grain mills, shiny, useful or both?

[wilsoa1111]

Right being knee deep in exam revision, naturally i find myself trawling the web for my hobbies, anyway- im tempted...BUT

im moving out the flat in max two yrs- so portability is an issue also does it make a difference?

heres how i see it:
pros-
save on delivery by buying big bags of base malt with cheap delivery via malt miller
get extra fresh brews (havent noticed a issue and it took me a couple of months to kill my 25kg)
get better extraction ( moot point as with cheap mills can come with astringency or asking rob to crush more...)

cons:
initial expense- alright cheap cereal mills would break even from p&p in 3 brews- cheap £22, corona £50, barley crusher £115!!!
effort to crank or expense for drill
astringency with cheap mill

overall seems v balanced and im stymied- also fyi i average on £75 a order-regardless what i do but would save £7.50 on p&p on every 50kg grain with mill so to break even with barley crusher would take 766kg of grain or about 30 years of sensible usage.... :lol:

so maybe ill not bother... unless anyone reckons they can tell if grain is actually fresh when beer is brewed?

 

[Aleman]

It's not just about cheap(er) grain, or about freshness, it's about the different things you can do with the grain to obtain a better crush.

Like Double milling, one at a wider gap and once at a slightly narrower gap.

Or 'wet' milling

Both give a much better crush, leaving the husks whole and exposing the endosperm.

Another benefit is that you can roast your own grain to get say Pale 'amber' which is used in the DP recipes . . .you can only do this with whole malt, so need to crush it after.

You also have control over the consistency of crush, some suppliers (not Rob or Barley bottom) are very unpredictable with the degree of crush.

 

[zgoda]

Didn't notice any astringency issues with my Czech made cheap mill. That's why wet milling is suggested. Just sprinkle 30 ml of clean water over grains, stir with your hands, wait for some 10 minutes and all is set.