Automating grain mill

[ramloese]

I am using my screwdriver to turn my malt mill right now, but I'm wondering if there isn't a more automated way of doing this? It can be a bit tiresome for a nano-brewery with 85 pounds of malt at times.

Any ideas, pics or experiences?

 

[kh54s10]

Drill, or an electric motor.... I can't imagine anyone with a mill that doesn't at least have a proper handle. I would not want to do 85 pounds by hand even with a handle.

 

[MaxStout]

Here's a thread that may give you some ideas.

Edit: Here's another thread.

 

[Desert_Sky]

corded drill with socket adapter

 

[mongoose33]

Something like this?

 

[beernutz]

I am using my screwdriver to turn my malt mill right now, but I'm wondering if there isn't a more automated way of doing this? It can be a bit tiresome for a nano-brewery with 85 pounds of malt at times.

Any ideas, pics or experiences?

Screwdriver? I can't mentally picture how in the world that would work.

 

[bruce_the_loon]

Screwdriver? I can't mentally picture how in the world that would work.

I'm guessing it's a cordless screwdriver.

 

[mongoose33]

I'm guessing it's a cordless screwdriver.

That must be a heckuva screwdriver to handle 85 pounds of malt.

And a heckuva battery.

 

[ramloese]

I'm guessing it's a cordless screwdriver.

That must be a heckuva screwdriver to handle 85 pounds of malt.

And a heckuva battery.

A power drill

 

[mongoose33]

OK, let me walk you through my thinking when I moved up from a Barley Crusher driven by a power drill )) to a Monster Mill 3 driven by an All-American Aleworks motor.

I hated using the drill and I was only crushing maybe 12 pounds of grain, not 7 times that much. I also didn't like that the drill didn't have enough power to overcome a standing start, so I had to really crush faster than I wanted to.

Did some research on options and alternatives; I think there are probably 3 or 4 excellent higher-end mills; I knew that @Morrey had a MM3, and decided that the 3-roller was a better alternative for me than a 2-roller.

I also wanted to slow down the crush. I don't know how fast my drill was going, but it was FAST. The All-American Aleworks is 180rpm, which really relaxes the violence with which the malt is crushed.

That said, it's pretty darned fast anyway, as the pre-crush of the first roller and the wider rollers allow for that. I can do 12 pounds in about 2 minutes, so 85 pounds would be....roughly 15 minutes?

It's hands-free once the malt is in the hopper. In your case, I'd want some sort of chute that would keep feeding the malt in, and certainly there'd need to be some larger vessel to hold the grist. Maybe you could crush right into the mash tun?

It's not a cheap solution--I'm into this for 5 Benjamins, not including the cart I use. But it is the last mill I should ever need, and given that I'm trying to implement LODO processes, a slow crush and crushing JUST before doughing in are two of those processes. This lets me do that. Plus, whiel I'm doing 5-gallon batches now, I just bought a 10-gallon conical fermenter in anticipation of going to larger batches.

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There are other alternatives. There is a motor that is $100 less than the AAW motor, though if you're nonobrewery you'd probably want something more heavy-duty.

Some people are getting 1/2 horsepower drills from harbor freight and mounting them on a cart to drive a mill. It's hands-free and certainly less expensive than the AAW motor. The only question would be whether you can dial down the speed to your needs.

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If it were me, I'd put some money into a good mill first. If you already have one, then it's a matter of getting the right motor for it.

https://allamericanaleworks.com/

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My 2 cents. Good luck!

 

[augiedoggy]

A power drill

Then why didnt you just say that?

I automated mine with a couple pulleys and a motor with speed control for my homebrew rig. it works well.
For my nano we may be using a powerful drill actually because the codes for a grainmill actually state it has to be used in a fireproof room complete with sealed sparkproof switches and such... Which is why "officially" nany nanos have thier setup so they can wheel it outside in an open area to use it. We may try to make a motorized cart if we can keep it compact to wheel it out on the now non existent covered rear deck.

I dont know if your setup is a legal nano or not but just something to consider.. many areas have no one to enforce such codes but the larger the city the more likely they will.

as far as the mill my preference is a mill with real bearings vs the bronze bushings.. the cereal killer and kegco mills have bearings. ironically many more expensive "home brewing" mills use cheaper bushings although the more expensive "professional series" mills made by those same companies use bearings..

 

[eric19312]

Some people are getting 1/2 horsepower drills from harbor freight and mounting them on a cart to drive a mill. It's hands-free and certainly less expensive than the AAW motor. The only question would be whether you can dial down the speed to your needs.

I use one of these to drive my barley crusher. Able to run it quite slow. Not sure how to count the RPMs but I can run it at a rate that it takes maybe 10 minutes to crush 30lbs of grain.

 

[toms_Jeep]

Something like this?

View attachment 566071 View attachment 566072

Nice set up..