Xenon Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 Hey all, have lashed out on a grain mill finally, specifically this one here from ebay. Couple of questions ... where do you guys in SA buy your malt in bulk from? Mainly after MO , Beerbelly has it but at $95 / 25kg it's a little steep. Also, for BIAB , I think I should aim for around a 0.7mm gap , sound fair? And lastly , is the risk of stones being in your malt a real concern? Should I be trying to sort my grain a little before chucking it in the mill to avoid potential damage? Cheers Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben 10 Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 I went for a small gap, middle of the last two settings. No stones. Smash that with a drill, well. Good mill, I have one.' $95 is too much, look for better or a bulk buy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headmaster Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 Hi Xenon, Haven't hit a stone in well over 100kg of grain, have done so with coffee beans in my burr grinder though, nasty.. It jams it up and need to take it apart. Anyway, I have bought Fawcetts Maris Otter from Barleyman Sydney before he shut down recently, for about $75/bag of 25kg. I don't know SA, seems there's a lot more options in Vic and Qld. There is an ebay vendor selling for good prices in VIC, haven't used though, but shipping will push the price up of course. http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/25kg-Bag-of-Malt-Grain-For-All-Grain-Brewing-Home-Brew-/271929430311?var=&hash=item3f5041d127:m:mj7zW6faLynUpZ2fxw82oGA Looks like Simpsons MO for $72.50. Has anyone used these guys before: Seller information Country Store Trading wrg370 (18625 ) 99.8% Positive feedback Maybe if you bought a couple of bags and some crystals, couple of packs of yeast etc, the shipping might work out ok. I'm looking for new options myself, and will attempt to take part in the next AHB bulk buy for Sydney. Do you have a drill that fits on the shaft of that mill? You are supposed to run them at about 200RPM, or 5 revs/sec, pretty slow, so I use a battery drill in low gear, had to buy a 10 to 13mm chuck adapter to make that work for me. I use a gap with knobs marked 0.063in, in theory closer to 1.6mm. Havent measured gap, but it;s a 3 roller mill same brand as yours. This setting works well for me when recirculating, I use a pump, effectively a RIMS. I get 80 to 85% mash efficiency with a 90 min mash. Much finer and I get no flow. Generally for BIAB, (with no recirc pump) you go more on the fine side as you don't need to fear a stuck sparge like with 3V. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Brew Master Posted April 2, 2016 Share Posted April 2, 2016 Has anyone used these guys before: Seller information Country Store Trading wrg370 (18625 ) 99.8% Positive feedback I have purchased from these people, I found them to be very professional. You could also try Cheeky Peak, they are in Wodonga. Cheers, Peter "Don't waste time, keep drinking". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted April 3, 2016 Share Posted April 3, 2016 There doesn't seem to be any real standard for what sort of crush works well in BIAB. I used to use a finer crush, but when my mill began having issues with the rollers, I had to widen the gap just to get the grains to go through it. Obviously this resulted in a coarser crush - but it coincided with an increased efficiency. So now I do the coarser crush all the time. I got a replacement roller though, so the mill now has one knurled roller and one fluted roller on it, but the grain goes through much quicker and the crush is actually heaps better, very little flour in it now. Last batch I hit 89% mash efficiency, but that was a grist containing acid malt as well which may have contributed to that. Normally it hovers around 82/83%. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPH Posted June 8, 2016 Share Posted June 8, 2016 Hey all' date=' have lashed out on a grain mill finally, specifically this one here from ebay. G'day xenon, just wondering how this grain mill is going and if it's easy to hook up to a drill? Looking at getting one as I move to partial mash then biab. Cheers, Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xenon Posted June 8, 2016 Author Share Posted June 8, 2016 Hey all' date=' have lashed out on a grain mill finally, specifically this one here from ebay. G'day xenon, just wondering how this grain mill is going and if it's easy to hook up to a drill? Looking at getting one as I move to partial mash then biab. Cheers, Tom Hey Tom, Yep have used this mill for 3 brews so far, and it's a mixed bag. Firstly, yep , I have mine hooked up to a battery drill and it works fine , no probs. I try not to mill too fast but it can really go through it quick if you want it to. the negatives: well , it may have just been a bit of bad luck for me , but the free turning roller on mine has a slight