Coffee Grinder As Grain Mill?

[Hugo]

I have a friend who owns a couple of cafe's and is interested in AG brewing. He has an array of commercial coffee grinders (Mazzer mainly) left over for one reason or another, and wants to know if he can use the grinder as a mill. My immediate thought was that the crush would be way too fine, but he says the grinder can be set to any level of coarseness. Not sure if coffee grinders would have the grunt to crush grain (no matter how good the machine)?

Anyone have any idea if it would work? I guess the best option would be to grind a few hundred grams of grain and see what the crush looks like.

cheers... Hugo

 

[QldKev]

There are a few trying with coffee grinders; have a search on here. I think the consensus was it is ok if you are doing BIAB; but I would not recommend it for 3V systems. It would take a while to grind 5kg of grain in the coffee grinder though. Could he sell them and use the money for a grain mill?

QldKev

 

[glaab]

I don't think so. I have a good coffee grinder, they are a conical burr type. They actually grind when what you want is a crush. You'll get too much flour and no intact husks when you want the majority of your husks left intact for lautering. Maybe ok for BIAB, dunno. Decent coffee grindres are worth a fortune, sell one and buy a MillMaster. :icon_cheers:


edit, I type too slow!

 

[Sammus]

Yeah coffee grinders are no good, the are grinders as opposed to mills and the coffee goes through burrs; one stationary and one spinning, with teeth specially designed to apply huge shear forces on the particle, which is exactly the opposite of what you want to happen when milling grain, ideally youd smack each grain lightly with a hammer and have no shear forces, only compressive.

If your friend has an array of Mazzar grinders not in use though, I'd love to take one off his hands, for coffee purposes If he has a Mazzer SJ or bigger in decent nick I'd seriously be interested.

 

[sanders4_]

I second that, if he's selling any I would love to get my hands on one - nice position to be in have "an array of commercial coffee grinders (Mazzer mainly) left over for one reason or another"

 

[HoppingMad]

Yup. I believe Manticle who posts here regularly started off with a coffee grinder so you'd have to ask him about his results, but has now gone to a victoria mill (cheap way to start). Astrigency and grinding up husks can be an issue with the grinders and getting flour (which will cloud up your brew). If you were only using it for a small amount of crystal malt you'd be ok I'd think as you can grind this finer without issue, but not for base malts like ale and pils.

I have a Corona mill and these 'corn mills' do a decent job for my all grain batches. Victoria & Corona mills you'll pick up for under $100 if you're looking for a cheap alternative.
Otherwise upgrade to a decent mill, or get the best crush possible by letting your Local Home Brew Store do it.

Hopper.

 

[moodgett]

just a quick note, you may want to find out if the grinders are rated to grind anything other than coffee, or it may void your warranty, we dont recommend anything other than coffee beans in the burr grinder my work sells.

 

[Sammus]

You could use a grinder I'd say, especially if you're BIAB, but he if he has more than one Mazzer lying around, or even only one of any Mazzer SJ and up, he could sell them/it and buy a top of the line mill and fully motorize it and have change left over.

Remember a new big mazzer is a couple grand, and ill suited to this use. A new top of the line mill is only a couple hundred, and another couple hundred for an overkill brand spankin motor setup, I think you couldn't go wrong.

What I mean to say is that any coffee grinder that is capable of running continuously for long enough to do 5-6kg of grain is an enormous commercial grinder like a ditting or a robur that sell for $3k+ new and run from 3ph power. If he has one of them lying around he wants to use for AG, he should sell it and he could import a ducks nuts brew sculpture and probably buy a commercial quality 6 roller grain mill from an ex brewery, build a shed to brew in plus have enough grain and hops to last him for the rest of his life. Well, not quite, but you get my point.

 

[stillscottish]

I used a Kenwood Conical Burr one i got cheap on evilbay for about a year till I stepped up to the Mighty Modified Marga.
Wound out the gap till it wasn't destroying things too much and held it there with some gaffer tape. Hopper was small but that gave it time to cool down.
It didn't give too bad a result, not too much flour and as I batch sparge there wasn't any problem of over-extracting tannins from shredded husks.

If you have no other option or no money I'd recommend it.
8 1/2 stars.

Campbell