This is new to me! Looks like a good idea, and we will do this on our next brew.
For a 10 lb grain bill (Czech Pils), how much water should we add…in ounces?
I’ll spray the malt the night before and let it sit until the next morning.
How many of you do this?
I do it. I use a spray bottle, and go by feel. Run your hands through the grains, a few, or more, should stick to your hand. Tip - use RO or distilled water to avoid chlorophenols. One other benefit in addition to better layering, is less dust. My nose and eyes thank me the night after a brew day.
I used to condition my malt with 3-4% water. …but I recently quit. One less thing.
I have read about this technique, but I have never tried it. Why? Because it doesn’t make much sense to moisten grains before crushing. It seems to me that grain will crush and break apart better when dry. Whereas when moist, it seems to me like the grain would smash rather than break apart. And, yes, it does seem like an extra step. I’m not sold.
The goal in conitioning is to add just enough moisture to make the hulls pliable without softening the kernels inside. This way the kernels will fracture as normal, but the hulls are resilient enough to resist shreadding and cutting. Proper conditioning will allow enough time for the added moisture to be absorbed by the hulls before being ground.
This sums it up nicely.
I first heard this from Jeff Renner. The guy who is the head brewer at Sierra Nevada Mills River recommended it also. Later Kai Tröster recommended it.
Ok…that’s all I needed to hear. Count me in!
The low oxygen guys also recommend it.
I tried it and found no advantages. See what you think.
It helps if you have a false bottom. Denny doesn’t. See how it works on your system.
No, my bottom is as real as it gets… ;D
But you raise an interesting point. So many of the “things you should do” are so dependent on your equipment and brewing process, yet many people seem to discount that and blindly follow recommendations.
"Find out what works for you on your system. "
I would add that malt conditioning does not make a difference with BIAB or a Mash Filter.
How long before we can buy a Homebrew sized hammer Mill and mash filter? If I see one on the floor at Nashville, I will say “told ya so”.
Edited to add not to second sentence.
+1. I also tried it for ~ a year.
The point of conditioning is to reduce the mill gap while retaining intact husk material. While certainly conditioning is easy enough to do, I found closing the gap caused problems on my system so wetting the grain really served no purpose except to add an additional process. I found that if I just run the motor slow, it won’t shred the husks and breaks the pieces nicely.
I abandoned the conditioning and adjusted my crush (mill gap) based on a No14 sieve: 70% in the screen/30% in the tray. I get very consistent mash efficiency, no stuck recirculating, and no channeling when applying this process to my system.
Like others say: try it and see what you think. It may provide you the advertised advantages when used on your system.
I’m too uncoordinated. I tried it and gummed up my mill.
I always condition [unless I forget] and it seems to make a difference for me, but I do a lot of beers with significant percentages of non-barley. If you decide to try it, at all cost avoid over wetting, and do NOT let the grain set overnight before milling. As someone previously said, the object is to rehydrate the husk without affect the kernel, leaving it wet that long will almost certainly soften the kernel. I got mine a bit too wet once and wound up completely gumming up my mill, that was one mell of a hess and the mash efficiency on that batch was terrible.
When I used my mash tun, it did seem to make a bit of a difference in the ease of flow from the grain bed. I can’t say it did anything for efficiency. Upgraded to BIAB and it really did not make any difference that I could see, taste, feel, smell, etc.
Tried it for a couple years, but went to a wider gap and got just as good, if not better results. If I were to pulverize my grist, I would be concerned about an insufficient filter bed, but not a problem with the wider gap. Plus, I have gone away from the bag and just use the false bottom most of the time. I recirc with Herms, usually. Try things out and get to where you want to be.
Cheers!
What specific differences are you guys experiencing?? What benefits are we to expect from doing this? I understand the cons but didn’t really see anyone explain the pros of doing an extra step.
The idea is that you will get a better crush with fewer shredded husks and more easily accessible starch, especially with a small homebrew size (1.5") 2 roller mill. This can help efficiency, improve lautering, and also reduce grain dust. The latter two are what I’m trying to use it for now that I have a recirculating system (Anvil foundry).
I also bought a number 14 sieve and will try the 70% “coarse crush” separately.
Definitely agree with reducing grain dust. Where did you purchase the #14 sieve? I would be interested in one to see how my grind is. My system employs a herms, false bottom and is 30 gallon capacity. I keep my grain mill gap set to the thickness of a debit card and it is tight. I’m just not sure I would see a noticeable increase in efficiency.