Crushing Grain Without a Mill

[Mackinturk]

I'm trying to do some one-gallon batches using liquid and dry extract. But I also plan to steep some specialty grains in most of the batches. My question is how do I crush the grains without a mill? My local shop is new and doesn't have their mill set up yet so all their grains are whole. I was planning to just measure out how much I need and put them in a large ziploc bag and use a rolling pin to crush them. Do you guys think this would do a good enough job? My other option would be a food processor, but I think this would grind them a little too much, maybe even just turn the grains into dust.

 

[aryoung1980]

I think the rolling pin would work just fine for steeping. Never done it myself though.

 

[Aunt_Ester]

Can confirm. Will work just fine. Leave plenty of space in the bag so they can set flat. Still a pain in the ass.

 

[Mackinturk]

Cool. Thanks. I'm only doing small batches so I won't be doing a lot of grain at a time. The local shop is planning on setting up a grain mill in the shop, so hopefully this won't be an issue much longer.

 

[RM-MN]

Some rolling pins are not hard enough to get a good crush on your grains but you can use a beer bottle instead (if you can find one somewhere).

 

[PackerfaninSanDiego]

not trolling, but what about running them over with your car tire? accident waiting to happen?

 

[MikeInMKE]

After getting a really poor crush at my LBS, I tried crushing the grain in a freezer-grade zip lock using a rolling pin. It didn't work. I ended up with dents in my rolling pin and tons of holes in the bag. I tried again using aluminum foil, and got much the same result. The resulting efficiency sucked, too.

 

[passedpawn]

• Food Processor
• Coffee Bean Grinder
• Paper Shredder

You must have one of these things.

 

[tx-brewer]

What about a hammer like you would use to tenderize meat for chicken fried steaks

 

[Steve50]

I use a hammer. Cover the plastic bag with a towel and make sure there is no air in the bag.

 

[DoctorMemory]

I have used a mortar and pestle, but that sucks if you have more than a few ounces. I can't imagine your lhbs will go more than a few days without a grain crusher, if you have much to do it may pay to wait.

 

[Cposten]

Ah you poor sap, have been there. Rolling pin didn't work worth a damn for me. What I finally ended up doing was throwing about a handful in the blender and hitting the chop for literally a second until I got an acceptable crush. Takes forever but at least your only doing a little. I got screwed by brewmasters warehouse, they send me my 5gal Irish red order uncrushed and 2 weeks late. Best of luck friend.

 

[tommybrew123]

I used a blender last week, and it worked just fine. Only put in maybe two cups max at a time. You want to see all the grain moving, not just at the bottom. It looked very similar to the 4 oz of chocolate malt I had which was milled correctly. As long as you are just using it for steeping, this will work just fine.

 

[JohnSand]

I'm using a blender too. Still working it out, but I find very little flour, less than the grist crushed at LHBS. My gravity has been high and low on the two batches I've done.

 

[amandabab]

[*]Paper Shredder


You must have one of these things.

ones that can handle CD's actually work well in a pinch. just don't do it at work, all sorts of questions pop up.

 

[passedpawn]

ones that can handle CD's actually work well in a pinch. just don't do it at work, all sorts of questions pop up.

I know from experience myself.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/paper-shredder-mill-203515/

 

[Mackinturk]

I used a rolling pin and a 1-gal ziploc bag. The bag did end up with a bunch of little holes in it, but I wasn't storing them so that wasn't really a problem. My only concern with using the blender is that we have one of those Ninja blenders, and I think it would turn most of my grain into powder. I do have a coffee grinder, but that would need some pretty serious cleaning before I ran grains through it, since it's coated with coffee.

 

[JohnSand]

All good points. My blender is a 1970s, Avocado Green, yard sale special. Probably dull blades and low speed are an asset.

 

[MuddyCreek]

The food processor does work. It can really chop up your grain, but for steeping in a grain bag there shouldn't be a problem. I used to do all my steeps with a food processor because the rolling pin method was way too much work.

 

[fizgig]

A one gallon extract batch would only use a few ounces, you could probably smash them individually.

I'd hit them with a mallet.