How are you crushing botanicals?

[StonesRyan]

Looking for suggestions on how others are crushing botanicals? I'm looking to crush or crack rather than grind them. I used a mortar and pestle with my R&D still but that's obviously not efficient for a scaled batch.

Any ideas would be much appreciated.

[Lenny]

I tried using both a two roller and three roller home-brew sized grain mill with the gap set high. Most everything crushed really well except the juniper. The juniper goo covered the knurling on the rollers and eventually stopped anything from being pulled through.

I've found a corona mill with drill attachment to work a lot better.

[StonesRyan]

Awesome, thank you!

[JustAndy]

We've made thousands and thousands of cases of gin, and all of the botanicals were crushed by putting them in a mesh sack and hitting them with a 2x4...

[Brothers Vilgalys Spirits]

We also use a Corona Mill (also just learned that's what those are called). I don't need our stuff super-finely ground so we've removed the outer plate, and use a drill to power it.

Before that I had a metal tortilla press, but this works a lot better.

[StonesRyan]

Thanks! Just ordered a Corona mill.

[Micah Nutt]

We use our botanicals "as is" in our maceration; no crushing or grinding.

[StonesRyan]

Thanks, Micah. I'm doing a vapor infusion and my first run with whole, dry botanicals didn't seem to extract enough of the oils so I'm going to try crushing them to see if that makes a noticeable difference.

[KRS]

I'm a little confused about crushing juniper. I was under the impression that it became bitter when it is crushed.

A question: is maceration for 24 hours necessary/reasonable before using vapor infusion?

[tl5612]

no crushing or anything like that here.

same as copperworks.

we macerate as they are (although some botanicals come from our supplier ground/kibbled - like orris root / bitter almond / angelica root).

do whatever floats your boat.

[whiskeytango]

Needle nose pliers. One berry at a time.. lol

[KRS]

Thanks, tl5612. I decided to macerate everything in a little NGS for 24 hrs, and have one sample of crushed juniper if I can get the 2x4 method to work for me. whiskeytango...hmmm.

[Micah Nutt]

We macerate in 50% abv liquor at room temperature for 24 hours. abv ranges I've heard of are from 40-55; durations from 15 hours to several days; and some at warmer temperatures.

[tl5612]

Yep, we do 55%abv - overnight, 15 hours or so.

I know many macerate at 60%abv.

We macerate at room temperature. Which can vary A LOT, given we have no heating / poor insulation - in summer v winter. This is a real headache and adjustments have to be made to compensate