I was listening to the interview on the 6/5/11 BN Sunday Session with Larry Sidor, the Brewmaster of Deshutes Brewery yesterday. I think he calls it Wet Milling, but he describes their milling technique as being what sounds like Kai Troester-style Malt Conditioning, as opposed to what I know of as Wet Milling.
This is the first commercial brewery I’ve heard of that uses Malt Conditioning. Sidor was quite enthusiastic about the technique and went on for a few minutes about it’s advantages.
Yeah, I thought of Kai’s technique as well when I heard Larry describe it during that interview.
Other than better lautering and less dust, what other benefits did he mention?
It’s the first one I’ve heard of doing it.
You can set your mill a little tighter and not tear up the grain husks.
Wet milling isn’t quite the same thing as malt conditioning. Wet milling generally involves spraying the malt in a hydration collar to about 20-30% moisture content immediately before milling. It’s actually fairly common in large breweries where crush speed and dust production are major concerns. Conditioning involves barely wetting the husks with something like <5% water.
Funny this should come up, I just saw on Beer Advocate that Larry is leaving at the the end of the year to open his own brewery. http://beeradvocate.com/forum/read/3838984
^^^^^^That.
Who needs water?
Boulevard Brewing has a German wet mill.
Malt conditioning does make a noticeable difference when it comes to the intactness of husks. I’m generally satisfied with my lautering without it though so I rarely employ the technique.
Sierra Nevada also has a “wet mill.”
I just got back from the BJCP reception at NHC. Matt Brynildson of Firestone walker was the speaker and he talked about their expansion plans. Their new system will include a wet mill station.
What he described, that Deschutes does, was Malt Conditioning, not Wet Milling. He talked specifically about limiting the percentage of water to only rehydrate the husks and not the endosperm. I think he just used the term wet milling as a generalization, probably because it’s a term he might expect people to have heard of before. He went into enough detail to distinguish it as Malt Conditioning.
Actually, if you fast forward past the first half hour or so of shenanigans before he comes on, the interview is excellent and worth the time.
As I recall, he was mostly touting the lautering advantages, but he also seemed to believe that the crush was better due to something like the husks compressing the endosperm slightly so that it shattered in some more effective way, or whatsis. Personally, I think it may improve beer clarity by reducing tannin extraction from shredded husks.
I’ve been doing it since my second AG batch… put it in a large tub, plant spray with water in one hand, mix with the other. Perfect drain every time, and yes, less dust during milling.