Frequently Asked Questions
If the list below doesn’t answer your question, please drop us a line and get in touch.
Products
This is one of those ask a dozen brewers and get a dozen different answers.
Ordering malt from us ensures that you get the freshest malt possible, as we only crush it when it is ordered. By storing the malt whole it ensures that the moisture levels are maintained, once crushed it will slowly dry out and loose that freshness. However there are many breweries that will have crushed malt for themselves and have it sitting there for months. There are also a number of articles online about this subject that you might wish to google and then make your own choice on what you think will work for you and weigh up what is more important between having the best freshest ingredients to having stock on hand to brew with. Personally we always use malt within a week of having it milled, but many others will go longer than this.
Out time and temp is performing a mash out, it's an optional step in the mash if you have the ability to adjust mash temperatures by raising the temperature of the mash to a about 75 and holding it there for about 10 minutes. It just denatures the enzymes meaning it stops the conversion of starches to fermentable sugars thus creating an end poit for the mash, which aids in repeatability.
It's only really doable if you have an all in one system or 3 vessel system with HERMS or RIMS. If you do BIAB or you just have a basic mash tun without recirculated temperature control then just skip it and move on to the sparge or boil depending on how you usually brew.
If you wish to know when an item will be back in stock we have a great feature on our site called Wait List. All you need to do is be signed into our website then visit the product page of the item you are interested in buying.
Then simply click to be added to the Wait List, when the Product t is back in stock the website will send you an email to let you know. This is also good to way to let us know that someone is wanting a product and gives us a prompt to chase the supplier of the item too.
The specs for the O Rings all 70ShA material is NBR (Nitrile)
Tap connector – 6.0 mm ID / 2.2 mm CS
Main body to tap connector – 4.5 mm ID / 2.0 mm CS
PRV poppet – 3.0 mm ID / 2.5 mm CS
Unfortunately, we don't offer any gluten-free grain, as it's simply not viable.
We mill malt to order, the mill room is dusty, to an extent that dust permeates through to the rest of the warehouse and a certain amount of dust/flour carries over within the mill, which is why when we do a milling run we mill by colour so that we are not milling a light malt directly after a dark malt.
As such cross contamination would be impossible to avoid, the only way we would be able to state that a grain is gluten-free would be to process it in a separate building with a dedicated mill, and we simply don't have the facilities to do that.
However, there are enzymes such as NBS Clarity which while its primary purpose is to improve the clarity of a beer (primarily chill haze) also has the effect of reducing the gluten to below the 20ppm required to state that it is gluten-free. This is dosed at the time of pitching the yeast, and as one of our directors is intolerant to gluten, we use it regularly here at TMM HQ.
We are changing our method of packing hops. Previously we have nitrogen flushed them, then sucked all the nitrogen out and vacuum sealed them, but we are now moving to pillow packing where instead of sucking out the nitrogen we are leaving it in. This makes it easier to pack them, protects the hops better and reduces the chances that anything a bit pointy will cause a pinprick and suck in air.
We are phasing in the new packaging, so if the hops your hops have a brown logo and say Nitrogen Flushed - Vacuum Packed on the reverse they are the original packaging so should be vacuum sealed, Whereas the pillow packed hops have a black logo and on the reverse they say Nitrogen Flushed Packaging, they also have a QR code which, when you scan it, takes you to an page which gives you various information about the hops including the batch code, harvest year and alpha acid levels.
Adapters shouldn't exist for that, CO2 cylinders and Mixed Gas cylinders work at different pressures.
Mixed gas works at significantly higher pressure so attaching a CO2 regulator would at very least damage it and could also be very dangerous, which is why they have different threads.
I.e. the different threads ensure you are connecting the correct regulator for your cylinder.
You will need a dedicated regulator for mixed gas.
If you are buying individual malts, then these will always be bagged separately. Recipe kits are handled differently - if the recipe kit is requested 'uncrushed', then each malt in the recipe will come in its own individual bag. If you are purchasing a pre-crushed recipe kit, then the malts will be combined. As the malts are already crushed, you can simply add everything to the mash at once, from the same bag.
