Grain Bulk Order

[Stubbie]

S'pose it can't hurt to ask..........?

With rising interest rates, I'm looking at stretching my HB $ as far as it will go. So I'm looking at buying a few 25kg sacks of grain. Living in a Melb NW suburb, I like the idea of buying grain from CraftBrewer, directly thru their warehouse in Derrimut. But a 20 sack minimum is way way beyond any of my ambitions. Getting together with a few mates and splitting a bulk order sounds like a great idea, but all my HB mates are exclusively with the kits and bits brigade.

So, if by some slim chance, there's a HB co-op, say near Melb, looking at putting together a grain bulk order, and perhaps needs some help in making up the numbers, I'm very interested

Cheers

[lethaldog]

Your best bet would be to contact the Grain and Grape in yarraville, they are competitive on price and stock just about anything you could want

[SpillsMostOfIt]

'They' occasionally organise such a bulk buy over on the AHB place.

When you buy a bag of grain like that, you have to crush the stuff. I've just finished crushing nearly forty kilograms of grain with a Marga Mill and a cordless drill. I'm over it. Entirely.

Also on the AHB forum, they're discussing the Turbo Bentley of grain crushers. Once you buy a grain mill and all the bits you need to make it work, you have coughed up a *lot* of cash.

Or, as lethaldog suggests, you can buy into the grain book at G&G and all your problems go away. It works out that you pay a very small amount for a great deal of convenience.

[rwh]

When you buy a bag of grain like that, you have to crush the stuff. I've just finished crushing nearly forty kilograms of grain with a Marga Mill and a cordless drill. I'm over it. Entirely.

Why? Did the battery discharge? Did you get covered in grain dust? Was it too slow? I'm thinking about motorising my Marga, except I'd do it with a decent corded drill...

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Why? Did the battery discharge? Did you get covered in grain dust? Was it too slow?

All that was the case, but I'm over it because it just isn't fun. I was using our old kitchen scales and a Brita jug to weigh the grain and tip it into the wooden hopper for the Marga. The hopper takes about 1.5kg at a time. When the bucket filled, I tipped it into a Joe White Maltings bag until it became full, then started filling 20litre plastic buckets. I've got a bag plus two buckets full.

I enjoy cleaning fermenters more than I enjoy crushing grain with the Marga. (For the record, I borrow this mill from a friend, so I make no complaint.)

I'm thinking about motorising my Marga, except I'd do it with a decent corded drill...

If I was to do the mill thing myself (which I currently cannot see the benefit of, but if G&G closed down or I moved too far away or something, I would have to rethink), I would fix a motor to the mill so the process would be something like:

Weigh grain in one go.
Push button.
Dump grain into hopper.
Sip tea/coffee.
Push button.
Move grain to mashing vessel.

In that situation, the least expensive part of the mill would be the mill.

If you buy the right motor (not too expensive), you can change out the mill as/when you want.

[Trough Lolly]

I've just finished crushing nearly forty kilograms of grain with a Marga Mill and a cordless drill. I'm over it. Entirely.

Holy crap that's a big batch of beer! I whip out the Marga and crush 4-5kgs the day before brewday, by hand, and that'll do me!

Cheers,
TL

[drsmurto]

I crush (whilst HLT is coming to temp) on brewday using my marga - takes me 20 mins for 4-5kg of grain, hand cranking like a MOFO.

As far as bulk buys go, i got in via AHB. Its nice to be able to brew at the drop of a hat rather than planning too far in advance. Like the days when i just cant be arsed going to work.....

[Trough Lolly]

P.S. Time for some more beerporn!!!

[drsmurto]

Wow!

Who does that belong to?

[Kevnlis]

Love the VW TL! I see you do nothing by halves

[Trough Lolly]

I wish it was mine! This setup and car is owned by one of the club members (Martin) who's done a fantastic job of automating his mill. Thought you'd like to see them!

As for a hopper, I did what Ross posted on AHB last year and taped a stormwater drain fitting to the hopper of the mill - it takes a batch of grain in one go!



Cheers,
TL

[drsmurto]

I took that pic along with me to several plumbing outlets and hardware shops and they all asked where where i had got it from as its outdated. Noone could sell me the bits so i ended up with a mish mash of parts that i havent bothered to assemble yet. One of the places is where plumbers go to buy their gear!

[Trough Lolly]

I picked one up off the shelf at Bunnings in Tuggeranong....I didn't know they were that hard to find?

Cheers,
TL

[SpillsMostOfIt]

Holy crap that's a big batch of beer! I whip out the Marga and crush 4-5kgs the day before brewday, by hand, and that'll do me!

I don't wish to hijack the conversation thread (too much), but I have designed a brewery using bits and pieces that I expect will produce 100 litres of 1.092 OG wort. A bunch of guys are coming around on Sunday with their allocated stuff to brew this beer.

We'll have two electric HLTs on my first floor balcony generating lots of hot water for mashing and sparging. The mash tun is a 135litre plastic storer insulated with cardboard, bottomed with crushed quartz and lined with swiss voile. It will be sitting on milk crates. We will have a 20 litre electric kettle providing boiling water to adjust temperature as necessary. There will be two gas-fired boil kettles boiling for two hours to reduce the wort to the desired point. We will be FWH'ing with PoR and flavouring with EKG at 10-20mins from flame-out. The intention is to ferment with US-05 - I'm brewing a nice Nelson Sauvin APA right now to generate an adequate supply of yeast.

It's gunna be a big beer and a big day.

[Trough Lolly]

So how did it go???

[SpillsMostOfIt]

We had a great time. We made a metric shedload of beer. I collected about 25litres more sweet liquor than we needed. I boiled that down to less than 10litres and LDME'd it up to about 1.120 then pitched some yeast into it.

I decided to pitch Nottingham into the Wee Heavy instead and am procrastinating.

Otherwise... Details here -> http://sillybeertricks.blogspot.com/200 ... h-tun.html

[Stubbie]

Oh, BTW, thanks for the earlier pointers.

As it happens, I'm already in the G&G grain book and agree it's an extremely convenient facility. I was simply considering other options.........

Cheers.

[drsmurto]

Wouldn't you know it, went to a big garden store on the weekend and saw one of the storm water drain diverters sitting there. Bugger. Have already bought an alternative so will connect it all up and see how it goes, at least I know where to source one.

[Trough Lolly]

I simply gaff taped the diverter to the existing grain tray on top of the Marga - I can easily load around 4-5kg of grains into the diverter which is a heap easier than constantly having to stop to fill the piddly tray that the mill came with. A ghetto variant on the diverter is to grab some corflute and four strips of angle - taped up it makes a good shute for the grains, too...

Cheers,
TL

[rwh]

Did you mod the slot in the original hopper? I find that the grains arch in mine, preventing a continuous flow.