Who's grinding?

Considering all the stuff I have read regarding poor efficiency and LHBS's not properly milling grains to the right consistency, I'm wondering what cheap grain mill members are using to mill their own grains.

You can buy many hand grind mills for under 50 bucks on eBay. These can be retrofitted easily to electric motors or hand drills.

I was wondering if anyone here uses the kitchenaid mixer attachment. No matter what you choose they all seem to be adjustable.

I have never milled grains but have done partial mashes and have found a huge difference in the consistency of the grains in the kits I have purchased. The latest kit has a small bag of carapills that looks more like dust than milled grain.

On the less expensive side, many here use a Corona mill. You can find many threads on it.

I use a roller mill called a Malt Mill, and there are many other, similar mills.

For me, the big advantage of milling my own malt is that it allows me to buy in bulk.

I use a cheap corona style mill adapted for a drill and it is set VERY tight. Never had a stuck sparge or anything even close to stuck. Efficiency on really high gravity brews are around 83%. Efficiency on Medium gravity brews are around 87%. I believe the kitchenaide attachment would work but take hours to grind 20lbs of grain. I don't see an advantage to "stepping up" to a $250 roller mill, but i'm sure those who have spent the money on one will say you can't live without one. Use your own judgement.

Ultimately the important thing is: mill your own grain and mill the hell out of it. Premilled grain is awful for your efficiency.

Pappers_ said:

On the less expensive side, many here use a Corona mill. You can find many threads on it.

I use a roller mill called a Malt Mill, and there are many other, similar mills.

For me, the big advantage of milling my own malt is that it allows me to buy in bulk.

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Bingo!!! That is exactly why I'm asking for opinions. I figure an investment in a mill will lower overall costs by buying bulk.

I have a kitchen aid mixer but nearly choked when I saw the cost for the grain mill attachment.

I have two general electric 3/4 horse motors with mounts that could be easily attached to the hand mills with some standard pulleys.

I saw the Corona mill on eBay.

shafferpilot said:

I believe the kitchenaide attachment would work but take hours to grind 20lbs of grain. Use your own judgement.
Ultimately the important thing is: mill your own grain and mill the hell out of it. Premilled grain is awful for your efficiency.

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I have the kitchen aid meat grinder attachment and have ground 30 lbs of deer meat in no time at all. The only complaint is the tray is too small to hold significant quantities for stuffing it in. It only cost 50 bucks. I just don't want to spend 150 bucks for the mill attachment. I don't want to buy it without some feedback. I'll spend 20 bucks on eBay on a hand cranker before jumping for the attachment.

i use the meat grinder attachment as well. Nothing quite like home ground hamburger meat! But i do find it to be far too small and somewhat cumbersome to use.

shafferpilot said:

i use the meat grinder attachment as well. Nothing quite like home ground hamburger meat! But i do find it to be far too small and somewhat cumbersome to use.

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Yes. The mixer alone is cumbersome. But so is my friends 3/4 horsepower meat grinder.

I've got the pretty common Barley Crusher with the stock 7# hopper. I've got three cordless drills in the house, so I just mounted one on the crusher and keep it there. So far I've been quite happy with it, and I think they're < $150 last I checked, so it sounds like it's cheaper than the KitchenAid attachment.

Plus, if I covered my wife's KitchenAid in grain dust, I'd have to put a bed in my brewery (i.e. the garage) because she wouldn't let me back in the house!

Check out the "My Ugly Corona Mill" thread (or something like that). These are sand cast Chinese corn grinders, lousy quality, but work well. Mount one inside of a bucket and you don't have any mess and can get great efficiency. Since I set mine up, I buy grain by the 50 lb. sack and save alot of money and no problems hitting my targets. That story is told over and over here.

My other opinions:
1. If you have the money, a better malt specific mill is a great investment.
2. Don't go the Kitchenaid route. I once destroyed the gears in one with an attachment. Also, it will cost more and not work as well as a mill or corn grinder. (other negatives previously posted)
3. Use a 1/2" or heavy duty drill to run your grinder or mill. Most 3/8" drills and most battery powered drills are a little on the weak side for this function. While you can hand crank, drills make milling faster than weighing the grain!

I hand crank 10 lbs of grain with a Corona Mill. It takes some time but it works. Buying grain by the 50# bag I figure the mill will pay for itself in about two years. I brew about every 6 weeks.

Now I'm sure if I figured my time into the equation it doesn't work out, but if I have to put a dollar value on my time I'd just go to the grocery store and buy beer.

Yes, I hand crank, also. That sounds a little weird . . . .

