I'm curious as to whether anyone has had any success crushing grain at home without a mill. Papazian says you can use a wine bottle or rolling pin, but that didn't do it as well as I wanted. I'm thinking of trying a couple pulses in the Cuisinart... This would be for a pound or less of steeping grains as I'm still doing extract. If/when I go to all grain, a mill would be used.
Don't use a Food Processor. The hulls will be chopped and thus more difficult to remove before boiling. What do you mean "as well as I wanted." ? Were they to course, to fine? How did you go about it?
Fairly course. I put them in a heavy ziplock bag and went at them with a rolling pin for a good 10 minutes or so, combining both rolling and whacking motions.
If you are just steeping the grains don't worry about it too much at all. There are certain reasons that you want a specific crush consistency when you are doing all grain, but they don't really apply that much to steeping grains. Grains for steeping do not add to the fermentables of the wort becuase they were not mashed. You don't have to worry about overcrushing hulls becuase you are not mashing, and therefore are not worried aobut a stuck sparge. The only reason not to crush the hell out of them is becuase if they are pulverized they will not stay inside your muslin bag when steeping. Steeping grains are for color and flavor only, and not used for fermentable sugars, so don't worry about it too much. Rolling pin method works fine. All you need to do is crack the hulls enough that everything comes in contact with the wort. Good Luck.
Thanks. I know with steeping grains the crush isn't as crucial as it is with all grain and having a good grain bed and all that, but I do want to get the best extraction I can because even if they don't serve a fermentable purpose, I want that color, body and flavor. Though maybe the difference between cracked and crushed is negligible for my purposes.
I've used a coffee grinder in the past. I would just tap the button ever so slightly and let it stop, then do it again. Never pulverized the grains but cracked em enough in a pinch.
Yeah, in my experience, simply cracking the hulls with a rolling pin works great. Don't try to do all of it at once, but if you roll it in a ziplock bag a few ounces at a time you'll get a great extraction of color and flavor. I did a lot of extract plus grain brewing prior to going to all grain and this method always worked great for me. Cheers.
That would be the obvious route to go, but I knew I'd have leftovers and no immediate plans (though I guess I should have made some). I opted for longevity over ease-of-use.
I crushed grain without a mill exactly once. Used a rolling pin, a wooden board, and a big Ziplock back and crushed a handful at a time. It's slow going, but will get you what you need out of steeping grains. If I still had to crush my grain that way, I would brew with extract instead.
