Grainfather grain mill

[McMullan]

[Whoosh!] All-grain brewers without a grain mill, aye? Classic.

Edit: It takes me less than 10 minutes to weigh and mill grains for a batch of beer. That includes setting up and clearing away. Mess is actually minimal, with the odd grain needing to be swept up. If you've set up properly and don't mill like a maniac there won't be much dust either. It would take me longer to order specific quantities of pre-crushed malts online, which I'd have to wait a day or three to arrive. What if I want to brew today or tomorrow?

[MashBag]

10mins is about the same time as it takes me to divide up a 25k sack. Always have grain in stock, as I am lucky enough to have the space.

[Whoosh!] All-grain brewer £200 better off without a grain mill, aye? Classic.

Different folks different strokes.

[McMullan]

A bit binary, I thought? For the sake of argument (and to convince yourself) you've blatantly expressed denial about the obvious benefits - to an all-grain brewer - of owning a grain mill and, I believe, genuinely convinced yourself you're better off, financially or otherwise, without one. Even though they're generally recognised as a basic tool for all-grain brewers these days and have been available to home brewers for years now. A wonderful display of cognitive bias and well worth a good laugh. Whatever next? You don't use hops, you use lemon juice to add bitterness your beers?

[MashBag]

They are not a required tool, if you you have precrushed on your doorstep.

Sorry never followed the crowd, always thought about it first.

[McMullan]

What, you were the first to think about 'not following the crowd'? I believe you. Honestly. Little else seems to make much sense I bet you're an antivaxxer too All you need is some truck wash It's a bit like a chef, who claims to be using the freshest ingredients, denying the benefits of owning a chopping knife, because he buys in freshly chopped onions. What's he going to do when the freshly chopped onions aren't available? Lie about the freshness of pre-chopped onions and convince himself 'they're only onions at the end of the day'? An onion's an onion, isn't it? What kind of chef doesn't have the time and tools to chop onions?

[McMullan]

Seriously, though, things really have moved on quite considerably. Especially in home brew and what ingredients and equipment are available these days. I believe the keen home brewer can challenge commercial breweries on quality, which is driven by 'freshness' of ingredients and end product, and as few beer miles as possible. Back in the day my grandparents didn't even have a decent chopping knife between them. A sheath knife and a very sharp axe. It was amazing what granddad could do with his sharp axe.

Granddad: "John, looks like you could do with a haircut, boy."
Me: "WTF?"
Nan: "Ken, I can't hold him down for much longer. Go for it!"

Those were the days, weren't they? Before the EU

[MashBag]

... they're generally recognised as a basic tool for all-grain brewers these days and have been available to home brewers for years now.

I wonder how many of us are not real all grain brewers then 'cos we don't have a mill?

[McMullan]

Well, you're clearly not real serious about all-grain brewing, are you? You'd be much better off extract brewing. It would work a lot better for you, I think. I doubt you'd even notice any change in your beers

[MashBag]

Begs the why do you brew question?

I don't need to collect stainless, or spend my life doing washing up.or grinding .. Just drinking better beer

[Cobnut]

Well, you're clearly not real serious about all-grain brewing, are you? You'd be much better off extract brewing. It would work a lot better for you, I think. I doubt you'd even notice any change in your beers

I've followed what seems a fairly well worn path: kits --> extract --> all-grain (using pre-crushed malts) and seen the quality of my beers improve with each step.

I've also used dry and wet yeasts, including recovering yeast from previous brews for re-use.

I've thought about getting my own grain mill, but not that bothered about a few % increase in efficiency (chuck a few 100g of extra malt in and I get the target OG).

It may be that milling my own grains would give me some advantages in terms of more stable storage of uncrushed malts, a bit more efficiency and maybe a small further improvement in beer quality, but jury seems to be sitting deliberating on this for me.

Interesting that you draw the comparison with cooking I (amongst I guess several on here) also enjoy cooking and definitely grinding whole spices is worthwhile c.f. buying pre-ground, but I'm not convinced this is a fair comparison with malts. I suspect a better comparison would be buying whole grain to grind your own flour for bread-making. I don't think I've ever heard of home bakers milling their own flour, but prepared to hear if there are those who do and who can objectively call out an improvement.

My other issue is I have too much kit for my brew shed as it stands without adding a mill too

[MashBag]

Too much stuff already - rings true here too.

Spices agree.
Cooking agree.
Storage: nah, don't think it makes that much difference under 18 months.

