Grain mills.

[rotten]

G'day all.
SWMBO has O.K'd a grain mill so I can buy my grain in bulk. To quote myself 'go figure'. I don't want to pay $500 for one, and are presently making enquiries about the monster at around $200 + postage. While searching the net I found a thread about a converted pasta maker, which I happen to have in the cupboard.
http://kking.wordpress.com/2008/12/14/s ... rain-mill/ I hope that link worked.
Has anyonr tried this or something similar. Would rather have some cash left over for bulk grain then spend it all on a mill.
Cheers

[wrighty]

Seems to me this bloke has to much spare time on his hands Rotten.
9 min to put through one batch must have taken an hour+ too mill the batch.
Think you would end up with forearms like Popeye .
Heard of blokes using a food processor and just pulse it trough .
I imagine it would be hard to keep a constant milling size doing this
Guys on AHB did a bulk buy from USA for a good deal.

[warra48]

I'm one of the lucky ones who got a MillMaster at the pre-release price, about 3 years ago now.
I still hand mill my grain, and it takes me about 5 to 6 minutes to mill 5 kg of grains. Easy to do after I fire up the HLT.
I've been very happy with my mill, and can certainly recommend it. Mine gives me a very consistent crush, and I get excellent extraction efficiency.

The current release of the MillMaster seems to have risen significantly in price, and you may decide it's beyond your means.
The practical alternatives seem to be the Monster Mill or the Crankandstein, both from the USA. With the strength of the current dollar, it's probably a good time to get one from that source. By all accounts, people seem to be happy with theirs.

I know there are brewers who use a pasta mill, the main one seems to be the Marga mill. Apparently, with some minor modifications they work well, but obviously much slower than a dedicated grain mill.

My suggestion is to go for a proper grain mill. It will be an investment which should last you the rest of your life if looked after.

[speedie]

my mill was bought through internet not sure if thet are still available but the name is valleymill think that it was canadian about $200 when purchased

[billybushcook]

I know there are brewers who use a pasta mill, the main one seems to be the Marga mill. Apparently, with some minor modifications they work well, but obviously much slower than a dedicated grain mill.

My suggestion is to go for a proper grain mill. It will be an investment which should last you the rest of your life if looked after.

+ 1 on above

I use a modified Marga, it was/is a cheap way to start but is very slow, hands on & does not give as good a crack as I would like.

I started by drilling another hole to get a bigger gap between the rollers for the first pass of grain & driving it with a battery drill,
these days I drive it on my horizontal milling machine (a machine tool for making gears, splines & keyways from metal)
at least I don't have to sit there & do it by hand anymore.

I'm part way through building a mill I've designed with 3" rollers with latteral grooves/facettes to give a better "squeze" instead of grind, heres the General Arrangement




there are several drawings in this set if any one with access to a machine shop wants them.
A much more clear PDF version via Email

Cheers, Mick.

[chadjaja]

The marga is a flour mill not a pasta mill. I too have one that I modified that didn't take too long. I get a good crush and it takes under 10 mins to crush a grain bill running it with my drill and masonary drill bit. It does the job and I get the same efficiency I was getting with the LHBS crush so I see no reason to upgrade at the moment.

I do need to mount it somehow though as with a few kilos of grain in the hopper its not that stable. If you have the money though and don't care about saving a bit then get a proper mill set up. My mill has already paid for itself in the savings from buying sacks especially at bulk buy prices of $30-$40/25kg.

[SuperBroo]

I bought a 'crank and stein' grain mill on ebay from the seller "jb.brew.suppies"
Its a 3/8" shaft, the new ones are half inch. But if you are using a drill to drive it, thats fine.
You only need the 1/2" if you are going to use a pulley / belt drive, to stop the shaft bending.

it cost me 199 including postage, and seems to work fine.
I havent had to adjust it and consitenetly get a minimum of 75% efficiency.

Cheers,
Grog

[brewer bobby]

Sorry to be a pest fellow brewers. I have been using an old commercial coffee grinder for just on 15 years which I bought cheap at a commercial coffee and equipement place. They can still be obtained at most commercial joints that wheel and deal in coffee machines and grinders. They take trade in's and they either after some time sell them at scrap yards Most have an adjustment to alter the plates. ( To grist the grain fine or just crack it.) I got one the other day for $50-00 for a fellow brewer and it rips 6KG through in under 3 minutes. I will if anyone is interested will take a photo of mine and put it on for you all to have a look at.

[speedie]

hay bobby that contraption that you are using is it called a corna mill
they are good for coffee but shread the hell outa malted barley

[Oliver]

Hi Bobby,

A pic would be awesome, please.

Cheers,

Oliver

[rotten]

I ended up getting a 3 roller Marga of a fellow brewer last weekend. Hopefully some of his tremendous knowledge came with it .
Crushed the first grain bill the next day, 6 kg in not much time at all, still hit my expected efficientcy.
Cheers

[brewer bobby]

Speedie. No it ain't a corna. You may call them that. The manual that I have which I got with it refers to is as a heavy duty coffee grinder.
It comes with approx 8 different size plates.
It was made in Italy. I have seen heaps of them at commercial coffee places sittin there covered in dust.
It can be adjusted to the grain just fallin through to just cracking the grain where the hush is left in tact and the starch is in 3 or three large pieces.
It produces NO POWDER what so ever.
If I were to crack malted wheat I set it to a setting I have marked on the plate adjuster.
I will in the next few days take several photo's. Right at this time am busy with overseas visitors ( free loaders ) who are due tomorrow.

[drsmurto]

I ended up getting a 3 roller Marga of a fellow brewer last weekend. Hopefully some of his tremendous knowledge came with it .
Crushed the first grain bill the next day, 6 kg in not much time at all, still hit my expected efficientcy.
Cheers

Glad it's doing the job for you, about all that was passed on were 3 years off grain dust and a bunch of opinions

Did you come up with a better solution than a roll of duct tape to hold her together?

[earle]

You wont find anything better than duct tape. That stuff can fix anything.

[drsmurto]

You wont find anything better than duct tape. That stuff can fix anything.

I only removed the duct tape prior to Rotten picking it up - figured i should at least give the mill a quick dusting before he took it. It was the same piece of duct tape i had put on it 3 years ago.

It's hard being mill-less. My new mill left the US 3 days ago.

[rotten]

Did you come up with a better solution than a roll of duct tape to hold her together?

More duct tape
No point changing a proven performer.

[Burt]

drSmurto, are you getting the Monster Mill with the hopper?

[drsmurto]

Yes, the MM2 with base and hopper.

With the AUD floating around parity against the USD i resisted for a month or 2 but threw caution to the wind a week ago. AUD$216 landed.

Saw one fresh off the plane a couple of weeks ago at a fellow brewers place and was sold. Planning on running it via a drill to start with.

[BribieG]

I'm buying an already modded Marga from a fellow club member here. Currently I don't have an electric drill - when I was round at a brewday last year the guy's cordless drill was getting a good smoke-on so he went out to the ute and returned with a big orange drill from hell (corded) that chewed through the grain bill quickly.
What would be a reasonable Bunnings type drill to use with a Marga? Don't feel like paying hundreds just for a drill which wouldn't see much other use.

[lethaldog]

I got one of these a few years ago http://schmidling.com/orderpp.htm back when the dollar wasnt so good, cost me off memory just over $200 to the door and it works a treat, at first i used to use the handle then just took this off and powered her up with the drill, does it so easy its almost like cheating