barley crusher or ? what mill should i buy...

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

SomedumbJerk

Well-Known Member
Joined
Mar 12, 2008
Messages
89
Reaction score
2
Location
Palo Alto, CA
i continuously hear about the barley crusher. i hear that it's great. it also is like $140 shipped with a hopper and handle, and ready to put a drill on it. are there any downsides? why do you guys get the monster mills or the crank and steins and build your own? (excluding the three roller system, this i understand) i'm like this close, to closing the deal, but i feel like there is something i'm missing...
 
Caveat: I do not own any sort of grain milling/crushing device.

That being said, everyone around that owns a Barley Crusher raves about it. Some pimp the Corona mill, some do not.

If I get in into the grain mill biz, I'll be buying the BC.
 
I spent ~$300 for a Country Living Grain Mill. Makes really nice, fine flour out of wheat, barley, or corn... all of which I am growing... and I can even make peanut butter with it. I can loosen up the plates a bit and get a great barley crush out of it... no shredded husks, a good amount of flour, and high efficiency. I feel a lot better with it than spending half that price on something that can only crush barley... Not to demean the fine folks who are having great success with the Barley Crusher. It just wasn't the best choice for me personally, as I also needed a mill to begin with.
 
The first mill I purchased was the Corona. It definately takes some trial and error, but you can get a decent crush. I've had brews into the 87% eff. range with the Corona. But it is imperfect, no doubt... but for $50, you can do business with it.

Recently I purchased a Barley Crusher. I'm confident I'm going to get a high level of consistancy with the BC with a lot less effort. That is why I decided to upgrade.
 
I love mine. It worked well directly from Adventure in Homebrewing in MI. He made sure it was set right prior to selling it to my wife. I used it for my PM beers and now plan to use it for my AG's.
 
Good stuff, probably my next purchase after 4 way Co2 regulator and some more Better Bottle Fermenters.
 
I got a Crankandstein because it was ~$65 shipped. Also I could build the hopper to what I wanted which I did for about $10. So I got a mill that I wanted for about half the price.
 
+1 on the Crankndstein. SWMBO got me one for Christms a couple years ago. That thing is freakin sweet. And like sause said, building my own hopper was nice. I think mine holds something like 15-20 pounds of grain.
 
I'm pretty happy with the Pokart (Corona) that I picked up used for $30. I spent about 10 minutes playing with it to set the crush and I now have it at the sweet spot, and it works like a charm.
 
I'm very happy with my BC. I was not in a position to build my own base and hopper (brewing time is hard enough to come by as it is), so the BC was a great solution. I'm extremely happy with the quality of the unit and the quality (and adjustability) of the crush. I also like the fact that it comes with a hand crank, but is very readily motorized via an electric drill, although I suppose this is true of most mills. And, while I've not had cause to test this out myself yet, apparently their customer service is outstanding, and he really stands behind his product.
 
All the roller mills are basically the same. What you are paying for are features and convenience. If you buy the Barley Crusher, it will come ready to grind, no real assembly required. If you don't mind some fabrication, you can buy a CrankandStein or a Monster mill which need to be mounted. But all of them are essentially the same - two rollers, adjustable gap, motorizing capability, etc. The only real difference that I see is that the C&S has a feature on the ends of the rollers to help keep the idle roller turning (called the "grain-engaged gear teeth" feature). Their 2S model is pretty bare bones but is very reasonably priced at $67.00 - but by the time you fab a stand and hopper for it, it might be worth it to spring for the BC.

Some things to remember:
  1. Get the largest hopper that is practical. The little hoppers are inconvenient and a bit of a pain. It's very nice to be able to fit your whole grain bill into the hopper.
  2. If you plan on getting a motor to motorize your mill (not a drill drive), make sure the drive shaft is 1/2" dia and not 3/8" dia. The large sheaves that you will need are not available (or at least really difficult to find) for 3/8" shafts..
  3. If you motorize your mill, try to keep the RPM's fairly low - below 200 is best. While there are many folks who mill at 300+ RPM's, I think the issue of shredded husks is more a function of mill speed than roller gap.
  4. Adjustability is nice, but you will find that you mill will wander over time. Keep a dedicated feeler gage with your mill so that you can check it periodically.
Prosit!
 
Barley Crushers are great grain mills that come ready to go when they arrive. The price for what you get is not bad either.
The other grain mills require some work on your part to make them useable. If you have the ability and/or want something not offered by the BC then this is an excellent way to go.
Most of the mills are easily motorized with a drill. Mounting a permanent motor is just a nice option and better suited to the bare bones unit where you can build your own stand.
I've got the BC with the small hopper. This works just fine for me. I enjoy the little bit of work required to crank the mill by hand. Though i will probably break out the drill for the 09-09-09 grain bill. :eek:

Craig
 
I ordered the Barley Crusher this past weekend, based on all of the good comments on this site. It will be arriving tomorrow and I'm going to use it for my first AG this weekend. I'm stoked!
 
The Barley Crusher in my opinion is the best mill built. Randy the owner is a real nice guy and really cares about his customers. He will always stand behind his product and it is a quality built Michigan made piece of art.
 
I'll chime in as another very pleased BC owner. I purchased one a couple of years ago; shipping to Canada was no problem, and I've probably put 300lbs + of grain through it so far, without issue.

It is well built, reasonably priced, and works perfectly right out of the box.

I bet you would be hard pressed to find even one unhappy BC owner.