Pappers_ said:

Yes, I hand crank, also. That sounds a little weird . . . .

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I'm married so I'm completely used to hand crankin' mysel...wait what were we talkin' about? Oh yeah, I really do not need to have a self powered grain mill.

I got my Corona on the free which was a huge score. It didn't have the hopper but not important. Done two beers so far 1=78% eff and 2=77.5%. I haven't even bought bulk yet but I love the option. Good results with the brewing is what makes it worth it. I hand crank btw... Sometimes the wife helps...

The kitchen aid grain mill is designed for milling grain into flour, not well suited for typical crushes for brewing. The newer models of the mixers since about 2000 are using much less reliable plastic gears and transmissions, and while I know everyone has a mother or aunt with an older beast that just won't die, these new things burn up very easily, even doing stuff like a stiff bread dough.

Corona hand cranked or a roller mill motorized, all still run you cheaper than replacing a mixer that goes up in smoke.

BigRob said:

The kitchen aid grain mill is designed for milling grain into flour, not well suited for typical crushes for brewing. The newer models of the mixers since about 2000 are using much less reliable plastic gears and transmissions, and while I know everyone has a mother or aunt with an older beast that just won't die, these new things burn up very easily, even doing stuff like a stiff bread dough.

Corona hand cranked or a roller mill motorized, all still run you cheaper than replacing a mixer that goes up in smoke.

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My KA has been pretty good for me for what 6 years or something. I did wonder why I didn't try to look for a used one. Because new the are pretty dang expensive.

Beezy said:

I got my Corona on the free which was a huge score. It didn't have the hopper but not important. Done two beers so far 1=78% eff and 2=77.5%. I haven't even bought bulk yet but I love the option. Good results with the brewing is what makes it worth it. I hand crank btw... Sometimes the wife helps...

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Haha....yeah, I understand.

If you think brewing is an expensive hobby, try being a foodie hah!

BigRob said:

The kitchen aid grain mill is designed for milling grain into flour, not well suited for typical crushes for brewing. The newer models of the mixers since about 2000 are using much less reliable plastic gears and transmissions, and while I know everyone has a mother or aunt with an older beast that just won't die, these new things burn up very easily, even doing stuff like a stiff bread dough.

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Ours was one of those older models with metal gears and broke with a pasta attachment. We fixed the gears and it is still running strong 15 years later, but we gave up on using attachments, except the one that crushes tomatoes.

But you are right, it's definitely not the way to go. Keeping the wife from doing baking by using it for something it's not good for is not gonna happen in my household!

I have a barley crusher, hand cranked, and love it. Get a set of feeler gauges, check the setting before you brew, record the changes if you alter the factory setting.

As a side note I buy 100Kg bags of malted barley for like $35 (yes, thats USD). The downside.... I have no idea exactly what type of malted barley it is... Its for the local lagers. So my brews are wildly cheap, but never quite taste like what I expect when following a reciepe.

+1 on the grain mill and bulk buy. I have a carona style mill witch has been getting me 80-83% efficiency on average. Started buying 55lb sacks of grain from fiftypoundsack.com. have saved enough in 2 sacks of grain over my lhbs price per pound that the next sack is"free" for me. not a bad turnaround(saving like $35 a sack over lhbs cost)

tchuklobrau said:

+1 on the grain mill and bulk buy. I have a carona style mill witch has been getting me 80-83% efficiency on average. Started buying 55lb sacks of grain from fiftypoundsack.com. have saved enough in 2 sacks of grain over my lhbs price per pound that the next sack is"free" for me. not a bad turnaround(saving like $35 a sack over lhbs cost)

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Let your LHBS know the price you can get elsewhere, there must be a decent mark up at your LHBS. He might be willing to sell you the grain slightly cheaper. I look at those prices and cringe at fiftypoundsack.com, my local guy is a lot cheaper, including imported base malts

A lot of folks here use a Corona Mill. I nearly bought one but folks here were telling me about the Barley Crusher being so much better so I went that route. It probably doesn't matter based on the efficiency numbers I see in this thread, but a Corona Mill is more of a grinding/milling action which is meant for flours, where as a Barley Crusher uses two opposing rollers to crush the grains and generally comes preset to what you'd use.

I suspect if you do the math you'd recoup your costs on a Barley Crusher in the first few 55# bags, possibly faster on the Corona style even when factoring any efficiency difference you'll see. If I had it all to do over again, I'd still get the Barley Crusher... I'm sure other roller mills are just as good, but I can't speak to that because I've only ever used mine.

I use a barley crusher with a cordless DeWalt drill. It works great!