... great time to get a brew going :D Yes, Big Brew is getting struck by a week-long strike starting today. Sure enough I hope the workers will get what they are going for. I know what I'll be getting, this is the fourth run of the lemon + ginger recipe and it's guud:D
I'm sharing this mostly to show my malt grind station ideas: making it operable by power drill (hand crank replaced with just a regular bolt) and having a vacuum cleaner positioned where the output falls so that it picks our the lightest dust. Helps with keeping the room clean as well as hopefully makes the beer a bit clearer. The hoover collects a fair bit of dust every run: I weighed it once and now adjust the amount of malt going into the grind up by 2 % to account for the lost dust: 1000 g -> 1020 g.
The Simpsons Maris Otter Pale Ale & caramel malts and the Viking Munich Light will be joined by a small amount of smoked wheat. Viking Malt says that this stuff can be used just like regular pilsner malt, being active and all, but it's going to add a very gentle smoke aroma. I'll be using more of it in my next dark Sahti x Stout batch, but I'll try a little bit on this one to get a feel for it.
I had no idea there would be so much dust. I always dump it in with everything else! I assume there's some malty value in it?
You can clean the grain by blowing air through it - starchy and sugary parts are denser, while fiber shells fly. I guess most of dust is just dust. That dust might enhance coagulation and make product cleaner. Might be worth investigating. There is nothing simple there.
Mostly people just dump it in, and I've seen numbers with ideal distributions of particle sizes and those always include a portion of fine dust. This is really just my own experimentation, trying for ways to get a clearer beer without whirlpools or chemicals. Keeping it simple, in other words...