"Cereal Killer" grain mill

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sandsquirt

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Does anybody have a link/picture of the "Cereal Killer" grain mill from Adventures in Homebrewing? If you use one, how do you like it?
 
They have a $99 grain mill without a picture on the site. To replace the Barley Crusher since it is unavailable.
 
sandsquirt said:
They have a $99 grain mill without a picture on the site. To replace the Barley Crusher since it is unavailable.
Click to expand...

Ok, I checked the homebrewing.org site and I see the "temporarily unavailable" thing for the Barley Crusher. I just had a new Barley Crusher delivered a couple weeks ago and just finished building a powered station for it. Maybe I got the last one of the latest production run? ;)

Weird that the Homebrewing site doesn't have a pic for their "cereal killer" mill. Also weird that it's a .org site. That doesn't seem right at all...

Cheers!
 
day_trippr said:
Ok, I checked the homebrewing.org site and I see the "temporarily unavailable" thing for the Barley Crusher. I just had a new Barley Crusher delivered a couple weeks ago and just finished building a powered station for it. Maybe I got the last one of the latest production run? ;)

Weird that the Homebrewing site doesn't have a pic for their "cereal killer" mill. Also weird that it's a .org site. That doesn't seem right at all...

Cheers!
Click to expand...

I thought only non-profits were .orgs?
 
day_trippr said:
Do you mean this?

Cheers!
Click to expand...

No, that's not what he's talking about.


sandsquirt, I thought I read on either the Adventures website, or their facebook page a "Picture coming soon" for the Cereal Killer mill.

I thought I read somewhere else that the mill was a Chinese knockoff of the Barley Crusher, I thought they said it was a pretty identical looking roller mill.
 
day_trippr said:
Ok, I checked the homebrewing.org site and I see the "temporarily unavailable" thing for the Barley Crusher. I just had a new Barley Crusher delivered a couple weeks ago and just finished building a powered station for it. Maybe I got the last one of the latest production run? ;)

Weird that the Homebrewing site doesn't have a pic for their "cereal killer" mill. Also weird that it's a .org site. That doesn't seem right at all...

Cheers!
Click to expand...

The Barley Crusher website only states that there "may be" up to a two week delay.
 
I am fortunate enough that the Cereal Killer Grain Mill is provided by my LHBS Adventures in Homebrewing. I can say they are a top notch business. As a matter of fact they just opened up a second location in Ann Arbor, MI. I inquired about this Cereal Killer and it was explained to me that a big reason for this new mill was because they could not procure the Barley Crusher in a consistent enough manner to keep up with the order demand coming through the store.

On Friday Oct. 28 I visited the store and was able to compare the Cereal Killer and the Barley Crusher side by side. Both mills come with a crank handle, metal hopper and a base to sit on a bucket. When it comes to the actual roller mechanism a person would be hard pressed to see a real difference between the two. They both have a thick aluminum base and adjustable knurled rollers (only passive roller is adjustable). The Cereal killer uses two thumbs screws as set screws. I liked this feature because it is nice making adjustments without using tools. There is a difference in the length of the crank handle. The Barley Crusher handle is a couple of inches longer than the Cereal Killer's handle. At first I thought the shorter handle was a negative because it was obvious there would be less torque. However, it also occurred to me that a shorter handle on the Cereal Killer would actually increase the RPM'S making it produce crushed grain faster. The shorter handle might be a perfect balance between torque and speed but having never used either the verdict is still out. However, using a drill on either of these would of course negate any differences in the handle lengths.

The Cereal Killer really shinned through with the superior workmanship on the metal hopper and base. My personal opinion is all of the metal work and base of the Cereal Killer appeared to be very uniform and built with a much greater tolerance than the Barley Crusher. Some of the fitment points, rivets on the Barley Crusher seemed sharp/uneven or to put it plainly it gave the impression of a rush job. I can't say that the "look" would make the Barley Crusher any more/less effective but if you were to pick one out for the showroom you would definitely pick the Cereal Killer.

