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New All Grain setup


iBooz2

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4 minutes ago, stquinto said:

@Journeyman @Shamus O'Sean @ozdevil @Graubart @Otto Von Blotto

Thanks for all your advice fellas.

Looks like I'll go for the Grain Gorilla. Hopefully I can put my cordless drill/screwdriver on it: the torque should be OK and it has a low power setting.

@Journeyman this is what I can get where I am in Europe. Better price where I am than in neighbouring countries (for once). It comes out at about 185 AUD.

@Graubart that does look like a brilliant bit of kit. I can pnly get it shipped from Oz and it ends up (with the hopper) around 620 AUD. Hmm... maybe not for right now...

The rollers look like this :

image.png.6aaaca33cd2080e27aca1c90837b997d.png

Watching the video above they look to be fluted. Hopefully these won't make too much flour...

After I've made a few of 1/2 batches to see what it changes to my brew day etc.,  I might look at an electric brew kettle. Then I can go for a proper size batch. There's a 27 litre one for a decent price.

what you pictured is knurled  mate  

flutes look like this

Mash-Master-mill.jpg.8dfbe18f78f8c44460d149259704f247.jpg

the amount of grain we use knurled is fine for alot of brews    as long as you keep maintence up like everything else

 

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22 minutes ago, ozdevil said:

what you pictured is knurled  mate  

flutes look like this

Mash-Master-mill.jpg.8dfbe18f78f8c44460d149259704f247.jpg

the amount of grain we use knurled is fine for alot of brews    as long as you keep maintence up like everything else

 

@ozdevil that's what was in the video, so they're flutes and the one I can get is furled. Well, the difference in price (for me) can't justify it IMHO. I thought they might be available from UK but not that I can see.

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26 minutes ago, kmar92 said:

I am also looking at grain mills and I have heard nothing but great reviews for the Mill Master, however it is like 2X the price of competing models.

Yeah was cheaper earlier on... but @kmar92 it works like a gem and I really think that it is worth grabbing... anyway... see how you go mate it's a beaut and made here in Aus I believe... 

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6 minutes ago, Graubart said:

Yeah was cheaper earlier on... but @kmar92 it works like a gem and I really think that it is worth grabbing... anyway... see how you go mate it's a beaut and made here in Aus I believe... 

Yes @Graubart it looks great and yep made here, I am still deciding but you have to consider $460 v $ $226 in the equivalent geared roller market.

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13 minutes ago, kmar92 said:

Yes @Graubart it looks great and yep made here, I am still deciding but you have to consider $460 v $ $226 in the equivalent geared roller market.

Yep. For sure.

But when you like me we scrimp and save like we all do - and cut costs wherever we can - and you can get something nice - that works beautifully - and is going to deliver...

guess that I was no longer paying $50 a carton per week - that it was buying megaswill... what I reckon was for me the thing 🥳

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I checked out fluted mills in Europe. They tend to be on the professional range, and would be two to three times the price of the Mill Master, even with the delivery fees.  Although I can get my gorilla for an OK price I'd almost get a corona type (third of the price of the gorilla) and if I did go for a motorised one, then bite the bullet and go for the Mill Master. God knows how long delivery would be so at least I could use the hand-cranker in the mean time. Haveing said that, I came across this on another forum : "Crank out one batch by hand. You'll buy a drill the next morning"

😭

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Just ordered the 27 litre electric kettle from Belgium, and the gorilla grinder, a 25kg sack of Marris Otter and 10kg of Pilsner malt locally. I've got enough various black and chocolate malts to use for the time being.

Bring on the BIAB 😉

I should be able to keg my first 19l cornie keg with a partial Tim Taylor Landlord. It's had some finings in for the past 2 days so hopefully it will have cleared up.

How do you fellas store your grain ? In the bag or in an air-tight plastic tub ?

 

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6 hours ago, stquinto said:

 

"Crank out one batch by hand. You'll buy a drill the next morning"

😭

I had to read that twice🤣

I crushed some grains with the rolling pin in a clip seal bag once. When I started chasing grain around the kitchen floor and the dog 🐶 started to help, I immediately went out and bought a mill. Then milled  a batch by hand,🥵 and thought stuff that, used the drill ever since😎

 

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9 hours ago, stquinto said:

How do you fellas store your grain ? In the bag or in an air-tight plastic tub ?

One lot in the bag in a plastic garbage bin.

IMG_2590.JPG.25aebbf6ef039451ba686a4f112fe644.JPG

The other in two of these caterer sized buckets.  25kg of grain fits nicely.

IMG_2589.JPG.d8670a97a152e40faeb6a7cb0378e0e9.JPG

Neither are completely air tight, but they are vermin proof.  Stored in my garage.  To those that know better, will this be an issue in the heat of summer?

