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Is a grain mill worth it if you don't brew often enough to justify buying full sacks of grain?
My LHBS does a nice job on the crush; I can almost always expect to get 74%-76% efficiency. I do love some gear, though... but I'm not sure that a mill is any more than a toy for me.
Thoughts?
Posted 34 days ago.
Edited 34 days ago by homebrewdad
With a small stocks of different malts it gives you the possibility to brew what you like without planning days/weeks before. Buying pre crushed malts here wasn't possible until very recently and extract brewing is not done often everybody has a mill.
Posted 34 days ago.
There are so many factors that play into the decision to purchase a mill.
How far away from the LHBS are you? I am 40 minutes away, reasonable but not always practical to go there when I want.
How often do you brew and how much grains do/can you store? During the winter months, I am brewing generally every weekend. Once Spring and kidding season is upon me, I don't have time. So I can, and have, gone through nearly two bags of base malt (2-row and Maris Otter) just since late last fall. Given that I also use an appreciable amount of Pilsner, Munich and Vienna malts. But that is my brewing pattern, which is probablly very different from a lot of others.
How much control do you want to have? Given above, I buy most of my specialty grains in 1 lb quantities (now) and store them in HDPE canisters. I want to be able to make recipe adjustments right up until the time I print and weigh out my grains. Not everyone is so demanding.
There are other factors that come into play. My biggest take-away is that you don't need to invest a lot to crush your own grains. After a hearty talk with the owner of my LHBS and others on-line, I selected a Corona-style mill. With the adjustments I made, this set me back almost $30. Less than 1/3 of a decent roller mill. A little playing around with getting the gap set correctly, and I am in business. In short, you don't need fancy equipment just reliable equipment.
Also to reiterate ingoogni's comment, though I plan ahead, there are times when you have an opportunity and with the grains in stock, I can pull together a brew pretty fast. Case in point, a couple of weeks ago when the snow kept me home, SWMBO looked at me and said "I'm surprised you are not brewing." I don't need any more inspiration than that and pulled off an American Red IPA which was not on my brewing schedule.
Would not have been able to do that without grains in stock, and I would not have kept supply of pre-crushed grains to be able to do that without the mill.
Just some things to think about....
Posted 34 days ago.
Like oginme, I live about 40 minutes from the LHBS. I brew about once a month; with my kids and my work schedule, it's tough to do anymore than that.
As a result, my recipes are pretty well queued up in advance.
Yeah, I'd love to get a mill for the "fun factor", but I'm not sure how practical it would be for me. Sure, I could pick up a sack of maris otter (my favorite base grain), but I'd still have to hit the LHBS for the specialty grains. I use enough variety there that I don't know if it makes sense for me to try to store them all (and, as is, the wife thinks I take up too much space with my brewing stuff).
This probably goes on the "someday" list.
Posted 34 days ago.
Clearly you are not brewing enough Olan.
The nice thing about having your own mill is that you can mill the grains just before use. The difficult thing about milling them at the LHBS is that most folks would probably do this the day before brewing. We all know how plans go and the next day might not turn out to work for brew day. The mill just gives me more options. Storage of grain takes very little space in my house. The downside to keeping the grains is if you get a bug infestation. My episode with weavils has convinced me to quarantine incoming grain in the freezer for a couple of days before placing them in my buckets with gamma seal lids.
Now to go find the Maris Otter bucket. Expecting I'll have a brew day in the morning due to inclement weather. See? Another use for a mill. If the weather doesn't come through for me I can reschedule my brew day without the worry of my grains having already been milled.......
Posted 34 days ago.
>Clearly you are not brewing enough Olan.
Obviously.
Posted 34 days ago.
For me it simply eliminates one of the variables that can cause inconsistency... consistency, even consistently crappy, was my goal last year, along with waking up to be as attractive as say - George Clooney. At least milling my own grain wasn't disappointing. Wife says the jury is still out on the latter.
Posted 34 days ago.
So I'm totally with mchrispen on the consistency thing, I'm a big fan of consistency. I think it is what separates good brewers from great brewers.
That said, I don't think you brew enough to justify a grain mill. Once a month, plus long term storage of grains and taking up the space? I don't think it would be worth it. I'd put the money into the "Olan needs a kegerator" fund and walk away.
Posted 34 days ago.
Agreed, Matt. Add in the fact that again, my LHBS crush is almost always consistent, it's probably not worth it for me.
Posted 34 days ago.
Kegerator will be LONELY brewing once a month.
He needs a mill first so he can brew MORE and justify a kegerator.......
Besides, I'm not so sure I'd want taps available with so many children around. Much harder to quantify lost amounts than bottles.....
Posted 34 days ago.
I use enough variety there that I don't know if it makes sense for me to try to store them all (and, as is, the wife thinks I take up too much space with my brewing stuff).
I've had this discussion with SWMBO also. Then I pointed out that she has an entire room for her piano (I can't even park my guitars there), and her spinning, knitting and weaving crap has taken over the living room and dining area (and storage closet)...
In the end, I've kept it simple. That's one of the reasons I do BIAB (yeah, I have a mash tun but it sits in the garage, abandoned for the most part), nearly everything I have fits in my fermentation fridge or the downstairs sauna. The corona mill is set into a bucket for collection and dust control and stores fairly compactly.
But I hear yah!
Posted 34 days ago.
If you're already OK with consistency, efficiency, etc... it is way down the list after kegging.
Posted 34 days ago.
If it helps sway you, Monster Mill has a 10% off coupon code floating out there right now.
Posted 34 days ago.
> If you're already OK with consistency, efficiency, etc... it is way down the list after kegging.
Agreed.
I bought my mill for a variety of reasons, but the thing that I find I like most about it is that I have that piece of control now. I'm pretty much trying to be able to control every little part of my process, and I kind of look at all the brewing variables as different dials I can turn, so a mill is just one more dial I can turn. The ability to munch on some grain and make up 50 or 100 grain recipes ahead of time and taste them when deciding on a final recipe has greatly impacted my recipe creation.
Being able to buy in bulk is a side benefit really. I really enjoy being able to make up a recipe on a whim, but I despise being out of certain base grains (like I am right now). You'll also be surprised how long uncrushed grain lasts. I've used it well past the year mark that a lot of people quote without ill effect.
Posted 34 days ago.
YOu can buy in bulk but still mill in store. That's exactly what I do.
Posted 34 days ago.
