Grain grinding/milling

[Chris.vS Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chris.vS]

Hi, newbie queation here. Can I use a meat mincer to grind my grain for BIAB brewing?

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[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

A meat mincer, as I have it, force the meat through tiny holes with pressure. That won't work for the grain, as it's dry and will just clog it up. I may be wrong, but that's my take on the matter.

[BeerHolic Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BeerHolic]

A meat mincer, as I have it, force the meat through tiny holes with pressure. That won't work for the grain, as it's dry and will just clog it up. I may be wrong, but that's my take on the matter.

Yep I beleive that is correct.

[jakeslouw Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jakeslouw]

No you cannot.

[jakeslouw Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close jakeslouw]

Nick at Brewcraft will mill for you if you buy from them.

[Chris.vS Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chris.vS]

Thanks for confirming. That was what I suspected but worth asking.

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[Rocket-Boy Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Rocket-Boy]

Its only worth milling your own if you are buying big bags at a time. I went through the exercise of mill cost/vs savings and its just cheaper for me to buy pre-milled from shops.

[Toxxyc Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Toxxyc]

Its only worth milling your own if you are buying big bags at a time. I went through the exercise of mill cost/vs savings and its just cheaper for me to buy pre-milled from shops.

That's true. Mills are expensive, but to me it's more than just raw cost. Bulk malt is cheaper, you can keep stock on hand and you don't have to make trips to the shop every time you want to brew. I can typically brew around 10 batches between trips to the brew shop, so it saves a lot of time and fuel as well.

[Chris.vS Junior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chris.vS]

I am fortunate to live 2 km away from Brew Mart, for now I will buy what I need when I need it. The issue wth shop ground is you have no controll over the size of the grind but as I am a total newby I am sure grind size is the least of my problems.

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[BeerHolic Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close BeerHolic]

Graind my own grains with Corona mill (personally no need for anything better).
Do BIAB, so a fine graind.

Order bulk hops, base malts and yeast once or twice a year from BevPlus.
Order speciality malts, caramel malts, DME and yeast from BrewCraft once a year.
Bulk hops from SA Hop farms once a year.

BrewCraft is my closest LHBS, 120km away.

[PaBz0r Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close PaBz0r]

I also have yet to have an issue with the Corona Mill, I have built it into a bucket that I put over another bucket, with a drill it makes quick work of the +/- 5KG of malt I use a batch.

[AlexBrew Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close AlexBrew]

Its only worth milling your own if you are buying big bags at a time. I went through the exercise of mill cost/vs savings and its just cheaper for me to buy pre-milled from shops.

I did a calc once when I wanted to buy a grain mill. The cost of the Menace mill was about R2700 with all the additions that I needed.. I calculated the cost of buying bulk grain (25kgs) and off the shelf base malt (1kgs) is about 1/3 saving and I can buy speciality malt per 3kgs instead of 0.5kgs and there's another 1/3 saving. These 1/3 savings calculated with the amount of litres I brew, I would pay off the malt mill in 18months of brewing.. which to-date is about that time.

So the malt mill has been paid off by the savings of buying in bulk. Plus I now have a fair stock of a variety of malts and can brew almost any beer without going to the shop everytime (which for me is another R200 up and down fuel).

You'll have complete control over the grain cruch especially with wheat additions to a barley grist. On the flip side you might have storage issues, especially when hoarding and keeping inventory of what you have got is important but good brewing software can help with that.

[Harhm Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Harhm]

I paid off more than 5 mills to date, just buy it and get it over with, its worth the money

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[Chris_za1 Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close Chris_za1]

Ok I think it's time to upgrade to Mill and do my own stuff rather than buying small 3kg and paying courier every time.

Will this work fine? Is it a drag to mill 4kg of malt - https://www.brewcraft.co.za/products...172c3415&_ss=r

Secondly, Do you know if brewcraft sells 25kg bags?

[PaBz0r Senior Member Find all posts View Profile Close PaBz0r]

I hand cranked my mill a lot of times, takes about 20minutes for 5kg. Use a drill and it goes much quicker.

Have a look at this thread for some inspiration for mods.. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads...station.90849/

Brewcraft sell 25kg bags, not sure how you order it, try via email first.. (they do offer discount on bulk purchases)