Nano Brewery Grain Handling

[NigeltheBold]

I'm starting a 3bbl nano brewery and one aspect that I'm a little worried about is grain handling. I know larger breweries use huge grain mills and auger systems to move milled grain from the mill to the mash tun, but what do smaller breweries typically do? What size mills are appropriate, and what's the most common way of loading a mash tun with milled grain?

Do most people just fill totes with milled grain and manually dump it into the mash? How much grain gets milled at a time/how big should a mill hopper be?

Sorry for so many questions!

[CSBC]

As I am starting a 3bbl brewery myself, I have a lot of local support. I will be getting my base malts premilled from BSG because they just bought Crosby and Baker here in Atlanta and they can premill and I can pick up weekly. The local brewshop will also supply all my specialty malts and allow me to mill there. Putting a mill in your brewery will require ventilation for the dust, and also fire suppression. I recommend finding a mill that will handle a 50# bag at a time. Then you fill into that bag, carry that bag to your mash tun, and dump it in.

If you can start off with something like that and then work your way up to a nice mill, there ya go. Also, a mill with an auger is def. nice, but is it necessary for a 5 foot tank?!

[CaptainEBC]

We use black trash cans and mill about 50 lbs into each one. For mashing in, we used to just lift them up and dump them in, until we rigged up a pulley system to save our backs. It works really well. It was supposed to just be a temporary fix until I bought and installed a flex auger, but it works well enough as is.

We did a blog post on the installation and theres also a video. Scroll to the bottom half of the page.

http://enegrenbrewing.com/blog/page/2

[NigeltheBold]

We use black trash cans and mill about 50 lbs into each one. For mashing in, we used to just lift them up and dump them in, until we rigged up a pulley system to save our backs. It works really well. It was supposed to just be a temporary fix until I bought and installed a flex auger, but it works well enough as is.

We did a blog post on the installation and theres also a video. Scroll to the bottom half of the page.

http://enegrenbrewing.com/blog/page/2

Fantastic, Chris. Yet another helpful reply!

This would be a nice and inexpensive way to make things easier. I think I see carabiners on the ends of the ropes, but do they connect straight onto the trash can handles? Or is there some sort of connector on the trash can as well?

Also, what size/kind of mill do you guys use?

[CaptainEBC]

I forget the exact model # of the mill, but we got it from Premier Stainless.

I took it off the mount it came on and bolted it to a mobile wooden table. Since it produces a lot of dust, we wheel the thing outside and mill right into the grain cans. A 50 lb bag sits nicely on the hopper.

http://enegrenbrewing.com/blog/brewery-construction/mobile-automatic-grain-munching-unit/attachment/mobile-automatic-grain-munching-unit-2

The carabiners hook directly to the trash can handles for the pulley system.

[NigeltheBold]

I forget the exact model # of the mill, but we got it from Premier Stainless.

I took it off the mount it came on and bolted it to a mobile wooden table. Since it produces a lot of dust, we wheel the thing outside and mill right into the grain cans. A 50 lb bag sits nicely on the hopper.

http://enegrenbrewing.com/blog/brewery-construction/mobile-automatic-grain-munching-unit/attachment/mobile-automatic-grain-munching-unit-2

The carabiners hook directly to the trash can handles for the pulley system.

And what about quantities of grain that are less than 50 lbs ? How do you store specialty grains and weigh them out before milling? Sorry if these questions are stupid...

[CaptainEBC]

We bought a 12" X 12" digital shipping scale at Staples. We put the trash cans on that, hit tare and start pouring.

No worries about the questions. I've asked a thousand when we started. I'm just paying it back now.

[NigeltheBold]

We bought a 12" X 12" digital shipping scale at Staples. We put the trash cans on that, hit tare and start pouring.

No worries about the questions. I've asked a thousand when we started. I'm just paying it back now.

That's pretty much what I was planning on doing. Luckily, scales aren't terribly expensive.

Thanks man!

[russdog63]

jimboni malt mills

My friend Jim builds malt mills that will fit your purpose.

https://www.maltmills.com

[Cambria Beer Co]

My friend Jim builds malt mills that will fit your purpose.
www.maltmills.com

Another recommendation for this guy! His mill eats up a bag of grain in about 90 seconds.

[NigeltheBold]

Thanks, guys. I'll shoot him an email and see what he has to say.

[callmetim]

I just use a monster miill 3 roll with a 1/2 dewalt drill hooped up to it. I start by filling up the tank with my strike water and turn on teh burners and then mill my grains. by the time I am done milling my strike water is heated up. I am doing 150-300 3 this way. I was buying premilled but it costs about 5 cents per pund. if it takes my 1 hour to mill 300 pounds that $15. so I look at that as $15 per hour I just made in a time I would just be standing around watching the thermometer go up. my mill with teh drill cost about $400 and I have been using it for 2.5 years.

[kbills]

I use a Monster Mill with a corded drill which runs at 540 rpm max, dialed down a bit. This is mounted on a stand built to take a trash can that has wheels. With the added hopper on the Monster Mill, I can put a full bag of malt in and walk away. It will crush the whole bag in about 5 minutes.

I store my base malt on a pallet next to the mill, and specialty malt in a loft above. I pour the specialties in to buckets on a shipping scale. Most of my recipes end up with 1-2 buckets of specialties, so those get measured out while the base malt is crushing.

Opened bags of malt are then stored in large Rubbermaid type contains that no critters can get in. The bags that probably last the longest are the Black, Roasted Barley, and Chocolate malts. However, these are still used within the 6 month limit for unmilled malt.

-Kevin

[NigeltheBold]

So for the rest of you, do you just lift the grain can and dump it into your mash tun? Or do you have some sort of auger or pulley system?

I like the pulley idea, but I noticed that two people were brewing in the video that is posted on EBC's website. I doubt we will have two people brewing at a time (unless we get some volunteers to help for free ). It wouldn't be too difficult to dump the grain in by myself, but I would be worried that it would clump-up and make doughballs if someone isn't stirring it as it's being dumped in.

[brewmaster 2011]

you know you can buy your grain pre-milled from bsg!!!