defect in that it seems to have been manufactured with a slight off centre bias, and no manner of adjusting or re- assembling can correct what results in a slightly wider gap at one end. I guess I should have returned it from the start but i didn't notice it until I had used it a bit and figured they may not accept it back used. Also, the first batch worked well , but now that the rollers have a fine amount of dust stuck in the knurl , I find that the mill will stop feeding every so often , and I have to reach under it and manually turn it until some grains get stuck in the rollers , then the mill will works fine for a fair while but find i have to do this every few minutes... But it does work , all my batches have turned out good and my efficiency is just as good as when i used to get my grain pre milled at the LHBS , so i will keep using it with a view to buying a decent 3 roller mill in the future. Hope this helps ! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted June 8, 2016 Share Posted June 8, 2016 Do you clean the mill after each use? Shouldn't be fine dust stuck in the knurling. I clean mine with a stiff brush and water to rinse all the dust and whatnot off it. Start with a clean mill every brew day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headmaster Posted June 8, 2016 Share Posted June 8, 2016 go the three roller if you can, they work really well. As for hooking up to a drill, you really should be going fairly slow at about 200rpm. To do that you need a two speed gearbox drill I think. Battery drill is good as they usually have the two speed box. You want low speed torque. My three roller maltmuncher mill has a 12mm drive, so I had to buy a 13mm chuck from ebay to connect my aldi battery drill, it only has a 10mm as many smaller drills do. Tried to use an older bigger 240 drill I have with a 13mm chuck, it either went too fast or was burning the brushes. No two speed box in that one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted June 8, 2016 Share Posted June 8, 2016 Yeah, low speed and high torque is what you need. I use a Bosch drill driver to drive my mill. I think with the new fluted Mashmaster Mini mills that the three roller ones aren't really necessary. I have one of the old ones but as I mentioned in an earlier post on this thread, it's a hybrid now of one knurled and one fluted roller. Bloody good crush and very little flour in it. Have had the best efficiency I've ever had since the mill was fixed with that replacement fluted roller. I can't speak for anyone else doing BIAB but for me, a coarser crush has worked much better than a finer crush. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waylon Posted June 8, 2016 Share Posted June 8, 2016 Yeh Ive got the 3 roller too... It works a treat! Left it on the middle setting its perfect crush everytime... I use my Makita cordless on low speed works a treat...LOVE IT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
headmaster Posted June 9, 2016 Share Posted June 9, 2016 I too find a coarse setting works best for me. I do need it to flow though with my RIMS. I use about 1.4 to 1.5mm Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Waylon Posted June 9, 2016 Share Posted June 9, 2016 I run through a herms so stuck sparge is important to me too! If the husks are still in tact yet there cracked and mixture of fines and cracked husks... I havnt got a stuck sparge with it, Im getting 80% efficiency so im happy, Anyway ill check it out later what my gap is set out! Im doing a brew in a few days, Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Xenon Posted June 9, 2016 Author Share Posted June 9, 2016 Do you clean the mill after each use? Shouldn't be fine dust stuck in the knurling. I clean mine with a stiff brush and water to rinse all the dust and whatnot off it. Start with a clean mill every brew day. No I don't ' date=' but I will now. Seems logical but the idea didn't occur to me before. Will post how I get on next brew after I give it a good thorough seeing to [img']biggrin[/img] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MPH Posted June 9, 2016 Share Posted June 9, 2016 That's some useful info, thanks guys. Keen to see how it goes next brewday xenon Cheers Tom Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Otto Von Blotto Posted June 9, 2016 Share Posted June 9, 2016 I too find a coarse setting works best for me. I do need it to flow though with my RIMS. I use about 1.4 to 1.5mm Yeah in that scenario it would be better. I don't use a RIMS or anything, just the standard BIAB setup. I have no idea what the measurement of the gap is, but I'd guess somewhere between 1 and 1.2mm. I just kept tinkering with it until I liked the look of the crush I was getting and then left it there. It helps that I never use wheat malt either, so I don't have to change the settings ever. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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