Rhino
 
looks like the Barley crusher is the way to go. I built mine but if you are looking to buy one the guy from Barley crusher seems to be a straight shooter. Really good customer service from what I have read on here
 
I have a Crank and Stein (3 roller, very sweet) and started with a Corona, which lasted about 4 batches before it gave up. For the 'fabrication', I bought a $10 tractor diesel gas funnel, which holds about 10# of grain, and went with that. Granted, I spent a bit more for the 3 roller, but I get a better crush out of it than I would with a 2 roller. And, for $10 more, I have something that won't break or get damaged. Sweet setup!!
 
i continuously hear about the barley crusher. i hear that it's great. it also is like $140 shipped with a hopper and handle, and ready to put a drill on it. are there any downsides? why do you guys get the monster mills or the crank and steins and build your own? (excluding the three roller system, this i understand) i'm like this close, to closing the deal, but i feel like there is something i'm missing...

I have an MM3 and love it. Have not used the BC, so I can't really comment, but building your own hopper or stand for it is VERY easy if you are even remotely handy. And the size and shape of the hopper ain't that important unless you are motorizing the mill with a good motor, since you'll be scooping grain in there by hand anyway.

http://www.monsterbrewinghardware.com/mm-320.html
 
I hand crank my Barley Crusher and did not opt for the larger hopper. I simply fill the regular hopper twice for my 10-14 lb grinds. Takes me about 5 min to hand crank the grain and works like a charm.
 
I have the MM-3 and I love it its the only mill I have used so comparing it to others is tough. I was at the LHBS and I saw the barley crusher there for the first time. It looked very solid with similar components to the monster mill but looked very small compared to the monster mill. I think that the monster mill will outshine the BC in the long run but both mill will do the job very well.
 
I was just going to make a thread about this...creepy. Anyways...looks like the overtime made this memorial day will be going to a barley crusher and a couple bags of grain :D
 
I fitted my Barley Crusher to a portable folding work bench, it has legs with a cross bar that hold a bucket right under the mill, almost like it was made to hold a BC.

I then use a low speed drill motor to turn it.

Can not see that a home brewer would need a bigger mill, it is adjustable and enlarging the smaller hopper can be done in a million different cheap ways.
 
Just ordered the Millar's Barley Crusher off Ebay. Includes 7lb hopper and aluminum cast scoop. Dual gap adjustment. Just $110 w/free shipping. Looks like a dandy of a deal.
 
I love my BC and would highly recommend it!!!

No matter what mill you buy, just remember that the drill creates a lot of torque and if you don't hold down the base the entire mill will quickly rotate tossing all of your uncrushed grains onto the floor/driveway or whatever... especially applies to when you've already had a few before crushing....:)
 
I built my mill for about 16.70, which didn't include all the wood I had lying around to mount it to. just got to fab up a hopper and do some efficiency test runs on small samples. There are a ton of solutions to having a mill, go with what makes you happy. Just throwing money at a 'problem' is not going to mean you have the best fix though.
 
Keep us posted on it... I may pull the trigger on it! :mug:

It's been a few weeks since the last brew, but I burned through 41 lbs of grain with no problem. I can't remember if I set it to .35 or .37, but the efficiency was excellent. So far, pretty awesome.
 
I got mine (BC) for X-Mas last year. At factory setting I am pulling 85% eff with my rig. My setup is all pretty ghetto with 2 pots and a cooler MLT fired on my electric stove. I seriously couldn't be happier with it. Uniform and consistent crush every time. A little over 200 lbs of grain through it so far. The o-ring to turn the slave roller shredded of, still not sure when that happened. But it is completely unnecessary to the operation of the mill. Still rocking great crushes, still getting great efficiencies, and still VERY happy with the Barley Crusher. Even with the 7 lb hopper at most I fill it twice. 7-14 lbs of grain fresh crushed immediately before doughing in in less than 3 minutes. I am sure the other mills are also quality products, but I have no experience with them. The BC is as plug and play as it gets, from what I can tell. VERY highly recommended. :mug:
 
I built my mill for about 16.70, which didn't include all the wood I had lying around to mount it to. just got to fab up a hopper and do some efficiency test runs on small samples. There are a ton of solutions to having a mill, go with what makes you happy. Just throwing money at a 'problem' is not going to mean you have the best fix though.

This is true. I have always been happy that I thought through a design for mounting my Corona mill before I bought one, with the help of the "Ugly Junk" thread.
This is what I came up with, after buying the mill for under $25 delivered from "Discount Tommy" on eBay:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-ugly-junk-corona-mill-station-90849/index99.html#post3974135

It provides a solution for the biggest problem with this style mill, which is that it throws grist out and makes a mess. This way, it's all in the bucket = no mess. A neighbor provided the big water jug which makes a hopper that will hold 20+ pounds of malt. A big 1/2" drill and a 25-cent bolt from the hardware store, and I was ready to go. Been crushing with this setup for 3 1/2 years, and hitting all my numbers......
 
I love my barley crusher, efficiency went up from 65% to about 80% using default settings.

Takes me about a minute per pound of grain using the hand crank.
 
Silly question, sorry to hijack...

What kind of feeler gauge do you all use to check your roller gap for your BC? I just got one, and I wanna check/optimize my gap!
 
Silly question, sorry to hijack...

What kind of feeler gauge do you all use to check your roller gap for your BC? I just got one, and I wanna check/optimize my gap!

Run it once first and brew on it. Tightening it up could result in stuck sparges. I get close to stuck almost every time with factory settings, but never actually stall until the very very end and I have enough wort collected. See what you think where it is, and if you don't like it go from there.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top