Yet Another Question About Grain Milling/Crushing

Hey all, I know I have probably missed the answer to this question somewhere but I have been looking for some more information on the "fine crush = astringency" issue.

The best I have found thus far is peoples opinion on the matter that one may cause the other, and yet, I can't find an account of an experiment or practical experience with the issue.

So far what I do pick up is that excess tannins in your wort may be a result of time, temperature and or ph issues. I can't find any mention of fineness of milling (other than opinions).

It does seem plausible that the fineness of the crush exposes more surface area of the hulls to the possibility of tannin extraction.

However, if we control time, temp and ph would this not protect us from tannin extraction from the hulls?

Time: Mashing too long OR tiny parts of hull sneaking through the bag (0.25mm in my case) and ending up in the boil, therefore being exposed for "too" long.
Temperature: Mashing too hot or, once again, tiny bits of hull getting into the boil through the bag.
PH: My water supposedly has a ph of about 8.5 (water report from the council, not a ph test by me). If this wasn't dropped down a bit the calcs say my mash could be around 5.8 and, thus, a bit high.

So I'm proposing if we control the big 3, even with hulls that have been made into flour, we could avoid the problem.

I'm currently waiting for my home malted barley to "mellow" out for a few weeks and I am going to mill it with a blender in short bursts. I'm hoping I can take care of time and temperature and am going to try citric acid for the ph control. I'm Not trying to re-invent the wheel, I guess I just learn by pulling thing apart then putting them back together (not always successfully )

Plus, I know if I am not good enough to pick up the astringency thing unless it was an actual tea bag I was sucking on.

• • SVA Brewer With Over 5 Brews From Australia
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Hi Pat and thanks for the reply. Sorry about all the errors. I wrote it just as I was heading out the door to grab the kids from school.

I probably should have been an engineer. I try to apply black and white thinking to this grey world. As you mentioned, this works in some areas but not in others.

The whole idea of "we should drink 8 glasses of water a day" comes to mind. I am one of those (annoying?) types who doesn't like to be told what I should do without all the juicy details about why I should do it that way. What if I'm young or old, or weigh more or less? And how much is in that glass? And does beer count? Sometimes that can end in a never ending information gathering cycle. I'm in one at the moment making the jump from extracts to BIAB AG

I suppose with stuff like brewing you need to apply the black and white to get your process, your step by step brew day protocol. You just need to accept that that particular recipe and process will be a small part in a sea of grey.

I remember reading something about doing experiments. It was something along the lines of if you want to measure the temperature of a glass of water, as soon as you drop a thermometer into the water you are now measuring the temp of the water with a thermometer in it, not just the temp of the glass of water. I don't know why I wrote that but it seemed to fit the thread Trying to emphasise the grey part of the side of brewing, I guess.

60 minute boils and mashes, 78c mash outs and not 79c, drink with this food and not with that, you can't drink before 4pm. All these arbitrary ideas created over time.

Thanks again for the reply.

• • SVA Brewer With Over 5 Brews From Australia
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