[fredthecat]

My concern with pre-crushed malt is simply that if a mistake happens on the supplier side (e.g. the Shop's mill settings slip, the order packer forgets to mill the grain) you're SOL.

lol once in korea, with the option of ONE homebrew store at the time which was far, far away and only online i forgot to mark my order as crushed. lmao it was really bad, i think i brought it to a rice-milling place and got it done, or did it myself somehow. very bad.

I almost always mill my grain while the strike water is heating.  The only exception is when we are doing a club brew and I am milling everyone's grain.  In that case I mill it a day or two before the brew and it is fine.  At one of the local breweries they buy their grain pre-milled and use it up within a couple months.  It seems to remain pretty fresh in that amount of time and the bags they get it in are sealed and have a plastic liner.  Plus, the brewery is air conditioned.  Moisture/humidity combines with really warm temperatures is a killer for pre-milled grain.  If you have any doubts about the freshness of your pre-milled grain, take a small amount and chew it.  If it is fresh, it will be crunchy, if it has gone slack it will be pasty. 

The best advice I can offer, IMHO, is if you have pre-milled grain and are going to store it for a while, seal it in some type of airtight container and keep it cool to keep any moisture out

im listening to this data point though, it makes sense in a way. my main interest would be quality of end product (beer).

[majorvices]

My concern with pre-crushed malt is simply that if a mistake happens on the supplier side (e.g. the Shop's mill settings slip, the order packer forgets to mill the grain) you're SOL.

I'm running a 5 bbl brewery right now on about 75-80% pre-crushed malt (I mill all specialty grains) and grind consistencies are a definite problem. But the convenience right now outweighs the grind consistency.

[ynotbrusum]

My concern with pre-crushed malt is simply that if a mistake happens on the supplier side (e.g. the Shop's mill settings slip, the order packer forgets to mill the grain) you're SOL.

I'm running a 5 bbl brewery right now on about 75-80% pre-crushed malt (I mill all specialty grains) and grind consistencies are a definite problem. But the convenience right now outweighs the grind consistency.

Keith, do you get "super sacks" that are pre-mixed grains?  I noted those at a couple mid-sized breweries who ordered pre-mixed grains from Weyermann.  The brewer would add to the super sacks, if any ingredient was not available through Weyermann on a pre-mixed basis.

[chinaski]

Seeing as how a mill is probably one of the top 3 improvements you can make to your brewing I wouldn't go cheap on one. You don't have to buy the most expensive one out there but expect to pay $160+ for something like a Barley Crusher. I've had one of those for over a  dozen years and it still works like a champ.

just curious, since i started or participated (cant remember) in a thread asking on the value of home crushing grain, why is it an improvement?

The ability to adjust the crush of your malt. Finding the optimum mash for your system can improve your mash efficiency.

If you brew with both a traditional mash tun and a BIAB method you would want a finer crush with the later so having your own mill allows you to change the mill gap on your own.

Similarly if you use smaller grains like wheat or rye they can sometimes slip between the rollers untouched or get onlyt a coarse crush. With your own mill you just adjust the rollers.

I don't agree in terms of adjusting my mill.  Rather, the advantage is getting a consistent crush if you don't mess with your mill at all.  Its one less variable that could affect how consistent your efficiency is.  If you can't rely on consistent efficiency, it's hard to design recipes that will give you the OG you want.

[denny]

Seeing as how a mill is probably one of the top 3 improvements you can make to your brewing I wouldn't go cheap on one. You don't have to buy the most expensive one out there but expect to pay $160+ for something like a Barley Crusher. I've had one of those for over a  dozen years and it still works like a champ.

just curious, since i started or participated (cant remember) in a thread asking on the value of home crushing grain, why is it an improvement?

The ability to adjust the crush of your malt. Finding the optimum mash for your system can improve your mash efficiency.

If you brew with both a traditional mash tun and a BIAB method you would want a finer crush with the later so having your own mill allows you to change the mill gap on your own.

Similarly if you use smaller grains like wheat or rye they can sometimes slip between the rollers untouched or get onlyt a coarse crush. With your own mill you just adjust the rollers.

I don't agree in terms of adjusting my mill.  Rather, the advantage is getting a consistent crush if you don't mess with your mill at all.  Its one less variable that could affect how consistent your efficiency is.  If you can't rely on consistent efficiency, it's hard to design recipes that will give you the OG you want.

That's what I do. I set my mill almost as tight as it would go 20+ years ago and haven't changed it since.

[Village Taphouse]

This is the advantage of having your own mill.  In my earlier post I may have sounded like "you can adjust it at your leisure" but my point was that you can adjust it to find your sweet spot and then you can forget it.  I don't think you can ask a supplier to mill your grains a certain way .. it's just going to be whatever they determine is a decent crush.  I'll also just mention the Monster Mill (I think that's the name) where the rollers are "geared" together so both top rollers always spin.  I have had mine for maybe 1 year or more and it has never let me down.  I had one where one of the top rollers was passive and it gave me so much trouble.  I took it apart, cleaned it, etc. and it still caused some serious swearing over here.  Jiggle it, reverse the drill, try again .. ugh.  Both rollers geared together make for a nice milling session. 

* Not a paid spokesperson.  *

[ynotbrusum]

Sweet spot is definitely the way I look at it - my gap feelers have my Schmidling (JSP) malt mill tuned at .040", which I prefer.  That is pretty course for many people, but I tend to mash for 90 minutes and get mid 70's efficiency with that gap.  Sometimes a particular maltster might affect that, but not all that frequently nor all that much.  I am not a stickler for eking out that last bit of efficiency, but appreciate that others may wish to do so or just hit their sweet spot at a tighter gap.

Cheers.

[BrewBama]

When you say “70% efficiency” do you mean mash efficiency?

[Steve Ruch]

Yesterday I checked out a hardware store about 6 miles away that has a small amount of. homebrew supplies. The prices were about what I expected; overall I wasn't impressed. The supply of ingredients was fairly sparse, no liquid yeast and both the dry yeast and hops were out at room temperature. I bought a couple bags of caps and can't really see myself getting much here.

[fredthecat]

Yesterday I checked out a hardware store about 6 miles away that has a small amount of. homebrew supplies. The prices were about what I expected; overall I wasn't impressed. The supply of ingredients was fairly sparse, no liquid yeast and both the dry yeast and hops were out at room temperature. I bought a couple bags of caps and can't really see myself getting much here.

lol ive always heard this was the case in the past, a lot of homebrew supplies a long time ago were at hardware stores?? it seems very funny to me, but not totally counter intuitive i guess.

[Homebrew_kev]

lol ive always heard this was the case in the past, a lot of homebrew supplies a long time ago were at hardware stores?? it seems very funny to me, but not totally counter intuitive i guess.

I work at one, and that's how i describe it. It's like a hardware store but with giving customers high level service like at a expensive restaurant - without tips.

[HopDen]

Yesterday I checked out a hardware store about 6 miles away that has a small amount of. homebrew supplies. The prices were about what I expected; overall I wasn't impressed. The supply of ingredients was fairly sparse, no liquid yeast and both the dry yeast and hops were out at room temperature. I bought a couple bags of caps and can't really see myself getting much here.

There is a true value hardware store about 25 mins away and they have a state liquor store inside of the hardware store. They seem to always have the hard to get bottles too!