The malted barley is crushed to a suitable size usually by rollers. The purpose is to break the grain into pieces so that the goodness of these grains may be extracted in the hot water that will be added to make the wort. Use of blenders or other devices that can pulverize the barley into dust is not desired. Overgrinding the malted barley will make future straining of them out of the wort very difficult. An excessive amount of grinded grains introduced into the fermenters can cause an off-flavor in the beer. Picking the location for this process should be considered. The grinding or cracking causes trace amounts of barley dust to enter the air and should be kept away from the fermenters.
The picture below shows a roller used for the cracking of the barley and other ingredients. It houses two rolling pins set close together that are capable of rotating in opposite directions. The ingredient is introduced between the two pins and is immediately rolled or cracked.
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