Homemade Grain Mill

Make better homemade beer with your own grain mill.

A fulfilling and tasty hobby is brewing your own beer at home. The process is relatively simple provided you have the correct tools and can follow directions. One of the tools used is a grain mill to grind the grain and malt into usable form for the brewing to occur. Commercial grain mills are quite expensive and will inhibit many from venturing down this path of endeavor. Don't let this stop you; make your own grain mill at home with low cost.

Things You'll Need

• Pasta maker
• Coarse metal file
• 2 wooden boards, 15"X15"
• Drill and bits
• Jigsaw
• Bolts
• Nuts
• Split washers
• Plastic 10 gallon bucket

Instructions

1. Take the pasta maker apart to remove the two steel rollers. These rollers press the pasta dough flat but will become the grinding wheels of the grain mill.

2. Beat the roller surface with the edge of the coarse file to roughen the surface. The smooth surface of the rollers prior to roughening did not draw the grain into the machine. The roughening allows the grains to catch on the rollers and move into the space between the rollers.

3. Mount the base plate of the pasta maker to a wooden board. The pasta maker is not stable enough using the included clamp for a counter top to allow for the added work of milling grain. Drill a hole in each corner of the base plate through the plate and board mount. Cut out a hole with a jigsaw in the center of the board to allow the milled product to fall though. Use a bolt, nut and split washer at each corner of the maker to secure it to the board.

4. Reassemble the pasta maker. Test the grind of the grain to ensure that the product is satisfactory for your purpose.

5. Trim the board to fit inside the top of a 10 gallon bucket with the jigsaw. When installed, the board will hold the grain mill stationary for milling.

6. Using three pieces of wood, construct a small shelf suspended over the pasta maker.

7. Drill a hole in the top of the shelf centered over the past a maker to mount a plastic 2 liter bottle that will serve as the raw grain reservoir.

8. Insert the board containing the grain milling machine into the top of the 10 gallon bucket. You now have a grain milling machine complete with a collection vessel and raw grain hopper.

Tips & Warnings

• You can adjust the size of the product by changing the thickness setting on the pasta maker. Multiple passes through the grain mill may be required to grind the grain fine enough. Clean the roller periodically to keep the rollers rough. The ground grain may fill the roughness of the roller yielding a smoother surface and reducing the efficiency of your milling machine.

References

• Beer Tools: Homemade Grain Mill
• Homebrew Beer Adventures