Mill on the cheap.

[Jacob Plasmeyer]

So, I know this topic has been covered before, but I havent seen much in the way of mounting/hopper fabrication so I thought I'd share a couple of pics.

I only brew 10L batches so the grain I'd get in one order was lasting a while. Funny flavours started to raise their head and the need for freshly milled grain became evident. Being a poor student I obviously didnt want to spend much money so I started to think of how I could make a mill, rather than buying one. One day I heard that you could turn a pasta machine into a mill, perfect I actually had a spare sitting in my room not being used as I had bought a better quality pasta machine. My 'spare' roller was a Stevens brand one I picked up on special for $50, it was a little wobbly while trying to roll out pasta, but grain is fairly brittle, so it doesnt seem to flex at all while milling.

After pulling it apart, roughing up the rollers with the edge of a file, and re-assembling it, I used an old shoe box and some duct tape to create a hopper and a chute. I milled 2 batches with this configeration (2.6kg each). I also ground off the end of the handle so that I could use my drill as a motor.

-As a side note here, wind the clutch back on your drill if you are using one. There was a small piece of plastic which jambed the rollers, causing the whole mill to lurch forward and throw a fair amount of the grain all over the kitchen, into the cat food etc...

While this setup worked it required a helping hand from someone else to hold a container to catch the grist post milling. I thought there must be a better way.

So its now mounted on the lid of a bucket. I took the bottom plate off of the mill and cut out the middle, cut the same size hole through the lid, then screwed it all back togeather. In came the shoe box and duct tape again to direct the grist into, not onto, the bucket. Lastly I used a $0.98 bucket from bunnings to make a hopper, you have to use your hand to get the last 100gms of so into the mill, but its a quick, cheap, easy hopper. The buckets on the bottom ate 10L dura pales from Stowers (http://www.plastic.co.nz/plastic-products/6760.html) which is where I also got my 15L square pale fermenters from. They sell 25, 30, 50 and 60L brew barrels too, I don't know the cost, but they seem to be pretty good with most prices.

Anyway, here's some pics of how it looks, and what the crush looks like (I found out its quicker if I run it through twice, once on a bigger setting, then once on a finer setting, rather than just once on the second setting. A bonus of the pasta machine being designed to easily change the gap.)

 

First setup.

 

Hole through the lid.

 

Finished product.

 

Closeup of the rollers/chuck bit for the drill. My only suggestion would be to take it to a workshop and get a propper knurl put onto the rollers, while this works, a little more texture wouldnt hurt, just make sure its not a really agressive knurling, that will tear your husks into shreads.

 

Here's the closeup of the crush, pretty good I think. This is Bairds Pale Ale Malt.

 

Seeing as you can get a pasta machine off of Trademe for less than $30, and a couple of buckets for less than $15, I don't think you could go wrong.

Oh, another bonus is both rollers are driven, not just 1 with a slave roller like most comercially available mills.

 

I hope this helps some people out.

[Glynn cleaver]

Thanks for this I've been looking at something like this to get started

[Jacob Plasmeyer]

I brewed with the above crush yesterday and I think it may have been a little too fine, after I'd boiled and chilled the wort it looked like there were clouds in it. Other than that it was really clear. I'm guessing I just need to play with the width to get the balance right between good crush/not taking for ever to mill it.