I had an interesting conversation with a plumber yesterday (servicing the house system). I had previously(1 year ago) given him a couple of bottles of beer to try. His Dad snaffled them and said that they were great. I said well you'll have to try the latest batch and took him thorugh to the garage to see the brewery. Being a plumber and a bloke he liked it and was well chuffed with the half dozen beers i gave him.
The great bit is that it turns out that his Dad works for a distillery on Speyside. I now have access to malted barley from their floor. Isn't it nice when a kindness is returned? As i have not dealt with this before i have to assume that i will need to buy a grain mill to crush the malt? As another aside, a mate of mines father in law is an 82 year old engineer who just won't give up. He had the most massive of his machines sold off when he closed his biz but kept the least massive (14 ft lathes etc) in his garage. He likes a project so i thought i could ask him to knock me up a grain mill (aye for cash) but i wouldn't know where to start! Does anyone have any drawings of a grain mill that they can recommend we build spec to? I would like it to be drill operated or hand cranked. Any advice much appreciated.
Whiskey malted barley mill
- seymour
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Re: Whiskey malted barley mill
I bought an inexpensive Corona grain mill: http://www.amazon.com/Hopper-Cast-Grind ... grain+mill
When researching these mills, lots of negative feedback appeared, but it was almost always because it didn't produce fine flour. That's not a fair complaint, in my opinion, since these mills are used for cracking corn kernals into course cornmeal (tortillas, cornbread, etc). Since we brewers just need to crack the malts, not pulverize them into flour, the Corona mill is fine. And you can even replace the hand-crank with a bolt for your power drill.
When researching these mills, lots of negative feedback appeared, but it was almost always because it didn't produce fine flour. That's not a fair complaint, in my opinion, since these mills are used for cracking corn kernals into course cornmeal (tortillas, cornbread, etc). Since we brewers just need to crack the malts, not pulverize them into flour, the Corona mill is fine. And you can even replace the hand-crank with a bolt for your power drill.
Re: Whiskey malted barley mill
That looks good Seymour. Only thing is i am looking to put the project to the old engineer so i'm not looking for prebuilt. The old boy will enjoy the challenge and i'll have a grain mill that will pulverise a field full in a moment. He has a tendency to over engineer! I looked around on the net this morning and there is plenty of choice. I'll try and keep it light weight so i'll knovk up a fag packet drawing and see what he says. Cheers!
Re: Whiskey malted barley mill
There have been similar discussions on the homebrewtalk forum. Try searching on there for "grain mill plans" or grain mill CAD".
Here is a link to one such discussion: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/grain-mill-cad-45420/
Good luck!
Jim
Here is a link to one such discussion: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/grain-mill-cad-45420/
Good luck!
Jim