Conditioning malt before milling

[johnrm]

I came across this technique in the past while and decided to give it a go.
Essentially you wet your malt before running out through your mill.
Why? To keep husks intact and provide a better grain bed, reducing the risk of a stuck sparge.
2% Water by weight sprayed on the uncrushed malt, then wait 20-30 mins. (i.e. 5kg grist - 100ml water)
The resulting crush will contain fuller hulls.
Quite possibly there is no need for oat hulls or the like if you do this, and far less risk of a stuck sparge.

[Tom]

No stuck sparge, just a stuck roller mill!

I'd heard about this but I buy crushed, so not an option for me. Would it work as well with wheat and rye, John, the traditional stickers?

[armedcor]

I will be doing this tomorrow for the first time. Will report back as well.

[dcalnan]

I saw somewhere someone suggesting to use a spray bottle for applying the water, better distribution was the reasoning

[johnrm]

http://beersmith.com/blog/2010/07/11/conditioned-and-wet-grain-milling-for-beer/

[johnrm]

http://byo.com/hops/item/1987-conditioned-milling

[Damo]

Sounds interesting, would one of these work

http://www.powercity.ie/?par=60-52-14453

[armedcor]

No need to steam it. All the the articles suggest adding 2% water by weight to the grain. So if my calculations are right for a 3kg for example grain bill you would use 60ml of water. Just put it in a spray bottle and evenly coat the grain. There's a lot of good videos on the subject.

[mcgrath]

Did it reduce the dust?

[Sorcerers Apprentice]

Our old rule of thumb was to take a handful of malt at the sample point after the conditioner and squeeze it in your hand, then open your hand as though to shake hands with someone. If some grains stick to your hand then it's conditioned enough, if none stick it's too dry and if it forms a ball it's too wet. In reality it should be just slightly damp, but not really noticeably damp if that makes sense. Make sure to clean your mill well afterwards as any damp grist left behind could harbour moulds which could infect your next brew.

[armedcor]

Just finished up my brew day today. I conditioned for the first time. Sprayed my malt with 2% by weight with water which ended up being about 99ml.

Ended up with a much fuller mash tun than normal. Tbh i wasn't sure if I'd even crushed the grain when I looked at it first but everything was cracked it just left the hulls much more intact than usual. Sparging was a breeze also, the liquor just flowed through. I used a pretty tight crush as well about 0.035

[Simon_]

Just finished up my brew day today. I conditioned for the first time. Sprayed my malt with 2% by weight with water which ended up being about 99ml.

Ended up with a much fuller mash tun than normal. Tbh i wasn't sure if I'd even crushed the grain when I looked at it first but everything was cracked it just left the hulls much more intact than usual. Sparging was a breeze also, the liquor just flowed through. I used a pretty tight crush as well about 0.035

Any improvement in efficiency?

[armedcor]

My efficency out of the mash tun was about 80% that's with constant recirculation no sparge. My last brew was about 75%

[johnrm]

Good stuff, that's a pretty good return for adding 1 extra step.

[armedcor]

Yep I'm pretty happy with it! Will definitely continue doing it.