Grain mills

commandercool724 · 01-21-2010, 09:53 PM

I have been thinking about switching to all grain instead of extracts... I have been looking at mills and I see that on morebeer.com and other sites they pretty expensive. I was looking on E bay and saw

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-HEAVY-DUTY-CAST-IRON-CORN-NUTS-GRAIN-MILL-GRINDER_W0QQitemZ120520795480QQcmdZViewItemQQptZSm all_Kitchen_Appliances_US?hash=item1c0f996558#ht_2 009wt_825

is this good or would I be buying a piece of crap.

HSM · 01-21-2010, 10:57 PM

Standard "Corona" style mill, and lots of people use them.

**ajf** · 01-21-2010, 10:58 PM

That's similar to a Corona Mill. Lots of people use the Corona (or something similar) and get OK results. I used a Corona for many years, before I switched to a roller mill. The roller mill is undoubtedly better, but it cost a lot more.
The Corona mill was slow, so it took longer to mill the grains (but the extra time was not excessive).
My Corona came with a hopper, so I could feed more grains in it that the one you showed. I think the hopper was very much worth while.
The Corona was difficult to adjust to get a good and consistent grind. This did not seem to affect the results I got with it (which were good). I never noticed any change in efficiency when I switched.
The only reason I switched was to decrease my brewday time (with it did by about 15 minutes), and to improve my efficiency. The efficeincy did improve eventually, but it was caused by changing my brewing procedures, and had nothing to do with the mill.

-a.

RIBeer · 01-21-2010, 11:32 PM

Lots of us have gotten started with a mill like that. I switched from my Corona to a Barley Crusher last year, only because it took so long to mill my grains for making 10 gal batches. Using a drill to power it and tricking it our with extra spacer washers made a big difference. The deal maker for my switch is that my LHBS offered me more in a trade value for the Corona than I paid for it!

Once you get the mill dialed in, you can make some great beer for a long time

MikeG · 01-21-2010, 11:43 PM

Don't let the lack of a grain mill keep you from going all grain. Brewmasters Warehouse and the other vendors here I know will mill your grains for you w/o extra charge when you buy a recipe.

Didn't exactly answer your question but I don't own one and have been brewing AG for 6 months. Good luck with finding a grain mill and going AG.

boo boo · 01-21-2010, 11:46 PM

If you can afford to buy a roller mill and you intend on staying in the hobby, then buy a roller mill.
I own a corona knockoff and am satisified with my results to not go buy anything else, but if I had to do it over, I see a difference in crushes made by roller mills that would convince me to buy one initially.

**Steelers77** · 01-21-2010, 11:55 PM

Either go with a roller mill (ie: moster mill or barley crusher) or just have your homebrew shop crush the grains. That $20 plus shipping could go towards a a mill that will last you a lifetime.

bol · 01-22-2010, 12:04 AM

I'm really happy with my barley crusher and I've only used it once. The corona mill's work just as well but I really like the hopper on the barley crusher and how quickly it mills grain when its motorized. I wouldn't want to crank through 10lbs of grain again my hand.

thunder · 01-22-2010, 12:15 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by commandercool724

I have been thinking about switching to all grain instead of extracts... I have been looking at mills and I see that on morebeer.com and other sites they pretty expensive. I was looking on E bay and saw

http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-HEAVY-DUTY-CAST-IRON-CORN-NUTS-GRAIN-MILL-GRINDER_W0QQitemZ120520795480QQcmdZViewItemQQptZSm all_Kitchen_Appliances_US?hash=item1c0f996558#ht_2 009wt_825

is this good or would I be buying a piece of crap.

Bought mine from monster mills website well built,works great!

archiefl98 · 01-22-2010, 12:23 AM

I just bought my barley crusher from Austin Homebrew. It works GREAT. The crush looks more uniform than the Corona mill I got to use at my LHBS. I saw someone on HBT say before "Never buy the same piece of equipment twice" If you think you're going to stay with brewing and think All-Grain is the way you're going to do it, then I say go for getting the Barley Crusher or Monster. Untill then, a lot of online retailers will crush for no charge. You'll save money on each AG batch. By the time you do 10 batches, you'll have enough saved for a Barley Crusher.

my $0.02