Customer orders which come via our Recipe Generator are handled in the same way as the main recipe kits. The malts for 'uncrushed' recipes will be bagged separately, while malts for 'crushed' recipes will be combined. If you're creating a 'crushed' recipe via our Recipe Generator and require some specific malts not to be crushed, please exclude these from your recipe kit and purchase these malts separately via the main site by selecting the quantity as 'uncrushed'.
By far and away the best tap to add to the G40 is the official Grainfather G70/G40 Ball Valve Tap
We do not have a set size of crush, it is not possible to give a set millimetre measurement that covers all of the malts due to it being a natural product that changes from maltster and seasonally. The crush completely depends on the malt, the size of the grain etc.. Theres alot more to it than just the size of the gap between the rollers. To then check the crush the malt is then assessed on test seizes which measure the separation to ensure that we have correctly crushed the malt. We have video that explains this in more detail here
Our standard crush is what we use on our brew tools, grainfather, and 3 vessel systems. We also offer a fine crush and this is for BIAB.
All of our malt is delivered to us uncrushed, this ensures that the malt stays fresher for longer and retains its moisture content. We only crush the malt when you order it. We offer the option to choose fine crush which is suited to Brew In A Bag brewing (we wouldn't recommend using this on an all in one system), or we have crushed which is what we recommend and use ourselves on 3 vessel systems and all in one system such as the Grainfather. We can also supply malt uncrushed for those who have invested in their own mill at home.
We don't include water measurements with any of our recipes as water calculations are not a general thing that one set of rules will suit everyone. It varys totally depending on your equipment and method. You'll also find you don't get water measurements in any decent home brew book also just because of this reason, and its something that you will have to work out according to your brewing equipment and ability. Please check out our blog post which explains this in more detail along with a video.
You can find many online tools/calculators or software to help you work these out like this one https://www.themaltmiller.co.uk/sparge-water-calculator/
You can order malt in packs of 100g and then increases of 50g or in bulk 25kg sacks. By using our Recipe Generator you can actually order by the gram and have all the malts combined into a kit.
Afraid not, if you order 2000g and then increase this by 2000g it will be packed as a 4000g bag due to how our website calculates and produces the label for your bag of malt, this is the help minimise packing materials and assist our millers.
We do not reserve any items that are out of stock unless it is a specified Pre Order item. Pre order items will always have "Pre Order" in the title of the product.
We source yeast from laboratories all over the world, we always try to make sure we have the widest selection of strains available and many of these are special one off releases. Yeasts are ordered on a regular basis to make sure we have the freshest stocks available. When we receive these they are sorted in our bank of yeast fridges to ensure they are in the best condition possible.
Please also consider which day you place an order for liquid yeast, if you place an order Thursday after 12noon that is dispatched on a Friday, so then it will sit in the courier network over a weekend, our warehouse team will not hold an order without instructions to do so.
Yes, all off our liquid yeast now ships with an ice pack included. We felt that with the quality and width of range of liquid yeast that we stock that we should also follow best practise and ship them in the best manner possible. This does however mean that you can't choose Royal Mail shipping for liquid yeast, only the courier option.
Please also consider which day you place an order for liquid yeast, if you place an order Thursday after 12noon that is dispatched on a Friday, so then it will sit in the courier network over a weekend, our warehouse team will not hold an order without instructions to do so.
Wet yeast should always be stored in a fridge as cold as possible without freezing it, so ideally 4c. Dried yeast its best to check the packet for details, most can be room temperature but storing them in a fridge will also help to protect and prolong life of the product.
We stock a huge range of liquid yeast, each from different suppliers who give different length of shelf life on their products from 3 months to 6 months, some will date the product with manufacturing date, some with Best Before, and then you have the added difference in the way America write dates as Month/Day/Year. In all cases we try our best to ensure that each product listed on our website has the BB (best before) date in the product title so you know when they recommend the yeast is used by, we're not perfect and sometimes it can be hard to keep all of these dates totally updated so if cell count or date is vital to you then please drop us an email before you order and we're more than happy to confirm the dates before you place an order.
