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Anybody use a utility auger or Flo-jet 4" auger for a nano brewery?

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  • #16
    Originally posted by ChesterBrew View Post
    Understandable... we're not going to buy 2-row by the pallet and instead use it the week it arrives. For at least the first year, it makes more sense for us to pay more for pre-milled instead of the cost of creating a dedicated mill space.
    We're just too far away from a supplier for that to make sense. Real estate is not our "biggest" problem for our size.

    I've been using my home brew mill with a 5 gal water jug with the bottom cut off as a grain bin. Works fine but slow. I had to weld an old Ryobi hand drill to the shaft to stop if from slipping. So far it's milled about 4 tons of grains.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
    JC McDowell
    Bandit Brewing Co.- 3bbl brewery and growing
    Darby, MT- population 700
    OPENED Black Friday 2014!

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    • #17
      I've thought about this as well, mostly in terms of speeding up the process of the one man mash-in.
      What about rather than creating an auger to handle the grain, you were to set up something to help stir?



      Modify the stir part for grain, small paddles with holes maybe.

      It seems like a simple bracket would hold it in place, switch it on and add grain. Seems like that would speed up the process and take away part of the physical side as well.

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      • #18
        garbage tote/lift

        This was mentioned earlier but I'll say it again. Use a garbage tote bin and a small lift. I built a stand to raise my mill up off the ground just high enough to slide a garbage tote underneath (new from home depot). All grain is milled into these totes. I then use a small pallet stacker fitted with a platform to raise the bin up to the height of the mashtun (look around on craigslist for one). The bins have been modified with a slidegate from a dust collection system so that it can be opened and grain feeds out via gravity. When you get close to the end you have to reach in to help it along but it's not a big deal. The last little bit gets dumped into a bucket and then thrown in the mash. I'd hate to see you cobble together a vacuum system or low budget auger system that causes you constant headaches and may not work as well as you hoped.

        I ran a 7 bbl brewhouse this way COMPLETELY by myself for over a year. Using an auger at a nano size seems to me to be equivalent to having $5,000 rims on a $200 car...

        The bins were about $80 (I have 3). The slide gate another $30 or so each. The lift was $350 on craigslist and needed a new battery which cost $100. The plywood was laying around here somewhere. I paid a friend $100 to weld the stand. Other than the lift there's no moving parts so chances of the system malfunctioning or not working as designed are low.

        I'm terrible at getting pic's to look right on here but I'll try anyway..
        Attached Files
        Last edited by yap; 10-19-2015, 06:27 AM.
        Scott LaFollette
        Fifty West Brewing Company
        Cincinnati, Ohio

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        • #19
          Good Picts- my brewery is real tight. But I like the idea- I mill about 10- 5 gallon buckets per batch; which would fit into one trash can.

          Do you stir like hell as it dumps in or have a mixer inside? I would be concerned with the grain just piling up in the mash tun.


          Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
          JC McDowell
          Bandit Brewing Co.- 3bbl brewery and growing
          Darby, MT- population 700
          OPENED Black Friday 2014!

          Comment


          • #20
            I have a small step ladder that I get on so that I can stir the mash. You definitely have to stir. You can adjust the flow of grain by open/closing the slide gate more/less. I just use a boat oar and stir the mash so that it is constantly in a state of "whirlpool". All water is in mash tun before any grain so this is very easy at first and gets a bit tougher by the end. Most (if not all) of the bolt on drum type mixers aren't going to be strong enough torgue-wise to mix a mash thoroughly enough.

            The lift I am using is a bit bulky, but again, it was cheap. If you look around you may find something smaller (such as a keg lift as mentioned earlier). I never have issues with stuck mashes/doughballs etc. doing it this way.
            Scott LaFollette
            Fifty West Brewing Company
            Cincinnati, Ohio

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            • #21
              I was in Layton Ut for a conference at the Hilton Garden and across the parking lot was Roosters Bewery/restaurant. They used a utility auger with a ceiling winch to raise and lower the pipe out of the way when not in use. They milled separate then dumped the milled grain I to the auger into the mash tun, it looked liked a grist hydrate was attached to the dump into the mash tun.


              Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
              JC McDowell
              Bandit Brewing Co.- 3bbl brewery and growing
              Darby, MT- population 700
              OPENED Black Friday 2014!

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              • #22
                I overcame my short term problem by hiring a 25 year old part timer to do the heavy lifting.


                Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
                JC McDowell
                Bandit Brewing Co.- 3bbl brewery and growing
                Darby, MT- population 700
                OPENED Black Friday 2014!

                Comment


                • #23
                  just saw this thread and got me thinking. when the truck comes to deliver grain into our silo they just push it with compressed air. couldnt you do something similar with air? i guess you'd need a bin large enough to hold all the milled grain, and while not air-tight at least with tight enough closure to let the air pressure push the grain up and out a 2--3-4inch pvc tube to drop into your MT. control the pressure, control the flow rate....i would think.


                  or go back to the shop vac idea. you ever used a shop vac and accidentally put the hose on the wrong port? all the crap and dust in the tank comes shooting out the side.....

                  that could be your milled grain. if the vac was at a similar height to your MT, with a long enough hose (maybe buy an extension piece of hose) you could have the hose down into your milled grain bin/receptacle, sucking it up the hose and into your vac. if you take out the filter then it should just go right into the vac tank and would likely get blown right out the side outlet port - which you could point right into your mash tun. when you're done milling i'd guess you'd have to dump some remaining grain out of the vac into your mash but it should basically just keep running as long as you're milling.

                  or at least thats how it works in my mind....

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                  • #24
                    these look cool



                    i have seen the same but chain. chain disc conveyor.

                    work smarter not harder right

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