Using a pasta maker to mill grain.

[wilserbrewer]

Yea pretty much same experience here, I bought a pasta roller and played with it for a couple of batches, It worke fairly well, but I soon realized my Corona mill was a far better "cheap" mill and traded the pasta roller to another brewer for a six pack.

 

[Angry Turtle Brewing]

Does anyone have a diagram of a hopper they built they'd be willing to share? I tried making one out of cardboard that failed spectacularly.

On the bright side, after grinding my grain 1/2 a tasting glass at a time, Brew Target tells me I had an 80.5% efficiency on my first all grain brew.

 

[wilserbrewer]

a few ideas here...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/ugliest-junks-converted-pasta-roller-grain-mill-180116/

or post 296 of this thread details my pasta bucket design...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/using-pasta-maker-mill-grain-75784/index30.html

 

[Psych]

Does anyone have a diagram of a hopper they built they'd be willing to share? I tried making one out of cardboard that failed spectacularly.

I bored a 1 inch hole in a bit of plywood, cut it to the size of the top of the mill, then cut the bottom off of a 2L pop bottle and screwed the bottle top into the hole. Worked great for those 80lbs, would work for a thousand more!

I just zap strapped it down to the mill to keep it in place. Held about 1lb of grain (I cut my bottle at the halfway mark). Ghetto desperation hopper!

 

[Angry Turtle Brewing]

Thanks wilserbrewer and Psych. I ended up going to Lowe's and buying some 3/8" X 6" and 1/4" X 6" plywood and built a triangular hopper with some side supports similar to the on Digitizer101 built in post #346 of this thread.

 

[Mysticmead]

I did the cheap....err recycle route for the hopper I had.. I used the box my Wii came in and a bunch of duct tape to attach it!! I'd take a photo but I have since given the "noodle crusher" to a friend just getting started in AG brewing.

 

[jfsp]

I'd like to compare the spacing between the different machine rollers. Since I don't have a caliper that would fit in there, I thought we could use coins as a North American system.

My (unmodified) machine is labeled CookQuarters and its graded 1 to 7. I can fit a dime at setting 4 (very thight and kind of forcing it) and a nickel at setting 7. If I go off the charts, I can fit 2 dimes at setting 7 + ~2

What does your machine rate at on the dime/nickel scale and at what setting do you use it to crush barley ?

N.B.: I used Canadian coins, but they are close enough to the American one to make little difference.

 

[jfsp]

I decided to give a try to the grip tape modification that was proposed before.

I bought some grip tape from "ebuyonebay" on ebay and applied a strip to a single roller. First, I cleaned the roller with alcool. Once applied, I cut any piece of overlapping tape. Then, I used a spare piece of grip tape to lap the tape on the roller. This was done to make sure that all grains of sand not tightly bound to tape are removed. The result is a rough tape finish (similar to the cloth tape on hockey sticks) without any sandy grit left to it.

With my pasta maker set at the largest roller gap (setting 7), I get a space big enough for a penny :


And here is an example of the crushed 2-row at that largest setting:


And here with a gap one notch smaller then maximum (setting 6) :


Anything crushed with a smaller roller gap takes a lot of time is results in much flour.

Do these crushes look good to you all ? Is a penny gap too big or is it big enough and I should run the barley twice through it ?

 

[BigRock947]

Bump...I'm curious about the answer too.

 

[Mysticmead]

as long as all the kernels are crushed then it'll work. the key is crushing small enough that you get the extraction you want and not getting a lot of particle into the kettle. Even a cloudy boil is ok as long as you don't have huge particles in the boil. I only say that because I BIAB and the boil is always cloudy, but the end product is crystal clear. Now, if you BIAB you can crush the hell out of it and not worry

 

[benman]

Just as an FYI I picked one of the clay machines up at Joann's today with a 40% off coupon for 16.07 out the door.

 

[jfsp]

A question to anyone who has a similar machine : how do you remove this kind of pull-and-turn knob ? I hear a rattling sound in my mill from that side, but I can't have access to the mechanism because of the knob.

 

[Mysticmead]

use a screw driver and pry the cover off.

 

[jfsp]

use a screw driver and pry the cover off.

You mean's the knob's cover, right ? I was hoping there was another trick to get it off, I already tried to pry the knob's cover off. Will try again, thanks.

 

[Mysticmead]

You mean's the knob's cover, right ? I was hoping there was another trick to get it off, I already tried to pry the knob's cover off. Will try again, thanks.

yes... slide it between the inner and out part of the knob and it will come off. there is no other way.

 

[gabeweisz]

It was enough of a pain to get that cover off that after I got mine off once I never put it back on again when I was using the pasta roller mill.

