Milling

[ochiburi]

For those who mill their own malt:

What size gap do you use and what impact does it have on the finished beers?

Laurence.

 

[Covrich]

I use a corona I haven't used a determined set size just to stop the plates grinding together and now the grain grinds fine.. from when I started AG this has really boosted my efficiency especially when using or squeezing what I could into a 15liter pot on smaller lenght brews

 

[ochiburi]

Thanks Corvich.

I bought a cheap (?) mill on ebay that shipped from Holland, but I think its a chinese import.

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/6680Home-...t=LH_DefaultDomain_3&var=&hash=item2a546f6e42

Although it is supplied with a handle, the instructions said I could use a drill instead but to use low speeds only. It has stainless rollers, adjustment of one roller from each end, and it came with a "free gift" of a set of feeler guages, the smallest being .02mm !

Just not sure how to set the gap for "normal" use, or even what effect setting it wider or narrower would have aside from a finer grind.

 

[ManseMasher]

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter17-1.html

Have a read of this mate. 0.035" = 0.89mm, 0.042" = 1.1mm, so around 1mm should do it.

 

[Toffee]

I'd be interested in your thoughts about the quality of this mill when you use it. Give us a report!

 

[ochiburi]

http://www.howtobrew.com/section3/chapter17-1.html

Have a read of this mate. 0.035" = 0.89mm, 0.042" = 1.1mm, so around 1mm should do it.

thanks MM will try that.

 

[ochiburi]

I'd be interested in your thoughts about the quality of this mill when you use it. Give us a report!

will do Toffee - watch this space! 25kg uncrushed marris otter is on its way plus a few darker malts in smaller quantities.

 

[rodwha]

There is a technique I was clued in on called conditioning where you use a mister to spray the grains with. I've read that the grains should feel a bit leathery.

What this does it makes the husks more flexible so that they don't break up too fine making for a better filter bed. If you get it too wet it sticks to the rollers. Done right it allows you to set the rollers for a tighter crush better exposing the interior giving a bit higher efficiency.

This also helps when using huskless grains. You won't need as much rice hulls.

 

[Tony1951]

I think the best thing to do is feed a bit of grain through the mill with the plates set on the open side and just adjust tighter until you get the grind you want. When I am setting mine up, the first few hadfuls come through barely crushed at all and I just scoop them up and put them back in the hopper until by gradual adjustment, I am getting grain crushed like the stuff I have bought ready crushed from suppliers. When it is looking like that, I just crush and put it in my bag ready for the mashing. Sometimes, as the hopper empties, it starts to change the crush, probably because the auger in the mill is not pressing the grain hard up against the grinding plates, so I don't let my hopper get anywhere near empty until my ready weighed out pale malt is all used up.

That's how I do mine anyway.

Cheers

 

[rodwha]

What I've read, if you are conditioning your malts and looking for a finer crush, is to use a credit card. I've used an old iTunes gift card, which is thin, but now use a bracket from the Monster Mill (I use a base plate you can get for it instead), which is slightly thicker.

Measuring this I found the iTunes card is .0288 inches or about .732 mm, and the bracket is .036 inches or about .914 mm. I use the hand crank, and the tighter crush can be a real bear!!!

 

[ochiburi]

Thanks guys, good practical advice.

 

[ochiburi]

Well, it seemed to work fine.

Assembly of the unit was easy. I used thread lock on the hopper assembly nuts - didnt want one of them coming loose and damaging the rollers/ruining batch of grain.

I set the gap to 1mm. This was very easy with the feeler guages they supplied for free.

The mdf board that the unit was screwed to was too small for my bucket (fermenting bin) so I put a slat of 2x1 across to support it. I suppose I could fix that to the mdf board, but it wasnt a problem. I could also have used a smaller bucket, but the fermenting bin was a good height to use whilst seated.

Ground through 3.5gk of grain in just a few minutes with manual turning of the handle. Even the tougher gains like torrified wheat went thru easily.

If you saw my other post on the Gales BBB clone brew day you will know I had a stuck sparge, but that was because I ended up double-crushing most of the grains. The Maris Otter that accounted for 3kg of the grain bill had been pre-crushed despite my ordering them whole and I didnt realise till they were all in the hopper with the other grains, so I crushed 'em again anyway and the MO turned to flour. Wont make that mistake again.

Can I recommend the mill? - Yes. It was reasonably cheap and worked fine. I found the milling quite enjoyable. Nice aroma from the grains and fine dusting on my hands, it seemed a very natural process.

 

[DoctorMick]

Out of interest, how log does it take to crush enough grain for a 5g batch, say 5kg? I've often thought about it but it sounds like hard work! :lol:

Edit: ignore this, the post above answers the question! Shouldn't have skim read!

 

[Tony1951]

Out of interest, how log does it take to crush enough grain for a 5g batch, say 5kg? I've often thought about it but it sounds like hard work! :lol:

Edit: ignore this, the post above answers the question! Shouldn't have skim read!

I've had a hand operated flour mill for a few years and have worked my way through a few sacks of hard, high protein wheat, ground fine for bread-making. Opening up the gap for a barley crush and working my way through a few kg of malt was more than easy by comparison.. I mean - you do have to turn the handle, but it is nothing like the work of grinding fine flour for making a loaf. My sister came by one day while I was making a loaf and wanted to get involved with the mill. She's a gym fanatic and she gleefully grabbed the handle and could hardly budge it until she put both hands on it and really got going. It was pretty funny as she got redder in the face and I kept tipping more wheat in.

 

[ochiburi]

Lol, that paints a picture! Yes, not much elbow grease needed for milling the malt, and the handle is pretty long so you get good leverage. Many people use a hand drill to crank it, but given how easy it was I wouldnt bother unless the grain bill was massive.

 

[Toffee]

Can I recommend the mill? - Yes. It was reasonably cheap and worked fine. I found the milling quite enjoyable. Nice aroma from the grains and fine dusting on my hands, it seemed a very natural process.

this is helpful thanks. I have enough crushed grain for 3-4 more brews, so at my usual rate that's around 3 months.....so feel free to report back after you have crushed a couple more to let us know it seems like it will last, before I stump up for one! cheers.