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  • Afrimill

    In order to brew more economically; I’ve been hunting for a mill so I can buy grain in bulk and mill it myself. Probably due to Covid-19 no one had stock of the more affordable, ironically named Corona type mills. Bevplus has one from Brewferm but their website doesn’t offer a description. I then put my name on a waiting list at thequartermaster.co.za who said they’ll get stock Aug/Sept “sometime”.

    Getting impatient; I searched the www again on Tuesday, and saw that Beerlab had a Corona type called Afrimill. All I could find out about it on afritrac.co.za, which appears to be the supplier, was that it seems to be a local product which could “crush maize into course maize meal and fine maize meal”.

    I ordered one on Tuesday and it was delivered yesterday. It looks like quite a sturdy product and comes with a plastic guard to prevent bits flying everywhere. I tried it last night and with some elbow grease it worked great. I crushed fairly fine for better efficiency with BIAB and will brew this coming weekend.



    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

  • #2
    I have been looking at this myself! I hope the brewing works out. How long did it take you to mill? What size was the grain bill? Was the crush consistent? Do you think a cheapie R300 power drill could handle the load?

    Sent from my SM-A530F using Tapatalk

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    • #3
      It';s not about the load, it's about the speed. I'd get a drill with a geared speed reducer. Not with voltage (that lets the motor run slower). You want full motor speed, but slower chuck speed. That'll work well.

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      • #4
        low torque

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        • #5
          They only grind a few grains at a time so low torque like Spook says, but slow going.
          I used my oumas one once, and it was so old and blunt I think it 'frictioned' the grain rather than 'grinding' it


          Any drill should do it. Just keep an eye on the air temp coming out the drill, especially if its a cheapy
          Cheers,
          Lang
          ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
          "Dudddde...Hold my beer!".... ; "I wonder what will happen if I ...."

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          • #6
            Originally posted by johncoram89 View Post
            I have been looking at this myself! I hope the brewing works out. How long did it take you to mill? What size was the grain bill? Was the crush consistent? Do you think a cheapie R300 power drill could handle the load?

            Sent from my SM-A530F using Tapatalk
            5kg took me about half an hour but my toddlers wanted to help so that slowed me down. The crush was consistent. Once you have the desired crush by adjusting the bracket with two wing nuts, it has a locking bolt with its own wing nut so the outer grinding plate can’t wiggle loose to make the crush courser. I’m very happy with the purchase and Beerlab’s service was great.
            I’ve seen YouTube videos of guys using drills to take the hard work out of it, but with my BIAB setup my biggest grain bill is 6,5kg and I need the exercise. For a fine grind like I did, your drill would need some torque. For a courser grind obviously not so much. Won’t overheating be an issue?


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            • #7
              Been using a corona mill for a 3 years and it works great. Looks basically the same as Mouter's.
              I usually mill arounc 5 - 6.5kg by hand (as per Mouter for exercise).
              I mill quite fine as I do BIAB.
              The mill is made from cast iron. I have taken it apart a few times to clean, last time I cleaned there was no wear on the grinding plates.
              Everyone must beleive in something, I beleive I'll have another beer

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              • #8
                Took me 20 min to mill 4,4kg last night. Milled fairly fine for BIAB this morning. Got 86% brew house efficiency on my first SMaSH.
                4,4kg Czech pale malt
                30g Cascade @ 60min
                15g Cascade @ 30min
                15g Cascade @ 15min
                15g Cascade @ 1min
                15g Cascade @ 7 days
                OG 1,053
                22l into fermenter excluding trub
                Interested in seeing how this brew turns out.



                Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

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                • #9
                  Originally posted by Mouter View Post
                  Took me 20 min to mill 4,4kg last night. Milled fairly fine for BIAB this morning. Got 86% brew house efficiency on my first SMaSH.
                  4,4kg Czech pale malt
                  30g Cascade @ 60min
                  15g Cascade @ 30min
                  15g Cascade @ 15min
                  15g Cascade @ 1min
                  15g Cascade @ 7 days
                  OG 1,053
                  22l into fermenter excluding trub
                  Interested in seeing how this brew turns out.
                  Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
                  You sure BH efficiency and not Mash efficiency ? It's not everyday you see someone get a high number like that on BH Eff
                  The Problem With The World Is That Everyone Is A Few Drinks Behind.!

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                  • #10
                    Yeah my BH efficiency is set to 66% I get up to 70 sometimes. But nowhere close to 80. Not impossible but difficult

                    Sent from my SM-A515F using Tapatalk

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                    • #11
                      That’s what BeerSmith told me. But I’m relatively new to brewing and quite new to BeerSmith



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                      • #12
                        Here’s my equipment profile. I checked everything now, including brew session data and mash efficiency is given as 96% and overall at 86% as shown above. What’s strange is that post mash SG and OG after pitching yeast was the same. I would have thought it would come down because I topped up with 2l of water during the boil as per my equipment profile. I don’t see a field for sparge water volume. I sparged with 5l and squeezed the bag fairly hard after sparging.


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                        • #13
                          those screenshots don't tell the whole story ?

                          Screenshot_3.jpg

                          Did you measure that 1.053 OG?

                          It's weird that the software would predict 1.039 and you get 14 point more ... that's way off, which tells me somewhere the figures in the software don't match with your equipment ??



                          Is there someone else using the mobile version of BS that might know what's cooking here ??
                          The Problem With The World Is That Everyone Is A Few Drinks Behind.!

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                          • #14
                            Afrimill

                            Measured post mash after the sample cooled down to 30° and corrected for temp = 1,053
                            Then took a sample after pitching the yeast and the OG was 1,053 too. Relatively clear sample without trub, although I’ve read that shouldn’t affect SG. The malt I entered in BeerSmith was Belgian pale because it didn’t have the Czech pale malt I’m using. That’s the only variable as far as I can tell. I mashed at 66,7°, could that affect it?


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                            • #15
                              I use the mobile BS but ive not run into this one before. What it could be is the wrong grain, some of the "custom" grains have really low extraction so the app says 4kg will give you 1039 but a properly modified grain is 1053. Try downloading the BEST malt data pack and rebuild the recipe using them

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