Should brown malt be milled?

[Hound]

I've searched for a past post on this but failed to find anything relevant.

"Brewing for Dummies" says that high kilned malts should not be milled as they create a find grist that ends up as a dark brown/gray slimmy sludge in the boil kettle.

I'm brewing a brown porter, which has brown malt and chocolate malt in the mix. I bought the grains pre milled as that's the only way my home brew shop sells it. And yes ~I've gottne a dark brown sludge that blocks up muslin when I strain into the feermenter.

Should brown malt be milled or not? Likewise chocolate malt?

 

[Aleman]

Should brown malt be milled or not? Likewise chocolate malt?

Yes andYes!

While it does tend to flour, its only of importance if you are steeping malts . . . and even then it's not critical.

 

[Hound]

Should brown malt be milled or not? Likewise chocolate malt?

Yes andYes!

While it does tend to flour, its only of importance if you are steeping malts . . . and even then it's not critical.

Thanks for the prompt reply Aleman.

The devil of it is that it blocks up filters inculding muslin in no time, so one has to have yards of muslin ready to get even a few gallons strained. Also I've read that it can be respondsilbe for a harsh taste in the beer.

Is there any way of preventing it getting into the boil kettle? Is it down to recycling lots of wort back into the grain to get a proper filtering?