One last note. The Cereal Killer is not a Chinese made knockoff. It is manufactured right here in Michigan. If anything I would consider the Cereal Killer to be an improved version of the Barley Crusher idea.

Will head out during lunch tomorrow to pick up the Cereal Killer Grain Mill. I can give you further feedback, after using it, if anyone wants to hear about it.

Mike
 
So how did things go with the mill? Should I buy one?

I live on the east coast of Canada so the shipping could be pretty expensive
 
haven't crushed grain with it yet. Just bottled my last batch last night. But I can say it is has pretty much the same innerworkings as the Barley Crusher with some improvements. If you felt the the Barley Crusher would have met your needs then definitley the Cereal Killer would also. Am hoping to use it this weekend but I have a family with 8 year old twins so our plans can change on a dime.
 
I'm curious to hear how this mill works out. The only drawback in my mind that it only has a 6 month warranty and the Barley Crusher has a lifetime warranty. I dont know if that is worth the extra $40 or so for the BC.
 
My buddy just got 1 of these this week. yesterday, we crushed 13lbs of grain with hand crank. the hand crank is a bit of pain as the grain makes much hard to turn. the bucket will rock and move which makes it harder too.

it took both of us to hold the bucket stable.. but once we figured that out it went pretty quick. probably about 20 minutes once we got it going.

it would be much easier with a drill but, we need a drill bit which has hole for a screw to tighten to the shaft that turns the roller...

all in all.. it worked. got a nice crush ( better then LHBS).....
good quality... good product.
 
Finally got a chance to use the Cereal Killer today. Ground about 23 lbs of grain using a 3/8" drill. It did a great job!!. I would have no problem recommending this to anyone at this time.

One small issue that popped up was when a grain got stuck between the passive roller and the metal hopper. It kept the passive roller from turning and the whole operation shuts down. But all I did was reach up from the bottom to spin the passive roller by hand in order to free up the grain and and all was well. I suspect this has happened from time to time with any grain mill that uses on drive roller and one passive roller. ****Please always disconnect the drill from the grain mill before ever touching the rollers with you fingers. It would sure ruin anyone's piano playing life in an instant if the drill was engaged****

The hand crank is short and makes for a long days work if you are alone. But I never needed it because I use a drill. I suppose it was be very easy to get a piece of metal stock and create a longer handle. Seems simple enough. Time to drain the mash tun. Brewing my first RIS today.

PS - to all you veteran' out there. God bless you for your courage and sacrifice on behalf of our sorry butts. You have shown us great love by putting yourselves in harms way so please accept my gratitude and love in return.
 
I just ordered one of these. Hope it works well. I'll try to post after crushing some grain in a couple of weeks.

Do you think a cordless drill would work for this? I have a 1/2" drive 18V model. I'm hoping it has enough torque to get the job done. I will usually crush 9-15 lbs at a time, as I only do 5 gallon batches.
 
solbes said:
I just ordered one of these. Hope it works well. I'll try to post after crushing some grain in a couple of weeks.

Do you think a cordless drill would work for this? I have a 1/2" drive 18V model. I'm hoping it has enough torque to get the job done. I will usually crush 9-15 lbs at a time, as I only do 5 gallon batches.
Click to expand...

I don't have this grain mill...I have a barley crusher...but my 18v cordless would not even turn it. I bought a corded drill at Menards for $14. It tends to want to go from dead still to really high rpms, but with a little effort it works pretty well.
 
fwiw, before I motorized my BC I used an 18V DeWalt XRP cordless to run it, and I have seen others use the same drill with their BC mills...

Cheers!
 
Ordered one of these this morning:ban: Pretty stoked to have a mill so I can just brew on a whim as I always have ingredients on hand. Snagged a 1 hp motor from some demo work I did a couple months ago so looks like next brewing project is to build a milling station:mug:
 
Just a quick update on how quick they are. They shipped same day as the order, and it will arrive 2 business days later. Should arrive on Monday! :rockin:
 
Cranking by hand sucks and is not recommended. We only had a cordless drill and it kept slipping. After crushing potaetoson's grain I went home and got my corded drill out and clamped the mill to the bucket. Drill in one hand beer in the other. We double brewed and both hit our Target og.
 