Your order
Hops are a natural product and the Alpha Acid levels will vary from batch to batch, sometimes quite considerably. While we do our utmost to keep the website accurate, sometimes batches will change between you placing your order and us picking it. If you need to guarantee the exact alpha acid figure you will receive please contact us before placing your order and we confirm the alpha figures and make arrangements to set aside the appropriate quantities ready for your order.
When you place an order our website will automatically send a VAT receipt to you. However if you misplace this or need another copy you can log into your account and you'll find a record of all of your orders placed, here you can access a PDF VAT invoice/receipt.
If you weren't logged into your account when you placed the order you can still recover the order/receipt by logging into your account and visiting the 'Guest Order Repatriation' page in your account settings. Then by adding the order number this will then be assigned to your account and you will be able to access the receipt.
Yes, you can definitely buy hops from us but there are some restrictions. You must be purchasing as a private individual, not a business, and you must restrict the total volume you order to below 1kg of hops or 300g of hop extracts such as Flex, Spectrum, Incognito etc.
EC Regulation 1295/2008 states hops and hop products imported into to the EU need to be accompanied by an Attestation of Equivalence (AoE) issued by an authorised agency by the third country of origin. However, there are certain exemptions to these regulations.
Article 10 of EC Regulation 1295/2008 states:
By way of derogation from this Regulation, neither the production of the attestation referred to in Article 1(2) nor compliance with the provisions of Article 5 shall be required for the release for free circulation of the following hops and hop products where the weight of the individual package does not exceed 1kg in the case of hop cones and hop powder and 300g in the case of hop extracts:
a. small packages for sale to private individuals for their own use;
b. for scientific and technical experiments;
c. for fairs covered by the special customs arrangements for fairs.
As a re-packager of hops, we are not be able to supply an Attestation of Equivalence, so please ensure when ordering that your order complies with the exemptions laid out within Article 10.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/GA/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32008R1295
Generally the reason for this is that you are entering the code into the coupon, below the items in the basket, rather than as a gift card, at the top of the page.
Gift cards are different from coupons in that they can be spread over several orders. If that doesn't solve the issue for you please get in touch with us via the contact us page.
To receive communications from us about your orders, special offers, and our regular newsletters you can edit your settings in your account dashboard under edit your password and account details.
In this section you can check to see if you want to Receive Order Updates along with the other communications you might find useful.
If you go to 'My Account' on the website, click on 'Orders' and you can then request to have your order cancelled. This will take it out of the days picking schedule.
If you contact us with your order number then the team will try to see if this can be reinstated for you.
A bagging fee is applied to malt when ordering under 1000g, or when ordering a sack be split into 5 x 5000g bags. For more information about the bagging fee see here.
Discounts
Firstly you need to be logged into an account, its free to register for one if you don't already have one.
Then you'll see a coupon box below the items in your basket
The promotional codes which are provided for signing up to our mailing list or as a new customer, etc. have some restrictions.
Gift vouchers, Beer, already discounted items, canning equipment, and products within the Grainfather, Brewtools and SS Brewtech ranges are excluded from the discounts.
We don't operate with hidden discount codes for people that we send in emails, we always have our best prices and any offers or codes on our website so that everyone can benefit.
Delivery
Orders are processed twice a day Monday to Friday. The first batch is processed at 7am, the second batch at 12 noon, this is to ensure that we have time to build and make your bespoke order and have everything ready for the final courier collection at 3pm.
If you place an order on Tuesday evening that order is processed at 7am on Wednesday, and will leave us that day, usually on the lunch time collection. If you place an order at 11.15am on Wednesday then that order is processed at 12 noon, and will leave us on the Wednesday with the 3pm collection. If you place an order at 12.05pm that order will be processed the following working day at 7am.
If you place an order on Thursday evening that order is processed at 7am on Friday, and will leave us that day and arrive the next working day which is Monday. If you are ordering liquid yeast or other temperature sensitive items you should keep this in mind that the order will sit in the courier network over the weekend, we will not hold orders without instruction to do so.
If you choose to use Royal Mail delivery these orders are processed every day along with our other orders. Then at the 3pm they head off to the sorting office.
However Royal Mail delivery does not offer any tracking or guarantee on delivery times. From our experience delivery time can vary from 2 working days to 10 working days.
