NEW TO MILLING

[CD]

NEW TO MILLING



Although I’ve been brewing since Pontius was a pilot, I’m new to milling, as freshly crushed malt was available from nearby Tuckers floor Maltings in Newton Abbot, sadly closed last September.

I now own a 2-roller mill, which appears to be a Chinese copy of an American design supplied via Amazon from Germany, and the first goods it produced from Simpsons Golden Promise pale malt, with the roller gap set at the maximum I’ve seen recommended on-line of 40 thou, seemed far more floury than I’ve been used to, and the resulting beer took far longer to drop bright – 2 weeks instead of 2 to 3 days.

I am considering increasing the gap to between 45 to 50 thou for my next brew, which is still less than the width of all but the smallest of grains, but would welcome anybody’s experience of this as this old dog is thankfully not above learning new tricks!

 

[Clint]

Tucker's...I remember going for a tour round there about 13 years ago!
What happened to them?

 

[Ghillie]

I now own a 2-roller mill, which appears to be a Chinese copy of an American design supplied via Amazon from Germany, and the first goods it produced from Simpsons Golden Promise pale malt, with the roller gap set at the maximum I’ve seen recommended on-line of 40 thou, seemed far more floury than I’ve been used to, and the resulting beer took far longer to drop bright – 2 weeks instead of 2 to 3 days.

I am considering increasing the gap to between 45 to 50 thou for my next brew, which is still less than the width of all but the smallest of grains, but would welcome anybody’s experience of this as this old dog is thankfully not above learning new tricks!

That's a pretty big gap (40 thousandths of an inch being ~1mm) - I'd bet pre-crushed grain is probably 0.8mm/0.9mm.

My mill gap is 0.6mm FWIW.

I based my gap on my target BH efficiency and kept reducing until I got there. So it's really a matter of preference as to what size you go for.

 

[CD]

Tucker's...I remember going for a tour round there about 13 years ago!
What happened to them?

As far as I know, they contacted all their customers and suppliers shortly after the last SIBA beer festival in April, advising that they had made the decision to stop trading after they had processed last year's harvest. They had stopped doing those interesting tours a few years ago. Teignworthy Brewery is still in the building, and the bottle shop has become a sort of pub, but the buildings were on the market. I believe this year's SIBA fest is still going ahead there, but in marquees outside. First that disaster, now Fullers selling out to the Japanese, whatever next!

 

[Martybhoy]

I mill my grain using a 2 roller mill, with the width set to just allow a bank card fit in between (a tip from this site actually).

It does seem more floury than packs of pre-crushed grain, but I assume this is because the flour will fall and compact during transit.

I have no problems with the beer clearing though.

 

[Dutto]

A Credit Card is usually 0.76 mm thick which equates to 30 thousandth of an inch; and I have seen this setting being used as a gauge to set a grain Mill.

Personally, I set my Corona style Mill to just over a Credit Card width at about 1.0mm which equates to 40 thousandth of an inch.

I back-fill the Mash Tun so I don't get any problems with "dough balls"; but it can take a long time to lauter the wort clear before running it into the Boiler.

 

[Bigcol49]

Hi @Mike C
Try conditioning the grain before milling. This allows a finer crush but it doesn't rip up the husks, resulting in a much better filter bed in the mash tun.
I never experienced any delay in the beer dropping bright.

 

[xozzx]

Hi @Mike C
Try conditioning the grain before milling. This allows a finer crush but it doesn't rip up the husks, resulting in a much better filter bed in the mash tun.
I never experienced any delay in the beer dropping bright.

I started conditioning the grain and mill with 0.9mm gap, might give 0.8mm a try next brew, just to check if I get any better efficiency.

For anyone not sure what conditioning the grain means: Use a spray bottle and spray the grains with 2% of the weight of the grain bill (weigh the spray bottle and keep checking until it has decreased by the correct weight). Keep mixing the grains to try and get them all wet.
Leave the grain for 30 mins then mill.

 

[Ghillie]

I back-fill the Mash Tun

Can I ask what you mean by that @Dutto?

 

[Ghillie]

Actually, never mind - I just found your thread

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/doughing-in-by-backfilling-the-mash-tun.79441/

 

[Bigcol49]

Actually, never mind - I just found your thread

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/doughing-in-by-backfilling-the-mash-tun.79441/

Hi!
It's also known as underletting - my personal favourite way of "doughing in".

 

[CD]

Thanks everybody for the benefit of your experience. I think you have convinced me not to increase the mill gap from the 40 thou I used before. With my set-up I have never had any trouble with set mashes, and it would be extremely difficult for me to ‘condition’ the grain, as I am a bit unusual in that I brew a comparatively large amount of beer (36 gallons) very infrequently (every 11 weeks or so).

Pondering on the problem of taking so long to drop bright, despite using a tried and tested fining regime, there was another factor which changed for my last brew, which was the strain of yeast obtained from my local friendly brewery. This was more of a bottom fermenting type, used to working in cylindriconical fermenting vessels – which is actually what I have.

It could well be that I didn’t remove enough yeast from the bottom of my FV prior to racking, so had a higher than usual amount in each PB. Anyhow I’ll know soon enough, as ‘Batter Bitter’ is due to be brewed on Pancake Day!

 

[Dutto]

@Ghillie Sorry, repeated everything and then read the original. Bugger!

 

[Dutto]

To stop getting as much trub in the brew try using a syphon with something like this on the end (or even a bit of muslin wrapped over the end) ...

 

[Wilfy]

Just done my first brew with freshly milled grain. I hit the 10 points higher than I should, 1062 from 4.2kg of base grain. Is this normal?

 

[Ghillie]

Just done my first brew with freshly milled grain. I hit the 10 points higher than I should, 1062 from 4.2kg of base grain. Is this normal?

Quite possible Wilfy.

The number is arbitrary IMO, consistency is what counts.

 

[Wilfy]

Quite possible Wilfy.

The number is arbitrary IMO, consistency is what counts.

When I was putting the numbers through the grainfather app, it works out at 95% efficiency. If it gets down to 1014 FG I’m going to have a 6.7% beer. Think next brew I’ll knock the base down to 3.5kg.

 

[Ghillie]

When I was putting the numbers through the grainfather app, it works out at 95% efficiency. If it gets down to 1014 FG I’m going to have a 6.7% beer. Think next brew I’ll knock the base down to 3.5kg.

Highly unlikely to be 95% efficiency. Those numbers are only really achievable with step mashing typically.

How did you work out 95%?

 

[Wilfy]

Highly unlikely to be 95% efficiency. Those numbers are only really achievable with step mashing typically.

How did you work out 95%?

The app said I should hit 1052. I had to increase the efficiency on my recipe to hit 1062 which meant 95%.

 

[Ghillie]

The app said I should hit 1052. I had to increase the efficiency on my recipe to hit 1062 which meant 95%.

If you're talking about mash efficency, then it's possible. Brew house efficiency of 95% though is just mental.