How has a mill changed your life?

[SoCal Surfer]

My barley crusher should arrive tomorrow. I'm just not sure why I bought one. I want to get the most out of my own mill. How has it changed your brew?

[Dave the brew guy]

Well, lessee... I got my Crankandstein for Christmas last year (my wife got the hint) and now I crush my grain while the water heats up so it's as fresh as posible.
Another change would be my activity in my local brewing comminity has increased exponentially. Once I got my mill I needed some grain to go with it so I set up a group purchase with 8 other brewers and split up 24 sacks of malt that we got a great deal on from North Country Malt. Buying in bulk gets my cost for grain down to .50-.65 per lb (including shipping) so you could say that my mill is saving me money with every brew session. It worked out so well that I've used up 2 1/2 sacks since January and I'm in the process of setting up another group purchase. BTW, if any North Jersey brewers want in, just let me know.

[SoCal Surfer]

That sounds like a damn good thing. SO, assuming I bought a bag of 2 row. How long would it store as long as I didn't mill it?

[hotrod38]

That sounds like a damn good thing. SO, assuming I bought a bag of 2 row. How long would it store as long as I didn't mill it?

I store all of my grains in air tight container and in a dry, cool place. Un crushed grains will keep for more than a year if properly stored.

[DannyW]

I've kept grain in my warm, humid closet for 18months and had no problem. at 18mo-2 years I started seeing stale grain.

[LBrewski]

For me it's a "nice-to-have" because I only brew about once a month. I have a Barley Crusher, have used it a few times but most of the time I buy grain as needed from my local HBS and it's in the bin already crushed. I'll buy and store more grain at some point, but now I'm too busy and crushing adds a step I don't need to make my brew day longer.

[DannyW]

They keep precrushed grain in a bin? You might want to be careful when you scoop it out - the husks will all tend to rise to the top and the flour to the bottom.

[LBrewski]

They keep precrushed grain in a bin? You might want to be careful when you scoop it out - the husks will all tend to rise to the top and the flour to the bottom.

Actually, the grain they sell is all in sealed plastic bags. 1, 2, 3 or 5 lbs for base malt, 1 lb for specialty grain. I think they do a pretty good job of keeping it cycled and fresh. I am able to get very good efficiency from it, so I don't feel like milling it myself is really needed other than to have it fresh on brew day.

I have asked for un-crushed base grain and this works out when they are not too busy - selling kegs of commercial beer is a large part of their business.