It's been a little while since my last post, mainly due to the upheaval of our household by packing, showing and moving to another house. However, those days are done and gone, hopefully never to return. With moving, unfortunately, also comes unpacking, which means trying to locate all of the brewing gear that got packed. I still haven't been successful at that yet, but I did get motivated enough to try again at motorizing my Schmidling Malt Mill.
This is a project I've been working at for some time now, and this is my third attempt. Every time I've completed it the test (dumping a few shovels of grain in and turning it on, ultimately to be disappointed by an electric motor not turning) it has failed. Every time, this one included. I don't know if it's the gearing, incorrect sheave sizes or motors without enough torque. They just never seem to have enough oomph to crush the grain if they aren't already moving. The latest design was inspired from the December 2010 issue of BYO. Dayton motor, sheaves, everything was identical, but still no go. I may play a bit more with the size of the sheave on the mill (kind of like stepping it down to first gear on a 10-speed bike) but it looks like I may just have to live with starting the mill, then slowly pouring the grain in. I think my addition of the output chute was a pretty good idea.
In other beer news, if you haven't heard of it, Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head has a series on Discovery called "Brewmasters" that - through one episode, anyway - is pretty enjoyable. The first episode was about his collaboration with Sony Records to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Miles Davis' Bitches Brew by creating a DFH beer of the same name. I've had the beer, and it is something else, that's for sure. To see the story behind it makes it that much better. Catch the show if you can.
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