Mill Table Grist Dust Mitigation

[gleoncavallo]

Howdy All,

Just finished a build for my second mill table but was disappointed by the little piles of grist dust that appeared under the table at the end of brew day. This got me thinking about ways to capture more of the grist dust for the mash. Seems like a loss to not try to reclaim this grist for future brews.

Mill Table 2.0 Project

In my first mill table (monster mill stainless steel 3-roller, left below), I added grain (grist) tube with a bucket lid attached to under the mill. This allowed for the grist/dust to fall into the bucket and with a hard tap on the bucket lid/tube to release the dust. Much remained in tube and would get washed (yep, I would hose it down) out at the end of milling.

Left: Mill Table 1.0; Monster Mill -- Right: Mill Table 2.0; SS Brewtech Grain Mill

Mill_Table_1_and_2

• gleoncavallo
• Mar 19, 2020

With the Mill table 2.0 (SS Brewtech Grain Mill, upper right) project, I opted for a different approach in order to reduce the height of the hopper - a wonderful improvement over my previous mill table.

There is a grain (grist) tube (SS, 6" diameter) under the mill out where the grist will fall through and into a bucket. The underside of the mill table is flat (except for some bucket guides to allow for easy / perfect placement every time). SS Brewtech recommends cleaning out the mill with compressed air; any rinsing for cleaning is discouraged.

Graphic of Mill Table 2.0

Mill_Table_2_graphic

• gleoncavallo
• Mar 19, 2020

SIDE NOTE
[ I went with the SS Brewtech Grain Mill for several reasons, specifically that both rollers are powered and the ability to adjust the roller width with-out disassembling the mill/using additional tools. ]

Mill Table 2.0

Mill_Table_2_a

• gleoncavallo
• Mar 19, 2020

Mill Table 2.0 with Bucket

Mill_Table_2_b

• gleoncavallo
• Mar 19, 2020

Mill Table 2.0 with Bucket during fitment

Mill_Table_2_build_fitment

• gleoncavallo
• Mar 19, 2020

Mill Table 2.0 underside

Mill_Table_2_c-bottom

• gleoncavallo
• Mar 19, 2020

Possible Grist Capture Solutions

A) Don't worry about the loss, go for a walk, then have a beer and enjoy the day.

B) Use a mallet on the underside of the table to loosen / release the grist dust into the bucket (current procedure, somewhat successful)

C) Add a massage-chair motor to the the underside of the table to provide a consistent vibration to loosen the dust from the table/grain (grist) tube. I am excited for this, but am wary of the strain the vibration may cause on the grain mill and table.

Vibrating_motor

• gleoncavallo
• Mar 19, 2020

https://alexnld.com/product/24v-dc-vibrating-vibration-massage-motor-for-bed-table-chair-seat/​

D) Add a mister to the grain (grist) tube facing away from the bottom of the mill to moisten the grist dust. This seems like it may be a good idea, adding 1, 2, or 3 misters pointing at each other and away from the mill base.

Mill_Table_2_mist_a_graphic

• gleoncavallo
• Mar 19, 2020

SS Mister: https://www.mcmaster.com/catalog/126/2234

Misting_Nozzle

• gleoncavallo
• Mar 19, 2020

E) other - how do you solve this issue?


Apparently I have too much time on my hands at the moment. Thoughts, feedback, encouragement are all welcome.

Cheers

 

[RPh_Guy]

how do you solve this issue?

I condition my grain before milling.

 

[day_trippr]

Same here. I just milled 20 pounds of conditioned malts and the inside of my mill station was too clean to even bother with the shop vac...

Cheers!

 

[Bobby_M]

I just got this mill setup and I'm amazed at how loud it is, how much static it makes and how crappy the adjustment system is.

 

[bracconiere]

Seems like a loss to not try to reclaim this grist for future brews.

damn, i always thought i was the cheapest of them all....now you got me wondering......

 

[Craiginthecorn]

I just got this mill setup and I'm amazed at how loud it is, how much static it makes and how crappy the adjustment system is.

I have to agree on the static. It's amazing how much grain clings to the underside of my milling cabinet's top, beneath the mill. I suspect that it is due to the unequal rotational speeds of the rollers which essentially rubs the husk. The crush I'm getting with unconditioned malt is really nice -- similar to what I got from my old mill with conditioned malt. Huge volume increase and most husks intact or nearly so. With my collection bucket in an enclosed cabinet below the mill, the static and the resulting clinging flour is manageable. I've thought about attaching some anti-static tinsel and grounding the cabinet, but I'm not sure that's all that safe and as I said, with the enclosed cabinet, it's manageable.

I do wish the adjuster had detents instead of the screw. If I were using this in a shop where I was switching regularly to deal with various grains, it would bother me more.

The power brick is a clumsy design. I think mine does have some slight misalignment of the rollers as reported by the Portly Gentleman on YouTube, but I haven't seen it result in an issue in the quality of my crush.

