Preparing the malt is one of those things often overlooked in beer preparation and it can be quite time consuming. On a typical brewday, I fill my brewkettle with water and start heating. This gives me around 40 minutes to get the malt prepared. This may sound like a lot of time, but it goes by quickly! I always have my new brewlog prepared with my new recipe and use this as a checklist. I weigh out each of the malts I want to use and put them in a separate container whose contents will be eventually poured into the mill. Once I've ensured that everything is weighed out and ready, I start to grind. I have a manual crank mill and 11 lbs. of grain can take me 20 minutes to crank out. Once this is done, then I am ready to mash in!
Here are some pictures I took of the process while preparing to make a British style IPA on the 24th of April.
malt preparation