We would not recommend that you choose Royal Mail shipping option for any items which are time or temperature critical. If you have not received your Royal Mail delivery after 10 working days then please get in contact with us.
The Collection option is for customers who wish to place an order and collect from our location, it is not to any Collection points or Stores near to your location. If you select collection then you can come and collect from the following address:
The Malt Miller
Unit A2 Faraday Road
Swindon
SN3 5HQ
UK
When you have placed an order for collection we will contact you to inform you when your order is ready for collection and arrange a date and time for you to collect it. At this time we are not open for visitors, so to minimise contact collections will be left outside of the warehouse at the date/time agreed.
Yes, you can definitely buy hops from us but there are some restrictions. You must be purchasing as a private individual, not a business, and you must restrict the total volume you order to below 1kg of hops or 300g of hop extracts such as Flex, Spectrum, Incognito etc.
EC Regulation 1295/2008 states hops and hop products imported into to the EU need to be accompanied by an Attestation of Equivalence (AoE) issued by an authorised agency by the third country of origin. However, there are certain exemptions to these regulations.
Article 10 of EC Regulation 1295/2008 states:
By way of derogation from this Regulation, neither the production of the attestation referred to in Article 1(2) nor compliance with the provisions of Article 5 shall be required for the release for free circulation of the following hops and hop products where the weight of the individual package does not exceed 1kg in the case of hop cones and hop powder and 300g in the case of hop extracts:
a. small packages for sale to private individuals for their own use;
b. for scientific and technical experiments;
c. for fairs covered by the special customs arrangements for fairs.
As a re-packager of hops, we are not be able to supply an Attestation of Equivalence, so please ensure when ordering that your order complies with the exemptions laid out within Article 10.
https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/GA/TXT/?uri=CELEX:32008R1295
Whilst courier shipping time is stated this is a guide and may be extended due delays clearing customs. This has always been the case with countries which are outside of the EU but now we are no longer within a customs union with EU countries customs delays are inevitably going to happen to EU countries, from time to time.
We provide an electronic customs declaration with every order we ship; this will minimise the number of the questions customs need ask in order to clear the import of the shipment. However, a proportion of all orders will be subject to checks that the declaration is truthful, and in some cases, they will physically inspect the contents of the shipment.
The courier will collect information on behalf customs but sometimes answers to questions can lead to additional questions being asked. Your government regards the recipient of the goods as the importer and sees it as your responsibility to ensure that all goods coming in comply with regulations and are not prohibited. As such whenever the customs department requires additional information, they will contact you in the first instance. We will always do our best to assist with answering those questions, if you need us to, but please do ensure you have read up on the restrictions surrounding ordering hops, (above) before you place your order.
It is also important to pay any VAT, import duty and DHL's handling charge promptly, as delivery will not be made until those are paid.
There are a few different ways to find out the status of your order with us. Our team aim to have all orders picked, packed, then shipped within 48 hours of receiving the order, this is for all orders regardless of the shipping option chosen. So in first 24 hours you can find information on our site to see if we have started work on your order.
For those customers who place an order and have an account with us you can go to your account page and view the status of your order here. If you don't have an account then you can create one and then repatriate the order to your account as long as you use the same email address as the order was placed with.
Then depending on the shipping method you chose the timing of delivery will vary and the ability to track the delivery, more information can be found on our delivery page.
There are some extra busy times of the year where unfortunately courier times can and do increase due to increase in demand i.e. Black Friday, Christmas build up, after Bank Holidays, the latest information is always on the chosen delivery company website for each area or on their specific app.
For those choosing Royal Mail - If you have not received your order after 14 days (21 days during strike action) please use the contact form to let us know
For those choosing EVRI - please download the EVRI app to get the latest position of your parcel and learn about any possibly delays
For those choosing DPD/DHL - please download the relevant DHL/DPD courier app to get the latest information regarding your parcel and to learn about delays in the system
For orders over £65.00 we offer free EVRi shipping, this is for orders that are under 14.5kg. However customers choosing to order the following items will not be able to choose EVRi shipping: All Liquid Yeast, products over £100 in price.