 

[Mysticmead]

It was enough of a pain to get that cover off that after I got mine off once I never put it back on again when I was using the pasta roller mill.

same here. it's only function is for looks. the outer portion of the knob is the working part and leaving the cover off caused no problems. I would take a pic of mine but I passed it on to another brewer when I got my barley crusher. If I remember correctly there was a nut that tightened onto the rod going through the mill with a spring in between the knob and nut allowing tension to maintain the setting. I might be wrong because I have slept since then.

 

[evwoller]

Currently in the process of setting this up. I have a stand built that will allow crushed grain to drop into a 5 gallon bucket, and enough room up top to mount a motor whenever I get one that will suit the purpose. Currently roughing the drums up, and dreaming up a hopper.

I noticed on the bottom of my box a list of settings and the width they would be crushing at. This is for the AMACO polymer clay model, with 9 settings. I am not sure if it has been listed before but seems extremely relevent.

1- .003"
2- .006"
3- .008"
4- .015"
5- .038"
6 .051"
7 .065
8 .075"
9 .089"

I have completely disassembled the whole rig and put it back together and don't see why it shouldn't stand up to abuse. Although if you do turn the crank handle in reverse one too many times it might unthread the cog on the slave drum.

 

[aidan]

I just got one of these pasta makers to turn into a grain mill. I have a question: it smells like maching oil or something, so I'm wondering about cleaning it. I'm guessing it would rust if it gets wet (especially after the rollers have been roughened up). How do you guys clean yours? Any problems with rust?

 

[Mysticmead]

there was some grease in the gears of mine. But since that shouldn't be touching the grain going into your bucket it shouldn't be a problem. My rollers never rusted and as far as I know they still haven't rusted (gave my pasta mill to a new brewer since I got a BC)

 

[OzarkPA]

Don't clean it with water! It's food grade grease to protect the mechanisims inside. We had a bunch of black streaks on our pasta when we were rolling our sheets out, so that's how I know (I called KA and asked what the deal was). Run a throw-away batch of pasta dough through it and that will clean most of it off of there, but don't put any water around it - then you'll run the risk of getting water in the gearbox and rusting.

 

[aidan]

I've got my pasta grain mill up and running, here's a pic:

I've posted my initial results on my blog.

 

[JSGT09]

I've run about 40 pounds of grain through my modified pasta maker and like many others am growing impatient with it and the low efficiencies it has been giving me lately. It seems like every 3 or so batches you run through this thing, it needs to be roughed up again. I might give it another go after I take the drill bit and dremmel to it again, but I might just pony up the money for a barley crusher or monster mill and call it a day. It was a good run while it lasted though!

 

[Koffie]

Nothing new on the pastamachines?
Just ordered mine for 18 euro's, hopefully it will increase my brewinghouse efficiency which is dramaticly nog with the corona mill.
Hope to post some pics soon

 

[BigJay13]

So I was a believer for a while, but now that I have a monster mill I will never look back. While $20 is hard to beat, knowing that your mill will never break no matter how fast you grind the malt is nice. Not to mention the ability to finely adjust your grind.

 

[Mysticmead]

So I was a believer for a while, but now that I have a monster mill I will never look back. While $20 is hard to beat, knowing that your mill will never break no matter how fast you grind the malt is nice. Not to mention the ability to finely adjust your grind.

+1000 to this. Although I have a barley crusher instead of a MM. The pasta mill is great and because of it was able to start buying grain in bulk and crushing it right before brewing. I feel that made a huge difference in my beers. $20 is hard to beat for a grain mill. That said, The pasta mill is slow at crushing compared to a regular mill. I can crush 14lbs of grain in a couple of minutes with the barley crusher as opposed to 20 minutes with the pasta mill.

I would still recommend a pasta mill to anyone wanting to crush their own grains but can't afford to buy a full fledged mill.

 

[Koffie]

Problem i, that the cheapest mill we can get here is the Barley Crusher. Price is 168 euro incl. shipping

 

[Mysticmead]

Problem i, that the cheapest mill we can get here is the Barley Crusher. Price is 168 euro incl. shipping

a pasta mill will still do the job. It won't be as fast as a regular mill but it does work. I made at least 10 batches with mine before I was given a barley crusher as a gift. They're slower and louder but you can't beat the price.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Rather than a pasta mill, I would advise a Corona for long term inexpensive milling...I have used both, the Corona is far and away better for only a few dollars more. Corona mills are built like freight trains, i rather doubt you could wear one out.

 

[Koffie]

If a corona mill is the same as a bench mill : http://www.williamsbrewing.com/BENCH-GRAIN-MILL-P2058.aspx
I have one of that, and they go for 55 euro here.