Grain crushing cost benefit?

[Cliff]

Yah It seems cool to get the thing really it does three rollers big assed motor that doesn't come with it yadda yadda. Seems cool and I have certainly read a lot about how I'll save buko bucks crushing my own grains.


Just working with one of my fav' grains: Marris Otter

The delta in cost between buying 10 pounds lots of grain already crushed, from a supplier like Midwest and the lowest cost bulk I can find (North Country's 2010 catalog) is $0.62

I'd save $0.62 a pound if I bought bulk

Then I'd have to buy the grain crusher at an average cost of $200


Marris otter from MidWest is 55 pound @ $59.95 So I ain't using that in my calculation

But the real comparison is between Bulk and small lots
Marris Otter ------------- 10 # bag ---------- $14.00 ----------- $1.40 per pound
North Country ---------- 55 # bag ----------- $42.96 ----------- $0.78 per pound
--------------------------------------------------------------DELTA $0.62 per pound

$0.62 price per pound delta between North Country Bulk and Midwest 10 pound bag already crushed.

So comparing the small lot of pre-crushed 10 pounds from Midwest to the North Country Bulk price:

One 12 gallon session will take about 20 pounds of grain 20*$0.62 = $12.4
$200 /$12.4 = 16.12

I’ll have to brew 16 twelve gallon batches to get the crusher to make financial sense.

After that it’s a pay day. Or is it?

I still have to:
1) store the grains;
2) get all the crushing paraphernalia on brew day the motor the crusher the hopper the buckets;
3) Crush ‘em;
4) clean the mess of all the dust floating around
5) then take it all down and store all the paraphernalia away when I'm done.
Just thinking about it seems like a lot of exercise.

On the flip side a fifty pound sack of Marris Otter already crushed is $45.71 That is only $0.83 per pound That’s a $0.08 price delta per pound between North Country’s Bulk un-crushed and crushed. EIGHT PENNIES~!!
Now I gotta brew 125 twelve gallon batches to get the crusher to pay for itself.

Somebody please tell me why I wanted a Grain Crusher ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

[Weenie Boy]

Uh, because it is a neat toy!



Weenie Boy

[Cliff]

Uh, because it is a neat toy!:
lol:
Weenie Boy

That's gotta be it.
I've had the dialog about efficiency with myself and found that I really don't much care. Efficiency is for commercial houses who will kill to save a nickel or home brewers whose mash tun is too small or are too cheap to buy a few more pounds of grain.

Of course that leaves out that class of person who seeks efficiency for the purely spiritual and esoteric reasons having to do with the highest achievements of brewing science.
That ain't me, I can tell ya that.
I'm all about the end product.

[ninetoedbrewing]

+1 on the neat toy aspect. I don't expect it to pay for itself, but I motorized the sucker and made a nice cabinet in which to store my cleaners, etc. Really functional and it made the wife happy because it eliminated a bunch of clutter.

[Cliff]

+1 on the neat toy aspect. I don't expect it to pay for itself, but I motorized the sucker and made a nice cabinet in which to store my cleaners, etc. Really functional and it made the wife happy because it eliminated a bunch of clutter.

Well there is the: "excuse to build more furniture" aspect I totally missed.
Can't argue with a reason to do more woodworking.

[linuxelf]

It takes me a few months to work through a 55lb bag of grain, and it'd seem to me that freshly crushed grain would make better beer than grain that's been crushed a few months ago. That could be totally wrong, but it sounds right to me.

The way I do it, I just put a drill on my barley crusher, crush the grain, then clean up the dust with a can of compressed air. Just takes a couple of blasts to get it all off the mill. It may add an extra 15-20 minutes to my brew day (including weighing the grain out), but I think it's worth it.

[siwelwerd]

Then I'd have to buy the grain crusher at an average cost of $200

You're paying way too much. Get a barley crusher for more like $125. And like Elf said, you don't want to store crushed grain for very long at all. I think my barley crusher paid for itself after 10 or 12 5 gallon batches.

[krizwit]

Few reasons:
Bulk grain buys with a club - much cheaper
Brew whenever you want(if you have dry yeast)
Consistent crush helps with consistent mash efficiency

If you can store your grain in a air tight container or bag it will stay fresh for a LONG time. I use Ziplock Big Bags. They can hold 40+ #'s of grain. I also use large zip lock bags and 5g buckets with the lids that have seals.