I’ve been hand‑milling Yecora Rojo from a small farm outside Dixon and sifting to about 80% extraction for my country loaves, but my old cast‑iron mill warms up if I crank faster than about 60 RPM. For those who stay manual, do you prefer stone or steel burrs for keeping the germ cool and flavor intact, and what pace keeps flour under 95°F without turning a 2 kg run into a two‑hour workout?
Stone burrs have run cooler for me than my old cast-iron plates, but the real win was a ‘coarse-then-fine’ two-pass: first crack at about 80–90 RPM, then tighten and finish around 50 RPM to keep a 2 kg run under 95°F. I also chill the berries 15–20 minutes and clip a tiny fan on the housing — like a pit crew; if you want to stay steel, the Country Living with a flywheel runs cooler than plate mills: https://countrylivinggrainmills.com. You open to that two-pass before your 80% sift?
For Yecora Rojo, I keep it under 95°F with steel burrs on a Country Living by chilling the berries in the fridge and using the power bar — 55–60 RPM does a 2 kg run without cooking the germ. Stone tastes a touch sweeter to me, but it can glaze if you push speed; quick 30‑sec pauses and a cheap IR thermometer help more than arguing burrs. @mvaldez212 is right about not muscling it.
Tempering the berries helps more than burr choice for me: mist about 10 g water per kilo to hit about 13% moisture, seal 6–8 hours, then mill around 60 RPM — my Yecora stays under 95°F and the sift is cleaner. @mvaldez212 is right about not muscling it, but if you don’t want to add moisture, a quick chill of the grain is a decent fallback.
And i’ve had the best luck calling the cath lab educator within an hour of a ‘real-time’ posting and emailing a one-page case log PDF (Impella/IABP/rotablation) so they can judge fit quickly. Small caveat: the hospital ATS can lag or auto-close, so even if it looks expired I still ask about per-diem or float shifts while they “review,” which has gotten me callbacks.
On my Schnitzer Country (stone burrs), I keep Yecora Rojo cool by opening the gap a hair more than you’d expect and trickle‑feeding the hopper — since you’re sifting to about 80% anyway, the slightly coarser cut still lands you where you want. I pause every about 300 g to whisk/aerate the flour and give the plates a 60‑second breather; that keeps me under ‘95°F’ without turning it into an all‑day crank, . Small caveat: if your cast‑iron plates are kissing under load, back the tension off until the scrape stops; otherwise steel will run cooler.