Crushed Grains

Benefits of Buying Milled Homebrewing Grains

Whether whole or milled, grains are one of the essential ingredients in making beer. They provide starch or sugar that is used by yeasts and converted into alcohol. When purchasing your grains, you do have options, intact whole grains or milled grains.

Milled grains are required for the mashing and lautering process. Crushing the grains breaks them apart, resulting in a ground meal called grist. Milling the brewing grains (leaving their husks intact) allows for separation during the lautering process.

Never underestimate the benefit of well-crushed grains. If your milled homebrewing grains are too coarse, then you will have a weak-tasting beer. On the other hand, if you crush them into a flour-like texture, they will be too fine and get stuck during the sparging process. Moreover, the presence of finely milled grains can create a hazy or cloudy-looking beer.

An efficiently crushed grain does not produce flour powder; it just separates the kernel from the husk. The endosperm should be broken but not separated from the shell; this allows for better flow through the grain bed. In addition, proper milling leads to better conversion of starch to sugar and encourages the necessary enzymatic reactions.

You can mill your homebrewing grains by using a mortar and pestle or using a grain mill, which we have available on our website. However, milling and crushing your grains requires some precision and can be time-consuming. So....if you are still new to all-grain brewing, your best option may be to purchase freshly milled grains.