I used a cheap 18V cordless with 3/8" drive from harbor freight. It never hesistated for a second. I let me 8 year old grind about 11 lbs. (with very close supervision). It is a good idea to have your hand on the base when you first start the drill but after that it really did not require me to hold it (the base).
 
Just a heads-up to anyone considering the Cereal Killer... it's currently on sale for $79.99 during their CY-Beer Monday sale.

No more free shipping, but it still comes out to be less than the $99.99 than it was a few days ago.
 
It came out to $15 cheaper *shipped* for me. I'm on the fence about getting a grain mill to begin with, as we have some good LHBS prices on grain, but this is almost too good to pass up.
 
Just ordered mine for the cheap price of $79.99. Wasn't considering getting a mill for a few more months but couldn't resist. Am planning on powering with a 18V Dewalt. Will post results
 
just ordered a serial killa. can't wait to start making my own recipes and not just buying all grain kits online. few more weeks till my braumeister arrives. ya beer!!!!

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BSWOLKxZkPY]snoop doggy dogg - Serial killa - YouTube[/ame]
 
Ordered. Birthday money, for the win! Like many people who own a mill, I had a couple of bad crushes in a row from LHBS that made me vow to never have this problem again if I can help it. The extra cost of DME and dextrose needed to bring the OG back up on bad crushes will pay for it much faster than savings on bulk grain.
 
I asked for some more information when I placed the order and here's what I got...

** The rollers are adjusted from .069-.000. You only adjust grain between .039 and .025, so this is more than adjustable for what you need
** Re the passive roller getting stuck (some post above): Happens with any similar grain mill. Geared mills solve the problem but are cost-prohibitive. Jason at Adventures in HB said they priced the build for that type of mill to about $250 - far above the homebrew price points.

IMO, whether you got the mill at the sale price yesterday, or even the current sale price, I don't think you can go wrong if you're in store for a mill. Previous posts have described it as very similar to the Barley Crusher, which cost almost another $40 more, but the cereal killer appears to be built better.
 
If I had only waited a couple of weeks I could have saved $20. Hope the Killa works as well for you as it does for me.
 
Thought I'd share my experience with this Cereal Killa. It's been sitting on my kitchen counter for over a week. I finally got some grains in the mail to crush. I'll be brewing on Saturday, but thought I'd mill 1 lb of Belgian Carmel Pils to try this thing out. First few pictures are pretty self explanatory.







I used three gage pins to get a feel for setting the gap. I feel these pins made adjustment a snap: loosen the key in back, and adjust the knurled knob on the side for gap, tighten key. Repeat for the other side. I had a .025", .030", and .035" (use them for setting spark plug gaps!). I do BIAB batches exclusivley, so I'm not worried about getting stuck sparges. But I don't want to make a bunch of flour either. The .025" seemed far too tight. I crushed some grain at the .030" setting (where I could just move the pin from left to right between the rollers). It seemed a little fine (see picture). I then adjusted to .035" and it seemed just right.







Using the supplied handle required a fair amount of torque since the lever length is only a couple of inches. It can be done, but you need to get up to speed and maintain. I quickly swapped the handle for an 18V cordless drill with 1/2" chuck set on "low" gearing. After getting the chuck tightened down, it easily powered through the grain. Just takes a steady grip on the mill itself to keep it steady. I milled 1 lb of grain in maybe 10-15 seconds? So pretty quick.





My overall impression was very good. I think it'll last me for a long time. Pro's were cost ($100 shipped), quality, made in USA, easy adjustability, ability to drill with 3/8 or 1/2" chuck, and nice base with sanded edges and tripod legs. The only cons I could come up with were short handle lever and a few grains slipped between where the rollers and housing meet. Hope this helps!
 

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