Not too long ago John posted a piece about buying a grain mill or buying a refractometer. Recently while shooting video for the site, we started talking about it again, but this time with the camera on.

Several advantages to having a grain mill arise. First is the ability to buy grain by the sack. Often you can get sack grains a bit cheaper per pound then when you are buying in in only 10-15 pound quantities from your local homebrew shop (LHBS). While you can save a few bucks this way, the downside is that now you have 50 pounds of a particular grain. Not a big deal if you plan ahead and brew say several lagers and Belgian beers at once with a sack of Pilsner malt or if you plan out a flight of English Session beers, Stouts, and Porters with Maris Otter. However, many homebrewers jump around the style chart and getting locked into a 50 pound sack can be a challenge.


The second major advantage is freshness of the crush. While uncrushed sacks of grain will stay pretty well if stored properly, crushed malt does start to stale regardless of most home storage systems. This also includes crushed malt that you have shipped to you from online retailers. Having a mill lets you plan your brew days a little better because you don’t have all the fear of all that crushed malt for your next recipe slowing getting stale.

We also ponder the choice of mills and we balance the pros and cons of buying certain types of equipment rather than building it yourself. We note that time and money being the primary factors.

This hobby can be expensive. We wonder if buying everything you need to be the best homebrewer you can be is the ultimate answer to improve your home brewing skills.

Join in the conversation and leave a comment on the video if you have a preference of mills over refractometers or otherwise.