Grain Mill Upgrade! My shine life is gettin easier.

Any hardware used for mashing, fermenting or aging.

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Hillbilly Popstar
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Grain Mill Upgrade! My shine life is gettin easier.

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

My old habit was to set my grain mull over my 30 gal mash tun, propped up on a couple 2x4s. It was messy because I always had to stuff the openings around the side with a few towels and I still had some fine powder escape.
It also constantly needed to be re-centered due to vibrations and what not...

So I came up with this little manifold.

It has handles so two people can easily move it around, a groove to perfectly set on top of the rim of the mash tun barrel, and I used a router with a flush trim bit to open er up perfectly under the mill bottom.

Simple, yet elegant.
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Re: Grain Mill Upgrade! My shine life is gettin easier.

Post by Yummyrum »

:clap: nice .
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Re: Grain Mill Upgrade! My shine life is gettin easier.

Post by Demy »

Good job :thumbup:
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Re: Grain Mill Upgrade! My shine life is gettin easier.

Post by Bushman »

Nice setup I think you will be happy!
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Re: Grain Mill Upgrade! My shine life is gettin easier.

Post by Dancing4dan »

Nice!!
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Re: Grain Mill Upgrade! My shine life is gettin easier.

Post by Twisted Brick »

Thoughtful solution, HbP. That corn grind has to translate into a high conversion rate.
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Re: Grain Mill Upgrade! My shine life is gettin easier.

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

Twisted Brick wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 4:43 pm Thoughtful solution, HbP. That corn grind has to translate into a high conversion rate.
I wish it were higher than I have been achieving.

Hitting between 1.065-1.07 with roughly 2.5 lbs/gal.
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Re: Grain Mill Upgrade! My shine life is gettin easier.

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Hillbilly Popstar wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 6:31 pm
Twisted Brick wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 4:43 pm Thoughtful solution, HbP. That corn grind has to translate into a high conversion rate.
I wish it were higher than I have been achieving.

Hitting between 1.065-1.07 with roughly 2.5 lbs/gal.
It might be your corn instead of processes. Is it milled from cracked corn?

I switched to restaurant cornmeal (Restaurant Depot) some time ago and started getting 1.068-1.070 from 2.-2.25lbs lbs/gal. This on crappy metropolitan city chlorinated tap water. Previously, with milled feedstore cracked corn it was 1.062-1.065-ish. Typical mash regime: dough-in at 200F, add HT alpha at 185F, rest 150-180min. Add backset, gluco and malts at 151F; force chill with wort chiller and cold water. The taste seems cleaner and I love not having to mill my corn and just pouring it into the mash tun.
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Re: Grain Mill Upgrade! My shine life is gettin easier.

Post by Truckinbutch »

I mill whole corn . It has a better shelf life than cracked corn .
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Re: Grain Mill Upgrade! My shine life is gettin easier.

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

Truckinbutch wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 9:04 pm I mill whole corn . It has a better shelf life than cracked corn .
I just recently switched to whole corn.

I figure it has to have a little more starch available since the cracked corn has a percentage of cob mixed in. Iunno...
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Re: Grain Mill Upgrade! My shine life is gettin easier.

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

Twisted Brick wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 7:58 pm
Hillbilly Popstar wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 6:31 pm
Twisted Brick wrote: Mon Jan 24, 2022 4:43 pm Thoughtful solution, HbP. That corn grind has to translate into a high conversion rate.
I wish it were higher than I have been achieving.

Hitting between 1.065-1.07 with roughly 2.5 lbs/gal.
It might be your corn instead of processes. Is it milled from cracked corn?

I switched to restaurant cornmeal (Restaurant Depot) some time ago and started getting 1.068-1.070 from 2.-2.25lbs lbs/gal. This on crappy metropolitan city chlorinated tap water. Previously, with milled feedstore cracked corn it was 1.062-1.065-ish. Typical mash regime: dough-in at 200F, add HT alpha at 185F, rest 150-180min. Add backset, gluco and malts at 151F; force chill with wort chiller and cold water. The taste seems cleaner and I love not having to mill my corn and just pouring it into the mash tun.
It's hard to beat $9 for a 50lb sack of triple clean corn though.
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Re: Grain Mill Upgrade! My shine life is gettin easier.

Post by Deplorable »

Thats a good price. Wish it was that cheap here. Sounds like you're at a crossroads of higher price for higher OG, or the lower price, more work lower OG.

