PVC Mill Hopper

BuffaloSabresBrewer · 03-13-2008, 09:12 PM

Go I finally got a corona style grinder for around $28. I havent really tested and adjusted it yet. It has a really tiny hopper on it though. It looks like a PVC nipple or some kind of adapter would fir in it snuggly though.
Would there be any problem with a PVC hopper? Im going to get a pound of pale ale malt for 95 cents and work on adjusting my crush so Ill probably post some pictures to see what you all think about the crush.
So PVC hopper?
Yea or Nay?

boo boo · 03-13-2008, 09:19 PM

Cut the top out of a plastic water bottle ( 5 gallon ) and put that in the hopper to increase the size. You can trim if needed.

**GilaMinumBeer** · 03-13-2008, 09:49 PM

+1 On the water bottle hopper.

beergears · 03-13-2008, 10:38 PM

I had similar question a while back:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/show-me-your-corona-hopper-if-you-made-one-51499/

I plan on making an extension for mine, out of tall cylindrical plastic biscotti container I got from a Costco type store. The fit btwn the mini metal hopper and my extension will be provided by some foamy material glued to the rim of plastic container...

mattreba · 03-15-2008, 04:49 AM

I don't want to be one of those crazy environmentalists but I happen to have quite a few that are good friends of mine. It seems PVC is nasty stuff to produce and dispose of. I'll still use it for plumbing if there's no better solution but I think I'm done with finding alternative uses for the stuff. (RIP Potato Canon).

Blender · 03-15-2008, 05:32 AM

I would guess a 5 gallon water bottle on a corona mill might be cumbersome. I would go with a 2-3 gallon jug of some sort.

Funkenjaeger · 03-15-2008, 01:34 PM

The thread beergears posted has some decent solutions in it. My main comment would be to decide how much effort you really want to put into a corona mill - ie - do you expect to be using it for a long time, or is it just a short-term solution? Some people use them permanently and that's fine, and then it makes sense to put some effort into improving them. I didn't expect to be sticking with mine for very long, so I hardly spent a dime upgrading it, and did a lot of dirt-cheap ghetto mods instead:

Looks like crap, but it worked WAY better than the hand-cranked, tiny-hoppered, grain-spitting monster that it was originally.

**Homercidal** · 03-17-2008, 04:41 PM

Nice! I never thought of "rigging" a hopper on my roller mill, but I will have to give it some thought. I had designed a decent one which could be stored flat, but woudl require a fair amount of construction. Maybe simple/cheap is better?

BuffaloSabresBrewer · 03-17-2008, 05:01 PM

I ended up cutting the top and bottom off a plastic bottle. My question was more what can and cannot be used as a hopper. Basically anything that can touch food. Not going to spend an extract dime on this mill so PVC is not going top happen. Ill have to see how the 2 liter bottle hopper works when I do my interpretation of a SmaSH with 2 row and cascade (with a pound of caramel so its not really a SMaSH). Thanks guy and keep the pics coming!