Schmidling Malt Mill is awesome

I went to the local brew store to mill some grain for an all grain batch last weekend. The "brewing store" is run half assed and the grain mill they have there is terrible. The mill is powered by the loudest drill in Columbus. After your done with 10 lbs of grain your ears ring......The other customers in the store shopping for beer and wine must be disturbed by the noise coming from the "brewing section" of the store. I ran my grain through the mill and it only cracked about 10% of the grain. So I ran it through again and it didn't seem to do anything but create flour. I wanted to brew and didn't have access to another mill that day so I tried to use the grain anyway. It worked but I had terrible efficiency. 12 lbs of grain into a 5 gl batch only yielded an OG of 1.032.......so I decided to finally purchase a mill of my own. After doing some research I decided to buy a Malt Mill from Schmidling.com. First I would like to say that it was the fastest shipping I have ever received. I took it to the basement to try it out and ran 2 lbs of grain through. It was milled to perfection. Each grain was uniformly crushed. The husks were intact and there was no flour at all. I can't wait to see what the difference in efficiency is between the correct milling and the crappy milling from the local brew store. If anyone is looking for a new mill.....Schmidling is the way to go. Well worth the $110. Its built very well and has a lifetime warranty.

Congrats! There's something about milling your own malt 2 minutes before doughing in. Can't get any fresher crush than that.

Here's to higher efficiency and better beer!

Enjoy!

I got tired of buying precrushed, did some research, took a very scientific HBT poll, and went with the Barley Crusher. I friggin LOVE 'er! My only complaint is the weird ordering process. Instead of having a distinct ordering system like everyone else who has sold anything on the web since 1997 has, even little piddly eBay sellers...they have this thing where you do the math (shipping, etc) yourself, then log into your paypal account, enter the amount, enter the seller's name, and send it off. All seemed very...unsecure...very 1995. But it worked, and I love it. I wish you luck with the maltmill...I'm sure the difference between the maltmill, BC and crankandstein are negligible. Just having your own real (not corona) mill is awesome in itself.

Just got my BarleyCrusher also. Their ordering system is a little crude and I had to cancel it once before I got it correct but I received the mill quickly once I got the order processed. It seems to be a quality piece of equipment. I'm looking forward to my first brew with it. I just have to free up a fermenter first. These high gravity brews just take too long.
Craig

I too own the MaltMill. Nice equipment. Although, in the end all the ones available on the market pretty much do what they are supposed to. Happy crushing!

I went with a Victoria (like Corona) handcrank mill.

Since I rarely go over 1 lb of grain I didn't see a good ROI anytime soon...

I too got a Barley Crusher earlier this year and love it. I used the hand crank for the first couple of batches, then switched over to a drill...much easier and faster! My efficiency went from around 72% with my LHBS crush to 80%, all other things equal.

Alright the proof is in the puddin....or beer in this case. I just used my new grain mill to make another batch. This time I used 1 lb less grain. I also increased the batch size by 1/2 gal. My OG the first batch was only 1.032 this time I got a 1.054.....now thats more like it. Schmidling your a life/beer saver.

I made my malt mill and love it! Still tweaking the gap on it and will be brewing this weekend to make sure I got it right.

Evan! said:

Just having your own real (not corona) mill is awesome in itself.

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What's you talkin' about there Willis?

Nothing wrong with a corona knockoff either.IMO
I must try my buddys Barley Crusher and compare.

I think it's pretty much fact now that the major mills (Crankandstein, Barley Crusher, Malt Mill) are all about equal and awesome. The Pokert and Corona seem to be fine as well.

I love my crankandstein. I would never recommend HBS crush. They only seem to use one setting.

Just bought a Malt Mill for $40 from a lady whose ex-husband used to brew. Great deal for me as it looks like they retail $125-$175 range. Looks like I don't need a bit either for my drill, just can attach the power drill to the rod on the mill to get it moving.