So I finally received the "cheap" malt mill from Brygladen. I have today used it for the first time, and my first impressions are certainly positive. Of course I tried to start with the hand crank, and of course I soon decided to experiment with motorizing it. A simple rechargable drill/screwdriver machine worked well, but it did not get a good grip on the threads where the handle was supposed to be screwed in. And of course batteries run out, if they haven't been charged for a while. I took a little break while they were recharging, and filed the outer end of the screw into a triangular shape, Much better! (the big drill machine was turning too fast, no matter how gently I pressed the button. If you try with such, make sure you disable the hammer action, it rattles the whole thing like I don't know what)
Another small problem is that the thing is supposed to be screwed at the edge of a table, and is not very high. This means that the output hole is so low that I could only put a smallish bowl underneath. No big trouble to empty it every time it filled. Next time I try to see if I can not organize a way to install it directly over my mash tun. There was also a small hole in the top of the grinding mechanism that occasionally spat whole seeds out. I wrapped a bit of alu foil around the whole business end, to catch those and to direct the output flow. Worked fine. As to price, it wasn't that bad. 675 kr. Now I can buy 25 or 50 Kg sacks of base malts instead of 5Kg already-crushed. That gets the price down to about 10 kr/Kg (pale malt, 25 Kg, 255,-), from 19,- (5 Kg crushed 95,-). So I save 9kr/Kg. That breaks even in 75 Kg of malt, or roughly 10 batches. Plus I can have more speciality malts on stock (since ready-crushed stuff doesn't last that long), and have greater freedom to improvise when brewing. -H -- Heikki Levanto LSD - Levanto Software Development <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
