grain mill

[forgeblast]

Hi all i just bought a grain mill for homebrewing. It has a file like texture on it.
I am guessing that i could not use it for making flour or for rolling oats.
What kind of gap would i need to do this currently at (.045)?
Would i need smooth faced rollers for making flour or for making oat meal?
Thanks in advance
Forgeblast

 

[jimg]

Are you burrs replaceable? If so they could be replaced w/ those for a flour mill. Not sure what that would be though.

I thought rolled oats werent milled (ground) but steam rolled.

 

[reb]

I have an electric mill and a hand mill. Both use stones for making flour. The hand mill has inserts like you describe for coarse grinding, for coarse corn meal or the like.

 

[forgeblast]

So for the coarse grain i could use the ones i currently have. But to make flour, i would need smooth ones? Do you grind it coarse and then smooth it out or go for broke on the first try?

 

[Egon]

I think doing the milling in two or three stages will give better results.

Don't stockpile a lot of milled flour as it will degenerate over time. It also makes some pretty hard solid bread loafs.

We have an old hand cranked grinder that requires at least three runs to get close to flour. It was old when I first saw it as a young lad and is now a lot older. We used it to grind oats for the chickens mostly.

Later on I refurbished it and moved it into the kitchen as utility/ornamentation value.

It was hard cranking.

 

[forgeblast]

I hear you, i have air tight drums for holding the brewing grains. From grind to use should not be more then 20-30 days, stuff gets old and moldy.
I have a hand crank for it, but its made to be run by drill.
Egon was your mill smooth or coarse on the rollers.
Bty, .045 will crack the grain but not pulverize it. That way you can get the sugars out of the barley, and the hulls provide drainage so that your siphon does not get stuck and clogged.
later
forgeblast

 

[Egon]

The hand mill we have has plates with coarse groves that are adjusted by spring tension. It is not really designed for making grinding to flour quality.

I'd love to be able to start brewing from scratch but space is not adequate and I do hate washing bottles. Many year ago I did brew some of my own and was very pleased with the taste one could get. Messing around with the hops and keeping a low alcohol content was also interesting. Maybe if I can ever get a decent barley crop!

Fortunately; we now have a much greater selection of beer available and one can find some that still stick to the original brewing procedures. And my waist.

 

[RobertN]

What mill did you get? Jack Scmidling's invention?

MaltMill, grain mill

 

[reb]

So for the coarse grain i could use the ones i currently have. But to make flour, i would need smooth ones? Do you grind it coarse and then smooth it out or go for broke on the first try?

I grind mine in one pass.

 

[forgeblast]

CrankandStein. It is the adjustable model with the hopper.