Malt Mills

[byronb]

I'm planning to buy a malt mill soon, looking for an adjustable roller mill ~£100. Any recommendations? My options seem to be:

BullDog Mill £84
Craft a Beer Malt Mill £95.95 (don't know much about that one)
Brewferm malt mill £138

I was looking at the mill from MrLard too but that show as out of stock and I'm hoping to get one soon and not buy any more crushed grain.

[JamesF]

On a kind-of related note, if you don't mind me asking what's your motivation for milling your own? I was thinking about this myself the other night as I try to lay out everything I might want for my new setup so I can leave space for it all etc., but the difference in cost between milled and unmilled malt seems to be relatively small (around 50p on a 25kg sack of Maris Otter by the looks of it), so I'd decided I'd be unlikely to really get much benefit unless I was doing an awful lot of brewing.

James

[Andy]

Uncrushed grain stays "fresh" longer IMO, handy when you're buying 25kg sacks. Plus you can alter the crush if so desired.

[byronb]

A few reasons, none of them being it's cheaper to use uncrushed

There have been a few comments on here lately about the freshness of crushed malt and the advice seems to be keep it in an airtight container (which I don't have room for) and use as quickly as possible (which is difficult if I want to buy 25kg sacks). Examples of these comments:

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=69237&p=727460
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=69162&p=726724#p726724

I like to make a variety of different styles and keeping uncrushed malt means I can keep a wider range of ingredients without worrying so much about freshness.

Not sure it will make much of a difference but from what I've read it could improve my efficiency reliability as crushed grain doesn't absorb moisture (not sure if this is at all or just as easily) so the weight doesn't change.

[JamesF]

Seems sensible to me. In that case I shall factor in space for one in my plans. I've mostly bought pale malt in 25kg bags over the last ten years or so, but I tend to have a frenzy of brewing and get perhaps 150l on the go, then take a break for a few months (much easier to appease my wife for making a mess of the kitchen four or five times a year rather than every few weeks so freshness hasn't been the biggest of problems.

Now I have space though I guess I could store crushed grains in a closed 25l fermenting bin with a reusable desiccant pack in the top. Probably makes sense from the point of view of discouraging the local rodent population from getting too inquisitive, too.

James

[guypettigrew]

Crushing your own seems fun and a bit fundamentalist. But getting the right crush can be difficult--so I've heard.

25kg of malt makes about 5 brews. Three months or so of brewing. I've never lost efficiency during this time.

When a sack of malt arrives from the Malt Miller, having been crushed the previous day, I weigh it out into 2kg amounts and put it into plastic bags with a clip on. This keeps it fresh. Possibly fresher than just leaving it in the sack.

It has to be easier than milling the grain each brew day. Plus it makes weighing stuff out much quicker. If a recipe calls for 4.5kg of pale malt, for example, 4kg of it is already weighed out. It's two bags!

Guy

[byronb]

But I currently have a sack of MO and a sack of Pilsen malt for different styles. Plus a reasonable variety of other malts. I've decided that the most practical option for me is to crush myself.

I'm also interested to experiment with crush size. Traditionally BIAB seems to use a finer crush as we don't need to worry about a stuck mash. But the electric brewery site suggests a coarser crush for their recirculating setup to increase efficiency.

[BenB]

I got a bulldog mill for Christmas. Looks a very nicely made bit of kit. Good and sturdy, has an adaptor for a drill, the rollers are nicely cast and seem good and sharp and all in all looks like it should do the job nicely. Only got pre-crushed malt in presently so nothing to test it on but other than the fact that it came without the nuts and bolts to make the hopper it's all good and I'm assuming that's just an oversight. Got plenty of M3 and M4 bolts and nuts in the shed so not a major problem is a little bit annoying nonetheless. For me it's the ability to store a wider range of malts and be able to crush them to order rather than having to do an online order for each and every brewday. Using liquid yeast does destroy this advantage to a degree because they obviously don't store that well....

[byronb]

Thanks BenB, that's very useful. After I asked the question I've also read that the Bulldog mill rotates both rollers at the same time (rather than one rotating freely) so that's looking like a good option.

[DeadFall]

Uncrushed grain stays "fresh" longer IMO, handy when you're buying 25kg sacks. Plus you can alter the crush if so desired.

You can also condition the malt so you can get a finer crush on the germ whilst keeping the husk more intact for better efficiency. Also some grains such as rye can be completely floured, I doubt your supplier will bother with conditioning (it needs to be done on the brew day or it goes mouldy) or changing the roller spacing for a special grain.

[Fil]

I dont mill my own so am not speaking from experience, however one thing that has put me off grinding my own grain is the dust.. if i were to fill the air of me brew shed with malt dust it would cover every surface and come a slight damp period become food for any mould or microbe to land on it..

[JamesF]

I dont mill my own so am not speaking from experience, however one thing that has put me off grinding my own grain is the dust.. if i were to fill the air of me brew shed with malt dust it would cover every surface and come a slight damp period become food for any mould or microbe to land on it..

If you mill directly into the mash tun covered so no dust can escape, and covered the top of the mill hopper too (a piece of perspex might work nicely for that?) and didn't remove the mill until the malt was wet, I'd have thought that would keep most of the dust under control?

James

[Fil]

Or just mill away from the place you store bottles and fvs or anything else you want to keep dust free... the dust created is going to be food for all the mircobes we want to steer clear of especially when fermenting or stepping up a yeast colony, and it can be a dusty process i believe? just thought it worth mentioning before anyone contaminated a shed full of bottles and fv's
or worse did it in a pristine kitchen getting brewing banned from the nice warm house hrumph!!

[byronb]

Bulldog mill arrived today. Instructions are very short so had to make a couple of guesses on how to assemble it, mainly to do with the order of the different washers in the hopper. I've ordered a feeler gauge so I can set the crush size and I should be able to try it out on the weekend.

[BenB]

At least yours came with washers, nuts and bolts. Do agree the instructions are terrible. I made the entire thing then wondered what the little metal flaps left over where for. Turns out they were the grain feed. Doh! Nice kit though- those gears look good and solid- avoided the temptation to dismantle mine