Milling Rye Berries

Every now and then I think of buying a Nutrimill just so that I can research some of these subtle differences...(When I find that crowbar that I need to open my wallet :>))

Anyway.

When I grind rye, I have adjusted its moisture content so that it is 13% or so - the same as when I grind my wheat (I grind by hand with steel burrs).  I haven't noticed any difference.  However, I had a fairly nasty incident pre-moisture meter days of my wheat having too high a moisture content.  It, of course, did not grind very well and eventually gummed up the burrs.

I'm tempering the grain so that I get a better bran separation as I seem to have been devoting myself to less than 100% extraction flours.

With an impact mill, you don't want to adjust the moisture content of the grain.  I would guess that something with a lower moisture content ("harder"?) would grind more easily as impact is being used to break the grain into little bits (Think of pounding a dry bean with a hammer vs pounding a cooked bean - you are going to get little pieces faster with the dry bean...).  Could it be that stored in your ambient conditions, rye will intrinsically have a higher moisture content than wheat?  And could this be the difference?

The only thing that I can offer is that once I am home, that I find samples of each and measure moisture content in my environment to see if this is so.  I can't really do equivalent testing of my mill vs the Nutrimill, but as I said, since I am equipped with a mill and a grain moisture meter - I'm willing to do any testing that folks think would be interesting or edifying.  I'll keep checking in for other thoughts.

Hope this helps.

I mill rye using a Jupiter Mill with stones not burrs and have never had any problems.  Is the Nutrimill a high impact mill?

Jeff

I mill both rye and red winter wheat in a manual stone mill.  The rye to me mills a lot easier than the wheat.  I store both of the berries in the feezer and mill them on the same setting.

I grind our rye berries in a stone mill and have also done the sprouted rye berries in a Nutrimill. Rye is much more powdery than wheat is for some reason no matter which mill I use.

PROBLEM

I think your basic problem is that you are using the wrong speed and the wrong fineness setting on your Nutrimill when you grind your grain.

Reading your original post, it appears that, for general purpose milling with the Nutrimill, you normally use the low speed and a fine setting.

In your original post dated July 1, 2009 - 11:33am you said...

I grind my own rye berries with a Nutrimill and have noticed that the mill appears to have a much rougher time (takes at least twice as long to grind and seems to almost clog up at times) when grinding them than when grinding, e.g., hard spring wheat. Grinding rye also creates a lot more powder in my kitchen

I usually grind on low and fine, but often find that the mill almost appears to clog up at times (only when grinding rye) such that I have to move the dials up from fine and low from time to time to keep things moving while grinding a batch.

What caught my attention was the problem you cite of clogging in the mill and that milling rye creates more powder in your kitchen.

USING THE NUTRIMILL

You're an experienced baker, so it's not my intent to tell you how to use your mill, but simply to share with you my personal experience using the Nutrimill (for about two years) and how I, personally, adjust the mill for different grains.

The Nutrimill manual recommends the high speed setting for most general purpose milling. This is what I use. (You say you normally use the low setting). This may be one problem.

In terms of the the construction of the Nutrimill, the lower dial controls the size of the opening from the grain hopper (on top) into the actual milling mechanism (in the middle). This is what I adjust depending on the grain I am milling.

If we think of the lower dial as an analog clock, then fine would be about 10:00, normal would be about 12:00 and anything greater than normal would be used to adjust for the properties of the grain being milled. As many users of the Nutrimill have pointed out, there is not a great deal of difference in flour fineness that results from varying this setting if you assume you're using the same kind of grain. If, however, you're milling different grains (as we all do), then minor adjustments here may produce better results.

MY RECOMMENDATIONS

I always have the upper dial set to high. I do make minor adjustments with the lower dial depending on the grain. As a general rule of thumb, as the grain goes from harder to softer, I increase the lower dial setting (move it to the right). You'll notice that all of the grains I use (shown in the table below) are approximately the same size. Here is a general guideline for what I do...

MY SETTINGS FOR THE LOWER DIAL on a NUTRIMILL FOR DIFFERENT GRAINS

COMMENTS

Since rye is softer than wheat, I think you'll find that, if you adjust the lower dial, the milling time should not be significantly different from wheat (pound for pound) nor should you experience clogging or "more powder in your kitchen".

Experiment with your milling settings to see if my suggestions help you. Do post back on your experience.