So wife ordered some kits but already milled grain. We usually did that at our lhbs but recently moved. Now quarantine. The grain is not well milled at all. Better to try to use it as is or throw it into a food processor and have it very small?
Any fellow home brewers near you? Maybe a local home brew club with a member that can help you by re-milling your grain?
Assuming all grain kits, you can try it and mash a bit longer than typical to better ensure conversion.
Of course a further processing will work, especially if you are doing a BIAB. You can just try a rolling pin to avoid powder.
This recently happened to me as well. My solution was to grab a big Ziploc bag and a rolling pin and then crush it that way and I could get it just like I wanted it. It took some time but the beer came out absolutely great.
Curious - how can you tell it was not milled well? Was going to buy my own mill soon, but never really considered what the end product should look like…
It depends on your system. Some folks can crush so fine the end product may look like flour. “Crush till your scared” is the term used. My system will not recirculate or lauter if I crush that fine. So, over time, I determined the balance of a good lauter and mash efficiency for my system.
I did this by setting the mill at a certain gap, milling 100 grams of standard pale malt, placed the milled grain on a No 14 sieve, shook it side to side for 15 seconds – tap, shook it back and forth for 15 seconds – tap, and repeated this for 3 minutes. I weighed how much was left on top of the sieve and how much was sifted into the paper plate beneath it. Then I brewed a batch. If I got stuck, I opened the gap on the mill and checked again. I ended up with 70% on top and 30% in the tray. I imagine you can do the same thing with a feeler gauge.
As a result, my crush ends up looking more like grits than flour to help create a permeable grain bed.
Also, I run the mill slow so I don’t shred the husks (I need them as whole as possible for a filter), I measure the gap on a linear flow valve to control my recirculating and lautering flow, and I use 1.75/1 water/grist. I imagine each of these elements play a role in the balance for my system so another system may have other settings.
Now, when I change maltster or grain, I can check the 70/30 split of the new grain and know I won’t have any problems recirculating or lautering.
I think you can get a feel for what it should look like after so many years. The grain I received looked like it was barely cracked at all so I knew it was not right. A quick trip through a Ziploc bag and a rolling pin and I had it right. Maybe not as uniform of a crush as when they do it at the local store but good enough and the end product tasted awesome.
I’d think that the food processor treatment would result in a lot of flour, which in my system would end up with a stuck sparge - a PITA. The rolling pin approach results in a rather uneven “grind” but may lay on the safer side and result in decent extraction. I mill such that my grain husks are largely preserved intact and can get 85%+ efficiency, which satisfies me. In comparing my milled grain and the extract efficiency I get to some friends’ milled grain from the local homebrew shop and their results it’s been clear that the shops typically use a larger mill gap (not as good of a grind IMO).
I wouldn’t use a food processor. But I would consider using a rolling pin to modestly increase the degree of crush.
Agree. Don’t use a processor or blender. Rolling pin or just use it as is, with extra mash time and a little more stirring.