All in all, I like the mill's performance and overall convenience. However, I wouldn't pay the full MSRP for my own use. I purchased mine from a nanobrewery that never actually launched due to the pandemic and thus bought it at a nice discount.

 

[khannon]

Howdy All,

Just finished a build for my second mill table but was disappointed by the little piles of grist dust that appeared under the table at the end of brew day. This got me thinking about ways to capture more of the grist dust for the mash. Seems like a loss to not try to reclaim this grist for future brews.

Mill Table 2.0 Project

In my first mill table (monster mill stainless steel 3-roller, left below), I added grain (grist) tube with a bucket lid attached to under the mill. This allowed for the grist/dust to fall into the bucket and with a hard tap on the bucket lid/tube to release the dust. Much remained in tube and would get washed (yep, I would hose it down) out at the end of milling.

​

Left: Mill Table 1.0; Monster Mill -- Right: Mill Table 2.0; SS Brewtech Grain Mill​

Mill_Table_1_and_2

• gleoncavallo
• Mar 19, 2020

With the Mill table 2.0 (SS Brewtech Grain Mill, upper right) project, I opted for a different approach in order to reduce the height of the hopper - a wonderful improvement over my previous mill table.

There is a grain (grist) tube (SS, 6" diameter) under the mill out where the grist will fall through and into a bucket. The underside of the mill table is flat (except for some bucket guides to allow for easy / perfect placement every time). SS Brewtech recommends cleaning out the mill with compressed air; any rinsing for cleaning is discouraged.

Graphic of Mill Table 2.0​

Mill_Table_2_graphic

• gleoncavallo
• Mar 19, 2020

SIDE NOTE​

[ I went with the SS Brewtech Grain Mill for several reasons, specifically that both rollers are powered and the ability to adjust the roller width with-out disassembling the mill/using additional tools. ]​

​

Mill Table 2.0​

Mill_Table_2_a

• gleoncavallo
• Mar 19, 2020

​

Mill Table 2.0 with Bucket​

Mill_Table_2_b

• gleoncavallo
• Mar 19, 2020

​

Mill Table 2.0 with Bucket during fitment​

Mill_Table_2_build_fitment

• gleoncavallo
• Mar 19, 2020

​

Mill Table 2.0 underside​

Mill_Table_2_c-bottom

• gleoncavallo
• Mar 19, 2020

Possible Grist Capture Solutions

A) Don't worry about the loss, go for a walk, then have a beer and enjoy the day.

B) Use a mallet on the underside of the table to loosen / release the grist dust into the bucket (current procedure, somewhat successful)

C) Add a massage-chair motor to the the underside of the table to provide a consistent vibration to loosen the dust from the table/grain (grist) tube. I am excited for this, but am wary of the strain the vibration may cause on the grain mill and table.

Vibrating_motor

• gleoncavallo
• Mar 19, 2020

24V DC Vibrating Vibration Massage Motor for Bed Table Chair Seat | Alexnld.com​

D) Add a mister to the grain (grist) tube facing away from the bottom of the mill to moisten the grist dust. This seems like it may be a good idea, adding 1, 2, or 3 misters pointing at each other and away from the mill base.

Mill_Table_2_mist_a_graphic

• gleoncavallo
• Mar 19, 2020

​

SS Mister: McMaster-Carr​

Misting_Nozzle

• gleoncavallo
• Mar 19, 2020

E) other - how do you solve this issue?


Apparently I have too much time on my hands at the moment. Thoughts, feedback, encouragement are all welcome.

Cheers

OK,

A) Awesome, want to come build one for me? I thought I was clever building my mill on top of a nylon cutting board(ashamed to post pics now)..
2) This is for homebrew?
C) Have you done the math as to extra grain that you are losing to dust? Compare that to cost of new mill/table and I would suggest that you need to be pretty young to make that ROI work...

All of this aside, I have heard that grain conditioning(mister) helps a lot, though 3 misters may be a bit over(?).. I tend to mill, accept the loss, rinse(cutting board vs MDF base), and call it a day. Grain runs less than $1/lb so if I have to add ~1/8lb to every 10 gal recipe, I'm OK with that.

YMMV

 

[day_trippr]

Conditioning makes an insane, almost binary difference wrt dust.
As for the resulting extract efficiency, that still depends on the gap, etc.
The up-side of conditioning is - done properly - it makes the barley husks crazy pliable and they come out almost intact - which has such a positive effect on lautering you can tighten the mill gap to drive up extract efficiency without limit-testing a false bottom

Cheers!

 

[Craiginthecorn]

ROI for the cabinet was a non-issue for me, even though I'm 60 years old. I used reclaimed oak plywood from an old entertainment center that I couldn't give away a few years ago. I knocked it apart and figured I'd use it for some utilitarian purpose. This project was perfect. I didn't even need to cut rabbets for the floor because those scraps already had them. All I bought was a pair of Euro 35mm hinges and some cheap casters.