For customers who want next day delivery or to order the above exempt items, we have applied the same value of Free EVRi shipping to our next day DHL delivery Service making it available for half price for orders over £65.00
For orders over £100 we offer free DHL next day delivery.
Full details of zones and areas included can be found on our delivery page
While our website is only set up for shipping to the UK, Channel Islands and Europe, we regularly ship to countries outside of Europe. Mostly to the USA, Australia and Japan, but we will consider each potential order individually.
If you are outside of Europe and wish to place an order, please let us know a shipping address, a telephone number and a list of exactly what you would like to buy. We will then consider if we are happy to ship those items to your destination and if so, obtain and provide you with a shipping quote. If you then wish to proceed, we will send a payment request and upon payment we will ship your order.
While we are comfortable with our knowledge of what can be imported into European countries, we do not have the same depth of knowledge in other parts of the world, so please look into whether there are regulations which may prohibit the import of goods into your country or whether additional documentation will be needed. If any additional documentation would be required, please check with us that it is something we can provide, before ordering. Please note, importing goods into your country is done at your own risk, we can not be held liable for any costs or losses resulting from customs refusing to allow good into your country.
UK VAT will not be charged on your order but any import duty, taxes or courier handling fees etc. which may be payable locally is your responsibility, please ensure you are familiar with any such costs prior to ordering.
Unfortunately, as much as we would love to continue to supply ingredients to our customers in Spain, since leaving the EU customs union Spanish customs have interpreted regulations differently from other member states and reject the import of all brewing ingredients, classing them as food.
This does not affect orders for equipment, it simply relates to Grain, hops, sugars and yeast.
As such we have put some measures in place to restrict the ability of customers in Spain from searching for ingredients on our website. Please note that this is not necessarily 100% effective; IP addresses do not necessarily accurately locate themselves to the country of origin and where customers may follow links from internet searches, or previous orders, the site may physically allow you to place an order.
Regrettably, the fact that Customs will not allow the import of these goods means that we can not fulfil any orders, to be delivered to Spain, which contain brewing ingredients. If you are successfully able to place an order containing ingredients, that order will be cancelled and refunded.
Problem solving
New stainless steel equipment may have residual manufacturing oils, the best cleaner to remove these is Trisodium Phosphate but dish soap is a reasonable 2nd choice if you have none available.
Passivating stainless steel builds up the Chromium Oxide layer which prevents rusting to so that you can wash the metal with a 10ml/L solution of Chemsan or a 50g/L solution of Citric Acid crystals.
If you have not registered with us before the website will ask you for a user name and your email address. However if either of these either of these has been used before it will report back 'email address in use' even if it is the user name that is not available, so please try using a different user name if you know that your email address hasn't been used to create an account on our website.
If you have forgotten your password for your account you can do a password reset request on the site, the website will then send an email to you with a link to reset the password. If this doesn't arrive in your main mail box please check the junk folder for your email provider. the email will come from [email protected] so you might also be able to check by searching by sender and adding our address to your safe senders list.
To receive communications from us about your orders, special offers, and our regular newsletters you can edit your settings in your account dashboard under edit your password and account details.
In this section you can check to see if you want to Receive Order Updates along with the other communications you might find useful.
There are a number of things that can lead to a stuck fermentation and sometimes its hard to narrow it down to which it was that has caused it to happen. It can be anything to do with the pitching temp, mashing process not providing balanced long and short sugars, grain crush not correct for brewing system, lack of nutrients in wort, lack of oxygen in wort, just to name a few things. At the end of the day the yeast is a living organism that relies totally on the right conditions and it needs food, oxygen, and the right temperature to do its job, and anything out of balance can result in a stuck fermentation where the yeast slows down or gets lazy as it runs out of one of these things.
If you are miles away from your FG then its still too high for bottling in my opinion as you would run the risk of having further fermentation in the bottle and having bottles explode.
You can try and number of things to rouse the existing yeast such as adding sugar and oxygen to the wort, or you can try raising the temperature slightly to wake it. Or the final step is to try pitching additional yeast, and in that case I would choose something like Nottingham or US-05 as part of a yeast starter depending on the beer style, and if that doesn't work then I would consider maybe some Belle Saison but keep the temp at around 18c with this yeast.
