If you've got the dough burning a hole in your pocket get one of the fancy ones. If not (like many folks) get a corona style. I paid $32 at my LHBS a few years ago.
I have had consistent results for quite a while. Albeit I was getting consistently low efficiency (60%) it was consistent. Recently I tightened the plates a bit for no particular reason.
Bam. Next 2 batches I got 72% efficiency!
As a tip... I place a few washers on the bolts to hold the plates a bit wider apart. I believe this has helped to keep it consistent and stop the frequent adjustments most folks complain about. Also, you can rig a larger hopper and also make it turn with a drill.
I only do 7lb mashes, and the corona works fine. It's just a little more involved, as I find myself occasionally tweaking the crush midstream if it gets too fine or coarse.
I'm averaging 90% in my efficiencies, so I know it's a good crush, even though that high number has a lot to do with the rest of my process.
Not a bad mill for smaller batches, but your arm WILL get tired doing 10-12lb crushes. I'd get a better mill in that case.
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Too much too fast to keep track of...
A simple $0.40 modification on most corona mills will let you motorize it with a drill, there's no reason to hand crank a batch!
I'm an old fashoned hands on kind of guy. I enjoy hand cranking my grain, and "manually" fly sparge by doing little circles/big circles over the grain bed. I guess it makes me feel more active in my brewing. I like to stay busy.
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Too much too fast to keep track of...
I hook a drill up to that sucker instead of cranking it by hand and I can go through about 3 lbs of grain in about 10 - 12 seconds. It was a great investment. I had a Corona mill and it broke the 2nd time I used it. I'm sure people have gotten good use out of them, but I'd still recommend the bigger more kickass mills / crushers.
There isn't much to detail, it pretty much just involves a bolt with the head cut off and a lock nut. Screw the bolt into the hole that held the handle on, then tighten up the lock nut. You can further complicate by using a file or grinder or something to flatten one side of the threads to give the drill better grip.
There isn't much to detail, it pretty much just involves a bolt with the head cut off and a lock nut. Screw the bolt into the hole that held the handle on, then tighten up the lock nut. You can further complicate by using a file or grinder or something to flatten one side of the threads to give the drill better grip.
Thanks. I will look into this once I get my hands on a mill.
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Primary: empty
Secondary: AHB Dry Mead (17)
Bottled: EdWort's Apfelwein (15), Vienna - Cascade SMaSH (19)
Drinking:MO-Amarillo SMaSH (14), BierMucher's Black Pearl Porter (13), Munich-NB SMaSH (16), Lemon Summer Blonde (18)
Planning: Belgian Brown (20)
you know where
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