How has a mill changed your life?

[DannyW]

Oh, I don't worry too much about freshness of crushed grain - it seems to hold up pretty well. The separation takes place pretty quickly. If you are using whole bags, then no problem. If you are using partial bags, then you might want to give the bag a good shake to make it more homogenous before you pour out the portion you want for that day.

I suspect the same issue happens with whole hops - you can end up with more lupulin in the bottom of the bag and less at the top.

[SunkenBier]

I love my grain crusher. I stock pile grain so I can brew anything I want on short notice and change recipes without much foreplanning. At the moment I have about 1000 pounds of grain in the garage in air tight containers. I keep at least 100 marris otter and 100 belgium pilsner as my base malts on hand as well as most specialty malts.

[LBrewski]

I love my grain crusher. I stock pile grain so I can brew anything I want on short notice and change recipes without much foreplanning. At the moment I have about 1000 pounds of grain in the garage in air tight containers. I keep at least 100 marris otter and 100 belgium pilsner as my base malts on hand as well as most specialty malts.

Hmmm, and what time does the store open? one of my measly brews woudn't make a dent...

[SoCal Surfer]

That's a whole hell of alot of grain. Some day I might have that in my own garage. Then I need a scale. Does it ever end?

[Lars]

I don't keep quite 1000lbs, but I usually have a hundred lbs or so on hand. Mostly Marris Otter pale, 2-row and some belgian Pils, along with some assorted speciality grains. I figure right now I have enough grains to brew 7-10 (10 gallon) batches depending on gravity.

One of the biggest changes since getting my mill, is being able to adjust my own crush. I batch sparge, so I crush pretty fine.

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.

Sounds like O'Shea's.... the last few times I've been there they haven't had time to talk about or even care about the homebrew stuff.

[SunkenBier]

Yea hes talking about o'sheas. The homebrew portion of their shop seems to be a side attaraction. Their main concentration seems to be on selling comercial beers in the keg and bottle. I sent my wife in there to get a hydrometer, I even had the owner on the phone when she was at the register and I was telling him what I needed. He went and got it for her and low and behold she comes home with a thermometer.

I live not far from O'sheas but I only use them to pick up yeast cultures and co2. I would rather drive an hour to b3 to get all my grains and talk to people who know what their doing.

[Crut]

You Californians are so lucky to have B3 within driving distance. We have two HB shops around here but even they are simple basic, mostly extract based. I had to have them custom order my bulk grains. What i wouldnt give to have a B3 in traverse city, MI

[LBrewski]

Yes, O'Sheas is (unfortunately) more than often times a miss, if you are looking for anything other than just getting what you need.

On the other hand, my last visit there for ingredients was positive though, probably because I caught it on a slow day. The owner (Jeff) is nice and has come across to me as knowledgeable - I can't imagine what happened with the hydrometer incident.

If am able to plan ahead I will sometimes order ingredients from B3 on-line. But since I am only about 2 miles away from O'Sheas the convenience factor is worth a lot to me. Plus everything I have used from there has been fresh and I think base grain prices have actually been lowered lately.