For me, the whole corn is almost $.50/ pound cheaper and close at hand. I'm okay with taking the time to mill it. I lose a little efficiency, but not enough to justify the $18.50+ extra I'd pay for every mash. My mashes are 25 gallons, it takes at least 3 to make enough product to fill a 5 gallon barrel. That's an extra $55 per barrel, or I can spend that added cost on the malts, and keep my final cost/bottle $1.50 lower. YMMV
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Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

Deplorable wrote: Tue Jan 25, 2022 6:54 am Thats a good price. Wish it was that cheap here. Sounds like you're at a crossroads of higher price for higher OG, or the lower price, more work lower OG.

For me, the whole corn is almost $.50/ pound cheaper and close at hand. I'm okay with taking the time to mill it. I lose a little efficiency, but not enough to justify the $18.50+ extra I'd pay for every mash. My mashes are 25 gallons, it takes at least 3 to make enough product to fill a 5 gallon barrel. That's an extra $55 per barrel, or I can spend that added cost on the malts, and keep my final cost/bottle $1.50 lower. YMMV
I try not to think about it too much, cause if I do it probably wouldn't take much arm twisting to convince myself to just spend the extra money and go the lazy man's route.

But the purist in me like doing things from scratch, plus I like that I can make high quality drink for pennies on the dollar. I think last time I worked the math I was around $7/qt for straight corn likker.
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Re: Grain Mill Upgrade! My shine life is gettin easier.

Post by Deplorable »

I hope that cost is including your water, labor, and whatever energy source heats your boiler.
I dont factor the cost of water and energy or my time. Just grains and yeast. My straight corn whiskey cost me $7/gal @60% for grain and yeast.
If I were to factor in all the vodka I made from the years supply of discarded feints, I could lower my per gallon material cost considerably across all the booze I made last year.

I'm with you. I take some pride in the fact that I'm making good quality spirits for under $2 a fifth. Milling my own grains in a mill I brought back from the dead just adds to it.
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Re: Grain Mill Upgrade! My shine life is gettin easier.

Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

Deplorable wrote: Tue Jan 25, 2022 7:50 am I hope that cost is including your water, labor, and whatever energy source heats your boiler.
I dont factor the cost of water and energy or my time. Just grains and yeast. My straight corn whiskey cost me $7/gal @60% for grain and yeast.
If I were to factor in all the vodka I made from the years supply of discarded feints, I could lower my per gallon material cost considerably across all the booze I made last year.

I'm with you. I take some pride in the fact that I'm making good quality spirits for under $2 a fifth. Milling my own grains in a mill I brought back from the dead just adds to it.
Yeah, that includes enzymes, adjuncts for nutes and pH, propane, grain and a rough estimate for water.
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Re: Grain Mill Upgrade! My shine life is gettin easier.

Post by BlueSasquatch »

Nice work man! I've got a wood CNC and that gives me some ideas!

Almost finished this grinder last winter but then it got put on hold. It's a cheap $25 amazon grinder that we have sunk in much more time and $$ than it's worth, but hey the material was all free and it was a fun project. We have legs out of square tubing cut, just needs welded on, and then probably replace the drill with a motor and variable power control.

Figure we can easily enough swap out the grinder if it fails on us, for another mere $25

Image
Had a hard time finding a plastic tube in our scrap pile the width needed, so went with some steel, and then had to shorten it, so that one could pour into the hopper without a ladder.

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Post by Ben »

Awesome. Huge hopper for that 5 gallon bucket :lol:
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Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

I thought the same thing. :lol:
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Post by Deplorable »

I never considered the cost of the enzymes in. I'd have to do the math on how far the liter bottles go.
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Post by subbrew »

BlueSasquatch wrote: Tue Jan 25, 2022 8:15 am
Had a hard time finding a plastic tube in our scrap pile the width needed, so went with some steel, and then had to shorten it, so that one could pour into the hopper without a ladder.

I want your scrap pile. That is very heavy duty. Remove the hopper and add a ramp and you could use it to lift cars to allow easier access.
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Post by squigglefunk »

i love the grain mill, nice job hillbilly
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Post by Hillbilly Popstar »

Thanks 😊
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Post by Ben »

That plastic conical would make a sweet fermenter if it hasn't had anything toxic in it.
:)
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