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Shamus beat me to it!

I just use 5 of those big black Willow bins from Bunnings, 60 litre I think.

Had them for about 10 years. One of those fits a 25kg sack perfectly, they are rodent proof. I still have wheat malt that's coming up six years old and it's in prefect nick. Most malt sacks nowadays come with a plastic inner liner.

For my spec grains, I put them in plastic bags and pop them into a supermarket insulated zip bag - one for light grains and one for dark - and the two bags sit neatly in one of those storage containers with snap on lids and the built in wheels. Again some of my grains are yonks old but in good condition.

Edited by Bribie G
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14 hours ago, stquinto said:

After I've made a few of 1/2 batches to see what it changes to my brew day etc.,  I might look at an electric brew kettle. Then I can go for a proper size batch. There's a 27 litre one for a decent price.

I got a nice 2400W induction plate works great with the 19L cheap pot I got at the supermarket, does a good rolling boil of 10L wort - that's the biggest I have done so far. Took about 15 mins to go from mash out temp (75°) to boiling which is a lot faster than my electric stove.

I've thought about an urn or kettle but I don't have any plans yet for AG so what I have works well and I can set a mash running with a sous vide stick and actually do another brew while that happens and set up for the PM brew while the boil happens - 2 brews in about 2.5 hours or so, 3 with cleanup.

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9 hours ago, stquinto said:

How do you fellas store your grain ? In the bag or in an air-tight plastic tub ?

 

I have two 25l pails with a screw-on lid for MO and pale malts and plastic storage containers for things like pilsener, wheat and vienna. The specialty grains are kept in vacuum sealed bags.

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37 minutes ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

One lot in the bag in a plastic garbage bin.

IMG_2590.JPG.25aebbf6ef039451ba686a4f112fe644.JPG

The other in two of these caterer sized buckets.  25kg of grain fits nicely.

IMG_2589.JPG.d8670a97a152e40faeb6a7cb0378e0e9.JPG

Neither are completely air tight, but they are vermin proof.  Stored in my garage.  To those that know better, will this be an issue in the heat of summer?

I see a lot of those catering style buckets in my travels usually near the rear of some Restaurants/Pubs etc, quite often they are just stacked up, some even with a FREE sign attached. Some are sturdier than others.

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13 hours ago, stquinto said:

 "Crank out one batch by hand. You'll buy a drill the next morning"

😭

Haha. I don't use a drill on my roller type and don't find it too much of a hassle. It's bearable. Maybe if I was brewing a lot or regularly brewing double IPAs. A drill does make it much quicker though.

+1 for the white buckets. One 25kg bag almost fits between two for me. I wrap speciality malts up tightly in the bags they came in and put them altogether in a smaller bucket the same as the others. No dramas yet after several years.

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4 hours ago, Shamus O'Sean said:

Neither are completely air tight, but they are vermin proof.  Stored in my garage.  To those that know better, will this be an issue in the heat of summer?

Mate I do not argue I know better by any means @Shamus O'Sean Shamus... but I think like most food storage... that the malted grain would be better kept cool ish like in low twenties or below (if possible)... and sealed containers like those are beauts as they help keep the vermin out... 

And I suspect that the Mayo Buckets being food grade might be better than the garbage bin.. but hey whatever keeps the mice etc out.

 

So @stquinto Saint much like @Aussiekraut AK I use food grade buckets from Bunners... in my case the Blue Lid 35L Storage Barrels... then a combo of 25L Black Lid water storage barrels... an Eski... a big ol' 35L (think) Fermenter and plastic boxes w relatively tight lids one holding specialty grains in foil zip lock bags...  and they live in a old 'Larder' which is quite cool for most of the year and relatively pest free... pretty good temps except in a hot dry summer and super-hot bushfire times when it can get up to high 20s.  Be nice to have a cellar...  if yer got loadsa room and old bung refrigeration units not working as brew fridges : )  they are good at keeping the pests dust n moisture out e.g. old fridge or freezers. 

HTH

image.thumb.png.58f9f955b23d43d4c154a0f15538ffc6.png

 

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  • 2 weeks later...

This is how my set up looks now.  There is a post  back on page 2 I think of what it was like last year.  Pretty happy with this it works a treat.  Recirculating wort coming into the mash from the HLT is set at 67c and the temp of the mash itself is about a degree less as per the calibrated thermometer on the kettle.  Currently doing a double batch of an Aussie Lager.    

 

20211004_090033.jpg

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I did a re-org of my storeroom and this is what it looks like:

I got some air-tight barrels the other day (handy - 30% off in the supermarket) and one of the big ones easily holds 25kg of grain. Below that is the grain mill.

At the moment it is a good temperature for fermenting ales - around 20°. In winter it is good for dubbya - around 14°.

store room.jpg

grain.jpg

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