Why are there no fully electric/automated grain mill?

A: this is likely a question for the Hombrew forum. Because:

B: the thing you're asking about exists. In every commercial brewery. It's on the MEL (Minimum Equipment List).

Plenty of homebrewers have the answers to your questions, I suspect the answer lies in your personal level of interest.

Good luck homeslice!

 

Most homebrewers are not too interested in spending $1,000 for an automated grain mill. Not much market for that in our world.
Everyone has a drill though.

If you really need to blow a grand on a piece of equipment that relieves you of the burden of using a drill for 5 minutes then yes, you can indeed buy a fully automated* grain mill.

Cheers

*I use a drill on my mill and never thought it was less than fully automated.

 

Welcome to the affliction Rysbow.

It might be a price-point v. demand type thing.
Most of the ‘fully automated’ commercially available grain mills I’ve come across are targeted to grinding grain to flour and use blades instead of rollers….like a food processor. Results are too fine for mashing (minimal homebrew demand for that). The few suitable ones I found are pricey.
Homebrewers are often of the DIY persuasion. Using a hand drill attached to the grain mill shaft is not uncommon. Some folks permanently mount an old (or new) electric motor and use reducing pulleys as needed to get the RPM to a suitable speed. An interweb search can return how-to’s for accomplishing that, or for sourcing motorizing kits.

I’d think better/best results are determined by gap setting, roller speed and quality of the rollers; and not so much whether the power source is manual or electric.

If cost isn’t a factor there’s a used one at MoreBeer with a 60 lb capacity…..and it’s on sale for $1,800.
https://www.morebeer.com/products/morebeers-ultimill-ultimate-grain-mill.html?a_aid=homebrewing
There are probably cheaper ready-to-go options.

 

SS Brewtech is working on one too, but again, price is where this will probably not be worth while.

https://www.ssbrewtech.com/pages/ss-grain-mill?_pos=1&_sid=ccbb7ff7c&_ss=r

 

Welcome to the BA site, Rysbow, and to the Homebrewing forum. Depending on you skill level at carpentry, you could create a wooden stand to hold your drill along with some clamps, an in-line on/off switch, etc. That shouldn't be very difficult.

Good luck finding what you want.

 

Says $799 at the bottom of the page. Way more than I would spend, but doesn’t seem unreasonable for what you get.

 

Not being a homebrewer, this is something I've never thought about. But, now that I have, it wouldn't be much hassle to rig up an old bicycle driveline to do the job.

5 minutes with a drill, or 20 turning the cranks by hand. I know what I would choose.

 

And if yer handy,,,, set up a electric motor and attach pulleys with a belt and , of course, a designated area for your milling an you got it.

 

Most homebrewers I know are frugal. Several do have the motor with belt and pulleys set up that they put together. Most AC motors need the speed stepped down, and the belt will slip if a pebble jams the mill.

 

just have to point out the error in this post...not every commercial brewery has a grain mill and is actually becoming less and less common...at least in this country...not sure about the Pope's brewery though. Grain wholesalers like BSG & Country Malt will mill the grains for the breweries for pennies on the bag to the breweries specs...so a lot more breweries are going this route because less overhead, way less mess to clean up, not to mention the fire hazard. I actually heard a middle-aged brewery lament the fact they bought one and built a dedicated room for it. Cheers!

That said...as I homebrewer, couldn't imagine operating without mine. It's not a looker, but just have an old garage door opener rigged up with a pulley system (as described earlier in the thread) to the mill. It will overheat and shut down for like 10 minutes at a time when I'm milling 30+plus pounds at a whack, but always eventually gets the job done. I have an old computer fan I'll blow on it when I'm doing a big grain mill...think it helps.

 

Huh, never heard of that. Once a brewery gets to a certain size, and they receive their base malt in bulk, a mill is still needed. I'm having a hard time picturing any brewery producing more than a couple thousand barrels a year (if that) using all bagged malt. So much work, cost, and waste.

 

Smaller breweries get pre- milled grain. I know of 2 off the top of my head in the local area, and they are less than 1000 bbl,/year. It does cost $1.00 bag to have it milled. They don't need a separate mill room, real estate in one isn't available. They use bags at that size, so no big labor savings.

 

I guess my setup is auto. The old millers falls gear reduction drill attached to the mill and the trigger set to on. Plug in and grind.

Sort a auto??.

 

I saw a full auto setup yesterday that used a drill. The drill body was supported by a block of wood, and the drill was rotated on its drilling axis so that one side of the butt of the handle pushes against the table (to keep the drill from rotating when in use). Pretty interesting idea, and it was working perfectly.

 

There have been threads in this forum that ask for grain mill recommendations, so if you don't already have a mill you can check out the threads in this link for advice. https://www.beeradvocate.com/commun...q=grain+mill&o=date&c[title_only]=1&c[node]=8

 

@VikeMan that is what I have set up. Must be you were visiting the barn, hahahahahahahaha