February Meeting

Our February meeting will once again be virtual. Tuesday February 16th at 6:30 pm. Watch this space for the Zoom link.

As the weather improves and the vaccine rollout continues, we hope to meet in person again as soon as we can.

This month we will discuss the progress of the barrel project, announce the contest to name the barrel-aged Barley Wine and present information on the National Homebrew Competition (shipping to the competition is free for club members!)

Hope to see you then.

2021 Membership Dues

The dues for your 2021 membership with the Barley Mob Brewers are now due. Membership costs are $30 for an individual membership and $40 for a family membership. You can pay via the Paypal link at the bottom left-had side of this page, or you can make arrangements with Mark Gregory to pay with cash, check or other negotiable assets. If you joined the club in October, November or December 2020, you are not required to pay dues, as we allow your 2020 membership to carryover. Final notice will go out at the end of February. If you don’t pay, you will be removed from the email list and be forced to drink seltzers.


Membership perks include:

  • 10% discount on homebrew supplies at Beverage World
  • Free shipping of entries to homebrew competitions
  • Bulk grain and bulk hop buys
  • Insurance at all club functions
  • Bottle(s) of the English Barleywine aged in Chattanooga Whiskey Barrel
  • Knowledge, knowledge and knowledge
  • Other benefits I can’t think of at the moment

How I MacGyvered Motorizing My Grain Mill

Introduction

I have been looking to motorize my Cereal Killer malt mill that I purchased for a long time. I have seen some elaborate setups while researching how to motorize my less than $100 mill. All of them would be substantially more than the mill itself. Why is it so expensive and complicated? When milling grain, you need lots of torque at very low RPM’s. This can be done with reduction gearboxes or through pulleys (I’m not going to get into that because I’m no engineer and don’t really understand it myself). I wanted something simple. I have been using an older Craftsman cordless drill. It has a low setting that reduces RPM but still gives enough torque to turn the mill. This is how I MacGyvered it for just about $30 using stuff I already had and purchasing just one item.

Items Used

• Craftsman Cordless Drill (had already)
• Cereal Killer Malt Mill with a wooden base (had already)
• Amazon Rack (bought)
• Zip ties (had already)
• Bucket (had already)

Setup

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best way to go. I left the base on the mill and positioned it on the rack so malt could fall through into the bucket but at the same time have the end of the drill accessible for the battery. Once I found the perfect position, I removed the base and then reattached the base to the mill making sure the bolts grabbed part of the wire rack. I then locked down the drill chuck onto the shaft of the mill. I zip tied the drill to the rack to ensure it didn’t kick during milling. I used zip ties to set the trigger pull to my desired speed. Just to make sure the mill did not tip over, I drilled holes into the wooden base and zip tied it to the wire rack.

Process

  1. Weigh out grain (using bucket)
  2. Pour grain into the mill hopper
  3. Place the same bucket under the mill
  4. Insert battery into drill which starts it (zip tied trigger)
  5. Mill grain
  6. Remove battery after milling
  7. Roll cart (because it has wheels) back into the garage

Conclusion

That’s it. My simple solution to motorize the milling of my malt. I don’t care if you call it low-tech or red neck engineering. All I care about is that it works for me and my setup. Cheers!