Compact Inexpensive Grain Mill...

So I don't have to have a grain mill to Brew On Board but the smell of freshly milled grain is.... well. you know. ;-) Also I figure grain will retain flavor (shelf life) if kept whole. I might also use the grain mill for making bread (which my boat-hottie currently does) or other purposes like perhaps grinding coffee.

Anyone have suggestions for a compact grain mill that won't break the bank? Ideally it should be made of non-rusting parts as well (ie not regular steel). If it is versitile enough to be used for coffee that would be a huge bonus. Oh, and it must be hand operated. Electrons aren't easy to come by y'aknow.

BrewOnBoard

Every brewer has their own favorites, and some are vehement cheerleaders of what they believe is the best mill, you will have to decide for yourself.

All of them are pretty small...

I am oldschool and like the corona grain mill favored by Charlie Papazian. It costs about 30 bucks as opposed to a couple hundred for the other ones. I have a thread on mine here...https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-ugly-junk-corona-mill-station-90849/


I bet in 30 seconds, the next poster will rave about the barely crusher, and say that you aren't a "real" brewer unless you use that. (Usually they are overenthusiastic n000bs, who are convinced that their way is the only way)

Some of my buddies are looking at turining pasta machines into graon mills, I'm excited about that as well.

They all work, and since it's not the equipment, it's the brewer, they have the potential to make great beer or S***ty beer, depending on the brewer.

The bottom line, YOU have to decide for yourself, whether you want to go cheap or expensive....But they will work, and no one mill is inherently better than the other.

The carona has a hand crank, BUT like the Barely crusher if you have a cordless drill, you can modd it to work with your mill regardless of which one...but look at my thread and see what I mean.

I had a Corona mill and adapted it for a drill. Bad mistake. But, hand-cranking 10#+ of grain really sucks. It lasted about 1 year and I had to spend about $150 for a better, 3 roller mill (Crank and Stein). I agree with Revvy; go online and do your research and see what you want and can afford and go from there. Everyone does have their own opinion on what is the best mill.

I have the barleycrusher and it's the best EVAR!!!! If you buy anything else you're only F'ingyourself.

Happy now Revvy?

Honestly, it all depends on your budget. I couldn't find a corona mill locally and I didn't want to order one online because I'd heard sometimes they have grinding problems. I just wanted to check it out in person before buying. I ended up buying the barleycrusher because I didn't have any way of making a hopper or stand for it.

Whichever one you buy, make sure you can adjust the roller gap.You only want to have to buy one in your life so don't try to save a few pennies and then regret it later.I have a JSP (adjustable on one end) and really wished I had bought a barley crusher.

The Corona-type mills can do everything you want, but grinding an entire batch of grain for brewing will be a time-consuming project. Unfortunately, the Corona and most other mills in this class are cast-iron.

The corona-style mills (mine's something Polish, same style) will do what you want, and I personally have a hard time grasping why so many people think hand-cranking one is so much work. Set to produce a reasonable crush for barley it's easy-peasy. The only thing that's a hassle is that I still haven't built a fixture for collecting lots of grain at once, so I have to stop and empty the shallow pan that fits under the outflow side when it's clamped to a table top. Not a big deal, or I'd get the fixture made. Making cornmeal, that's hard work, but can be done. Grinding corn would probably break the drill for the electrifiers, that's how hard it is. Put dents in my tabletop from the clamp, which never happens with barley.

Is cast iron. Is mostly heavily nickel-plated or perhaps tin-plated. Grinding plates are bare steel. On a boat, I'd store it in a freezer bag with a desiccant pouch, perhaps.

Some of the dedicated barley-crushing mills are available with stainless rollers, but I don't believe that they will make flour for bread, and I'm dubious that they would even work well for coffee - but I don't own one, so I might be wrong.

david_42 said:

The Corona-type mills can do everything you want, but grinding an entire batch of grain for brewing will be a time-consuming project. Unfortunately, the Corona and most other mills in this class are cast-iron.

Click to expand...

How can you say that?

It takes just as much time with a drill attached to a crorona as does a barley crusher.



And there's also this option...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/using-pasta-maker-mill-grain-75784/index2.html#post1008579

The 20 dollar pastamachine mod...

Check out this thread.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/using-pasta-maker-mill-grain-75784/



OOps....looks like the perpetually online Revvy beat me to it.

I"m looking at getting a grain mill for both beer and bread. Can the barley crusher achieve a fine enough crush for bread? Thanks.

Revvy said:

How can you say that?

It takes just as much time with a drill attached to a crorona as does a barley crusher.

And there's also this option...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f11/using-pasta-maker-mill-grain-75784/index2.html#post1008579

The 20 dollar pastamachine mod...

Click to expand...

From the OP
"Electrons aren't easy to come by y'aknow."

Never tried a pasta maker so I won't comment on that
Corona mill (or similar) is cheap, slow if you grind by hand, and difficult to adjust to get a good grind, but I used one for about 10 years with good results.
Mills suitable for brewing produce a very coarse crush. Bread making and coffee grinding require a much finer crush. I don't think a brewing mill would be suitable for bread making or coffee grinding and vice versa.

-a.