I bake every week, for the week. Grinding your own flour makes no positive difference. If any thing I suspect the producers do a better job than I can (in a shed with a drill) with access to better grain and applied lab work.

Might start a new thread; a poll to see how many people do have a mill vs those without?

[McMullan]

Well, you're clearly not real serious about all-grain brewing, are you? You'd be much better off extract brewing. It would work a lot better for you, I think. I doubt you'd even notice any change in your beers

I've followed what seems a fairly well worn path: kits --> extract --> all-grain (using pre-crushed malts) and seen the quality of my beers improve with each step.

I've also used dry and wet yeasts, including recovering yeast from previous brews for re-use.

I've thought about getting my own grain mill, but not that bothered about a few % increase in efficiency (chuck a few 100g of extra malt in and I get the target OG).

It may be that milling my own grains would give me some advantages in terms of more stable storage of uncrushed malts, a bit more efficiency and maybe a small further improvement in beer quality, but jury seems to be sitting deliberating on this for me.

Interesting that you draw the comparison with cooking I (amongst I guess several on here) also enjoy cooking and definitely grinding whole spices is worthwhile c.f. buying pre-ground, but I'm not convinced this is a fair comparison with malts. I suspect a better comparison would be buying whole grain to grind your own flour for bread-making. I don't think I've ever heard of home bakers milling their own flour, but prepared to hear if there are those who do and who can objectively call out an improvement.

My other issue is I have too much kit for my brew shed as it stands without adding a mill too

I was referring to HandBag and her attitude generally, to be fair. I really don't see much point in practicing all-grain brewing if there's not much interest in making improvements and challenging yourself now and then. That's why I've be making lagers lately. Apparently they're more difficult, but I'm not convinced that's true. Then again I do aim to do something properly if I'm going to do anything. Nor was my comment intended to knock extract brewing in any way. A perfectly nice beer can still be made. My point was the simplicity of extract brewing might suit some people a lot more than all-grain.

Mill-wise, buy one or you'll never really know. All the complaints about mills seem to come from those who don't have one. If I end up with brewing kit I don't really use I generally flog it to someone who will get use out of it. I'm sure you could make a small space for little malt mill.

[guypettigrew]

Mill-wise, buy one or you'll never really know. All the complaints about mills seem to come from those who don't have one. If I end up with brewing kit I don't really use I generally flog it to someone who will get use out of it. I'm sure you could make a small space for little malt mill.

Now that's a really persuasive argument in favour of splashing out £250 to try the Grainfather mill.

More importantly, though, looking through my records for the last 5 brews since receiving 5 x5Kg crushed Maris otter from MM on May 10th a slow drop in mash efficiency (and therefore overall efficiency) can be seen. The five brews since then show; 89/90% mash efficiency on May 15th, dropping with each brew to 84% on July 24th, the fourth brew from this batch of pre crushed MO. I'll be brewing this Saturday with the last of the pre crushed MO, it'll be interesting to see what the mash efficiency is.

My next MM order will be mid September. Unless our unpredictable UK government changes Greece from amber to red I should be flying out on September 1st, returning September 15th. Saturday's brew will sit quietly maturing while I'm on hols.

Guy

[McMullan]

For £250 I'm sure you could get something much better than the Grainfather mill, to be honest. Even if that £250 included a new drill to power it. Generally not expensive bits of kit, but I'd avoid the cheapest.

Edit: By the way, travelling abroad these days is a bit selfish, mate. Sorry, it has to be said. I wonder how long it takes governments to realise that closing borders was always the only way to prevent a plague evolving? Lucky I'm not in charge Imagine compulsory grain mills and the grain-mill police randomly checking they're oiled properly with food-grade machine oil A shortage of truck wash and vodka too

[Trefoyl]

Professional chefs and bakers like Ken Forkish swear by freshly ground flour for bread, but a good flour mill is much more expensive than a malt mill so unless you bake a lot it’s not worth it. My sister uses a Mockmill https://mockmill.us/
However, Marc Vetri’s book explains why freshly ground flour isn’t good for fresh pasta.
I can’t comment on not owning a malt mill because only recently has it even been an option to order malt pre-ground here for a recipe, but still not in bulk. I bought Jack Schmidling’s mill in 1997 and recently “upgraded” to a motorized Malt Muncher. Not because I needed to, just because I wanted to. A drill or handle works just as well.
Both are two roller, neither are geared.