Sounds to me like you do not need to buy a mill. Why buy stuff you don’t need?
Approximately 4.5 gallon batches are brewed with 8.5 lbs grain.
I order 3-4 batches at a time, use crushed recipe grains, and are
received vacuum sealed in individual 8.5 lb bags. On brew day
bag is cut open then poured in BIAB. I enjoy this simplified
method very much, it allows to easily design recipes, and
use new grains/combos.
Cheers
I have run 2 professional breweries that used crushed grain. In both the grain sometimes sat for months until it was used. I could never tell the difference. When grain goes “slack” you can tell. It feels soft, not as dusty. If you have slack grain, throw it out.
That said, a mill will give you the ultimate control over your efficiency. Mash efficiency starts with the crush. But if you are happy with the efficiency you have, no need to stop using it. Until the mill gap changes, then don’t be surprised if there are unexpected changes.
thank you guys, i did read it all.
i really appreciate the notes indicating no big difference between crushed and uncrushed. i guess that is mainly what i wanted to confirm.
ill likely put it off for later. K.I.S.S.
Hey, it gives you another thing to tinker with and maintain.
lol a much more useful thing to tinker with will be consolidating my brewing shelving unit and then likely getting a floor fridge and inkbird. getting tired of being at the whims of the seasons in terms of what i can brew
Milling your own grain give you one more variable you can control. It will improve your brew house efficiency and help with consistency.
It won’t necessarily improve the quality of your beer, but it will improve your process.
I think it’s a good investment, as I feel about most tools. I have had the same mill for at least a couple decades and noticed from the fist batch an increase in efficiency.
man, not to drag out this thread but THIS has always been a really, really interesting thing for me that i believe has not been explored much.
ie. difference in flavour profile between a mash that results in 45% efficiency vs. 90% efficiency.
if both these mashes reach the same OG, then one would require twice(?) as much grain to reach that OG. does that affect flavour?
I believe a wider gap does add to the beer. I only have my anecdotal brewing experience to rely on for this statement.
I intentionally opened my mill gap to increase the grain bill as well as increased mash duration to account for the larger grits when I began brewing lower ABV beers. When I was crushing finer to get the same OG the beers came out thin.
Based on this experience I believe there’s more created/extracted in the mash than just sugars converted from starch.
For the most part, i don’t think it would.
but
If you had designed a recipe for 80% BH efficiency and it ends up at 40% - then yes, I imagine it would affect the flavor.
But If you’'re shooting for an OG of 1.055 but it comes out 1.035 - then that could be an issue. Although, if you’re shooting for 1.085 and it comes out 1.065 - the finished beer won’t meet your expectation, but it’s probably still pretty good.
Counterpoint…for nearly 25 years, my mill has been set as tight as it will go. I have never noticed “thin” beer. My only point is that people can’t generalize based on either of our experiences.
I think if the efficiency decrease was solely due to particle size in the mash, then the flavor wouldn’t be all that different especially if there aren’t a lot of specialty grains. If the efficiency decrease was due to other factors, temperature, pH, etc. then you are more likely to have flavor differences. I think this because I’m guessing that with particle sizes being larger, the enzymes can’t access the starches as readily.