Grinding Corn

I just got a corn grinder from Discount Tommy.. I am wondering. I set it all up to grind grain "had to grind the thing to get the plates to line up perfect"not complaining for the price. But, I grabed some dried corn I have for the deer and threw it in the grinder and man it looks nice for mashing. Has anyone tried grinding there own corn. If so was it just field corn or something else. Also what would be the bad points?

 

I'm not sure about your corn question, but I'm interested in the grinder you bought.

How sure are you this will work well for grinding grains? Is it grinding them to a homebrew standard?

 

Game corn is just dried, not gelatinized, so you'll have to cook it before you can mash with it. The same problem exists with rice, which is why you use instant rice instead of dried.

Other than that, game corn isn't intended for human consumption so I wouldn't expect it to have been inspected for sanitary preparation or foreign materials. If the prospect of finding most of a dessicated mouse in your grain doesn't bother you, then you'll probably be fine. (If that doesn't bother you, I'd rather not drink any of your beer though )

 

Maybe that could be a nice recipe...mousey brown. Malted barley as well as feed corn is a natural product. Finding something natural in a bag of either would not shock me, intended for human consumption or not.

If I recall, feed corn is a tad high in oil, which may make it less desirable for mashing???? Not really sure. What type of corn do the good ole boys use for sour mash whiskey...???

 

My grandmother used sweet corn when she was moon shining.

That's also the variety that we grew for deer plots, though, so it's entirely possible that it was chosen because it grew well in the area, not because it was actually appropriate for the deer. Feed corn may be a different variety normally.

 

The grinder ground the grain well after I ground and filed some parts to get them to line up perfectly parallel. I would say 3/4 of the husks a intact and the rest split in half. Before I messed with it there was a small portion that was untouched.

As for there being critters in my corn. Its really not possible. The corn I get is right out of the dryer they can not survive in there. I wonder what kind of corn they use for the maze then? I can't imagine it is sweet corn. But , I don’t know.

 

discount tommy sells corona mills, but labels them 'corn grinders'.

 

i have used corn from the drier for bm's cream of 3 many times.
i crack it up in the mill and cook overnight in a crock pot
works fine.

 

I was thinking they looked a lot like corona mills. I was wondering why they're so cheap.

 

Cool, could you just do a cereal mash. I was going to try it as soon as I get some fresh stuff from the drier. Whats the worst that could happen?

 

Not sure if the quality of the others. But I had to grind and file the thing to get the discs aligned. Other than that it looks like a cheap casting from overseas. Works well now!!

 

My Discount Tommy mill has been great. I got it for Christmas 2009. It has seen close to 100 pounds of malt and 10 pounds of coffee beans. I did some modification 2 weeks ago. I installed a threaded shaft for an electric drill, made a sheet metal cover so that all the crushed grains go straight down instead of being slung everywhere, and then mounted it for use over a 5 gallon bucket.
I have not figured efficiency, but 10 pounds of malt produced 5.5 gallons of wort with an original gravity of 1.070. Wort clarity was pretty good when looked at in may sample container. I feel that some of that is due to the ability to properly fly sparge with my recently improved false bottom.
In addition to my false bottom, my recently purchase March pump will be here soon. I will have a stove top HERMS with a wort chiller when all is said and done for under $200. $130.00 of that is the March pump.
Thank you to all of those who steered my away from the unknown Asian pump that only produced 20% of the flow capacity of the March.

 

Game corn will indeed ferment... I "sour" corn all the time for use in hog traps.. grind it up, cover with water, let it swell a bit.. You can either pitch with a cheapo yeast or pour a beer in it.. Give it a week and it's good and funky..

 

Jimmy cracked corn, but I don't care....