It's a big subject area and there is lots of information out there that is worth reading up on as it isn’t usually the fault of the yeast but down to process, check out this blog post.
Yes, it's fine to use.
Trace levels of fermentable carbohydrates or CO2 in yeast slurries at the time of packaging can cause a slight expansion in packs. “Off gassing” is a result of a small amount of metabolism or simply CO2 being released from the media and can occur even during proper storage. This does not indicate the mishandling of the yeast or a decline in the health or purity of the culture. Some strains of yeast are more prone to “off gassing” than others.
What if you don't wish to use the yeast immediately?
If you have activated a package but can’t use it right away, simply allow the package to swell and then refrigerate the package. The yeast will survive for extended periods if refrigerated. Before using, take the package out of the refrigerator and allow it to come up to room temperature before using. It is best to use the yeast as soon as possible.
24 hours is not a very long time in yeast production, some strains can take anything up to 36 hours to get going. Its also worth noting that bubbles from the airlock is not a reliable method to way to judge if fermentation has started as there could always be a leak somewhere for Co2 to escape. If you take a gravity reading after 36 hours and measure with a hydrometer this will show you if fermentation has started when you compare this to your Original Gravity reading. Check out our Yeast video for more great advice on having a good ferment.
In instances where fermentation fails to start the most common causes of this are temperature not being either too low or pitching too high which can cause damage to the yeast, no oxygenation prior to pitching, not enough yeast was pitched for the size of batch or gravity, or the yeast was very unhealthy. If the temperature was too low then slowly raise this up to the recommended temperature. If the wort was too hot then you will need to repitch yeast straight away. If you didn’t oxygenate enough sometimes you can get away with agitating or oxygenating the wort after. We would also always recommend adding nutrients during the boil, as the yeast is a living organism and simply needs to have food (sugars) and nutrients, oxygen and the right temperature to multiple and ferment your wort.
Please check out our video about stalled ferments and how to ensure you use yeast correctly here and our video about yeast too
Visiting The Malt Miller
To ensure that we supply you with the freshest product all malt arrives at The Malt Miller uncrushed, we only crush malt when it has been ordered by you on our website. If you wish to purchase crushed malt then it needs to be pre-order through our website before coming to visit, as it is not possible to crush malt for anyone that just calls in unfortunately as our millers work through the days orders by EBC order so light to dark to prevent cross contamination of malts.
We're not exactly a shop, we're a warehouse unit where we process, pack and send orders, and we also have a brew school.
There is someone here Monday-Friday 9-5 and if there is something specific you want to view please get in touch before hand and we will be more than happy to arrange a time for you to visit and talk to you about specific products. If you're wanting to purchase ingredients or recipe kits these have to be ordered in advance on the website as they're all made and packed totally to order they are not available to just take off a shelf, this is so they're as fresh as can be.
Just as the malt all of our all grain and mini mash Recipe Kits are made to order, this ensures that they're not just sitting on a shelf loosing freshness and that all of the components are stored in the correct environment, so yeast and hops are cool stored in fridges, malts stored whole in our malt room. If you wish to purchase an all grain Recipe Kit these need to be pre-ordered on our website and you can then choose to collect it from us. Our team will then call you to let you know once it is ready for collection from our warehouse.
Contacting us
If you have not registered with us before the website will ask you for a user name and your email address. However if either of these either of these has been used before it will report back 'email address in use' even if it is the user name that is not available, so please try using a different user name if you know that your email address hasn't been used to create an account on our website.
If you have forgotten your password for your account you can do a password reset request on the site, the website will then send an email to you with a link to reset the password. If this doesn't arrive in your main mail box please check the junk folder for your email provider. the email will come from [email protected] so you might also be able to check by searching by sender and adding our address to your safe senders list.
To receive communications from us about your orders, special offers, and our regular newsletters you can edit your settings in your account dashboard under edit your password and account details.
In this section you can check to see if you want to Receive Order Updates along with the other communications you might find useful.
Did you send a new email to [email protected] or use our contact form on the website?
If you replied to the automatically generated emails from the [email protected] these do not get through to our customer service team so we would always say to use our contact us form on the website.
