plus I believe you would be pulverizing the hulls and making it easier to draw undesired properties from hulls.

 

[wilsoa1111]

i agree it might be tempting but i reckon u would defo get some astringency(the guys with the corona style mills reckon they get some)- fine if u are just in it for the booze but lets face it flavour and consistency are the way to go, malt is relatively cheap afterall.

if someone was gonna try perhaps some kind of permanent mixing would stop it going brick like, but would think u would get a cloudy runoff then?

 

[Mark1964]

Your stuck sparge would occur inside the bag. Outer malt would get steeped, then a layer of glue, then the inner would be in touched by water. Plus I believe you would be pulverizing the hulls and making it easier to draw undesired properties from hulls.

not if you mix it well it all gets covered by water

 

[Mad Dog]

I don't plan to grind my malt into a powder any time soon, so its no biggy to me. It just seems that doing it that way would, could, might, perhaps be problematic. But its beer making, so if that's how anyone wants to do it, by all means have at it.