Grain Mills

[Milky]

G'day guys.

I'll be embarking on Brendans all grain bourbon adventure very very soon and was wanting some gear to make life easier for the process,ie; a grain mill/stone grain Mill.

I have looked around the internets and found that there are a few that mostly run stones and are one switch operation, self sharpening stones etc with 10-12 year warranty.

After a fair while ready and watching reviews if have narrowed it down to two models, both very different from each other but none the less, achieve the same flour consistency with cracked corn.

The Wonder Mill;

1.Ground flour is contained in the unit
2.Stainless Steel Blades, not stones.
3.Mostly made of plastic
4.Can grind corn to a flour at the rate of 1kg per minute for 4 mins, then needs a 2 min rest. (but they have run this thing for 9hrs straight to chew through 1000lbs of grain as a test)
5. $395AUD delivered. (cheapest option), has really good reviews.


Nutimill;

1.Ground flour comes out a chute at the front into whatever you collect it in.
2.Grinding stones. Never need sharpening.
3.Made of wood and I assume plastic bits inside too. 4.Grinds at same rate but because of the stone, no need for a rest during grinding.
5. $720AUD (roughly) delivered.
6.Struggling to find a 220-240v model for Australia.


So I know this is a lot of money. I'm not really interested in trying to make something that does the job these two things do for cheaper. I have the cash ready for a purchase.

This is to make life easier in the long run so I don't have to do what Brendan has had to do(buy corn, get it cracked at his, further crack it at home with a blender or corona mill)

These days I'm looking for ways to make my life easier and maybe a little quicker as I now don't have as much time as I used to.

Just after any opinions as to whether anyone has looked into this type of Mill for their own use. I'd be very interested to see what the brains trust thinks.

Cheers, Milky

(I'll upload pics later this morning from my pc.)

[wedwards]

Any reason it has to be stone? And what volume of grain per month are you thinking you will be processing?

For brewing purposes I always believed that you only want to crack the grain so that mash water can get in there and convert the starches. If you grind any finer than that you run the risk of a stuck sparge because all the powder goops up and clogs everything. On that basis, a 3 or 4 roller mill would do what we traditionally want to do. They are fast, and are easily driven by a $20 drill from supercheap. A 4 roller mill will set you back maybe half what you are looking at, and will process 10kg of grain in approx 2 mins, which is more than sufficient for our purposes.

I dont bother running things like corn through my mill, as cracked corn from feed supply places is very cheap and/or I buy flaked corn when a recipe calls for its use or I am being lazy.

[bayshine]

I think only a few of the multi roller mills out there will Handle corn as I've already blown a few of the double roller ones by running already cracked corn through them :handgestures-thumbdown:
I only run the malts through a 2roller one now.
For the corn I just use a blender now, just doing about a kilo of already cracked at a time,as not to get it to hot and ruin it, and this only takes about 30 seconds a batch.
I like the grind that it gives, because it exposes all the white starches from the inside of grain but doesn't turn all the outside hard shell to flour as this doesn't contain near as many fermentables and is harder to get it to saccharificate(turn to gel) when mashing,
when fermenting on grain,if this is left a bit coarser, it is a hell of a lot easier to strain out when it's ready to run ,and I don't seem to have lost much in the way of unconverted starches to sugars/alcohol :handgestures-thumbupleft:
A coroner mill will do the job but are a bit slow and have to do multiple runs.
If I could afford it I would buy stone mill for sure as I would think you could adjust the grind to what ever you wanted.
I know with a hammer mill you can change the size of the screen to get your disiered grind but they will get the product very hot an most will say this will ruin it

[Milky]

Stone lasts longer, has next to no maintenance and is also self sharpening.

As mentioned above, I will be following Brendans All Grain Bourbon recipe where he states that to get a proper conversion to have the corn closest to a ground flour.

Thanks Bayshine, yeah I have read a lot that rollers are good to CRACK it but not for longevity.

I figured I'd spend 100-200 and a roller Mill to CRACK it, then 100-200 on a blender (like the breville CLB6/A) to get it to a more flour constancy anyway, was maybe thinking of spending just that little extra and get a machine that will do it all in one go.

It would bebe a minimum of 7.5kg of cracked corn each batch ground fresh before the mash day. It's not the bulk storage after grinding corn to a flour that I wanted, I wanted the ability to have a machine I could set and forget for repeated consist flour grind for each batch and get it done in a matter of minutes.

As it stands, fucking around taking a bag of corn from a stock feed joint to a hbs to get it cracked and then lug it home and blend it in a blender(although the blender is a great idea and I am still looking into this) just makes me go blurgh. That's too much fucking around.

I suppose this thread could also be a "What do you use to CRACK your corn/grain at home" similar to BayShines reply. Cheers!

[bayshine]

I don't know enough about stone grinders but they should do it from whole corn to flour
I wouldn't put corn through any roller mill except one that's rated for it, I think monster mill in the USA makes one (expensive)
I just buy the corn already cracked from my stock feed joint(chicken feed) and then run it through the blender, haven't tried whole corn

[wedwards]

How much corn are you talking about though? $3.80/kg or cheaper for flaked maize depending on what volume you want, and you dont have to do anything with it at all except throw it in your mash - it comes ready for conversion, and no screwing around. Its basically corn that has been fully malted, then dried. Malting / gelatinizing corn to achieve full conversion is a real long and annoying process (1 hour boil, up to 4 hour rest, bring back to boil, repeat until tests show conversion you are chasing), and you get the same flavour by just using flaked maize instead. Just my 2 cents from trying it both ways. I am a lazy sod these days though - everyone should malt corn at least once in their life....and no you will never get those hours back :laughing-rolling:

[Milky]

Hi Wed wards,

I see where you are going and it's a really good idea. I'd be using min 7.5kg of corn every mash twice a month. So a 20kg back once a month.

A 20kg bag of corn at the stock feed joint is 17 bux so although 3.80 a kgkg is a good idea, it's more than I planned.

I'm more about trying to do it all myself like in Brendans recipeand that in time will include malting my own grain but for now I thought I'd just get this.

I may go get a corona style hand corn Mill like scarecrow suggested and see how much of a pain or not a pain that is first as it's onlyonly 30 bux.

[bluc]

Bit off topic but..Learning from my own mistake add small amount of malt to corn mash when close to temp to make mash thinner will give a more accurate temp in a thin mash rather than a thick one. Then when at temp add the rest just thought I would give you a heads up.. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[Sam.]

Bit off topic but..Learning from my own mistake add small amount of malt to corn mash when close to temp to make mash thinner will give a more accurate temp in a thin mash rather than a thick one. Then when at temp add the rest just thought I would give you a heads up.. :handgestures-thumbupleft:

Yes completely off topic so lets leave that for other threads.

Milky, if you really want a good mill to crack your own corn then get one of the ones you posted. You may get better flavour doing it yourself than buying a processed flaked?

To answer your original question, like most things you get what you pay for, if you have the cash ready to roll then I would buy the dearer one instead of buying cheap and buying twice which im sure a lot of people have been stung with.

[hillzabilly]

I use one of these wich are quickly and easily adjusted ,have no problem corn ,or malted grains ,and are pretty heavy duty ,I do 60lt or less brews comfortably ,cost around 50-60 bucks,snoop around a few brewstore's or continental grocers .cheers hillzabilly :handgestures-thumbupleft:

[timboss]

Hi Milky

Did you end up deciding on a mill? I've been looking at the Wonder Mill as well, looks pretty good.