Grain Mill: KitchenAid vs 2 Roller Type

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.

sennister

Well-Known Member
Joined
Nov 8, 2011
Messages
293
Reaction score
30
Location
Grant
I think I know the answer to this but wanted to bounce this off people here.

For X-Mass I bought the wife a KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer. Now they make lots of attachment for these units and I was looking at what they have. A grain mill caught my eye. I see that it can be adjusted from making flour to just cracking the grain. So in theory it would work for crushing grain for an AG brew session. However MSRP is $150. Am I just better off using a 2 roller type grain crusher and powering it with a drill? I have 1/2 Porter Cable drill which would be over kill but I don't have an issue powering it.

The biggest problem is I don't know how well the KitchenAid attachment would work compared to the roller. Is it worth it as it isn't really any cheaper. The hopper is pretty small on the KitchenAid attachment as well so I would be filling it all the time.

I think I am better off with one of these.

http://www.homebrewing.org/Cereal-Killer-Grain-Mill_p_2310.html

Thanks
 
from what I understand the mixer type grinders are just that, grinders. You don't want to grind the grain up and shred the husks, you want to crack the grains and leave the husk as intact as possible.

I personally have the MM-3 mill. I like the three roller design as the first gap is set larger and just cracks the grain to shed the husk and the second gap finishes the job on the grain kernel but leaves the husk mostly intact. Two roller mills can tend to have a shearing action due to the different roller speeds. Two rollers will work nicely, but if the MM-3 is in your budget I would highly recommend it.
 
from what I understand the mixer type grinders are just that, grinders. You don't want to grind the grain up and shred the husks, you want to crack the grains and leave the husk as intact as possible.

I personally have the MM-3 mill. I like the three roller design as the first gap is set larger and just cracks the grain to shed the husk and the second gap finishes the job on the grain kernel but leaves the husk mostly intact. Two roller mills can tend to have a shearing action due to the different roller speeds. Two rollers will work nicely, but if the MM-3 is in your budget I would highly recommend it.

This is the description from the KitchenAid site.

This all-metal attachment grinds wheat, oats, corn, rice, and other low-moisture, low-oil grains. Using freshly milled grains brings a hearty taste and texture to your baked goods. When you bake with home ground flour you will get all of the good you could possible get from a grain. Choose from 'cracked' to extra-fine consistency. Includes a cleaning brush.

I do know that some people use a hand cranked mill like this but that roller mills are more popular.

6a0128779272da970c01348674e09c970c-500wi


Which I think is basically the same thing as what the KitchenAid is but powered by machine rather than crank.

KitchenAid+KGM+Stand-Mixer+Grain-Mill+Attachment+3.jpg


If it were cheaper ($50) I would probably just try it but for $150 (could probably find on sale for $100) I think I would be better off just getting a roller style as they are in the same price range. Then I could have something with a big hopper to process more grain, most likely quicker.

I do understand that I only want to crack the grain. Not grind it up to dust. Also intact husks are best so that they act like a filter. This will be for my HERMS brewery that I am working on. I might look into a 3 roller. Another option is I could just use the roller mill at the LHBS for now. Once the other projects wrap up (Brewery Build), it might be fun to make a roller mill. I have a metal lathe so it wouldn't be hard to just make one and while I won't save a ton of money, but it would be interesting to build one.
 
Get a roller mill.

1) keeps husks intact as Machine said
2) designed to handle 10+ lbs of grain (kitchen aid would take a while)
3) no chance of breaking your wife's new toy
4) no chance of your wife thinking you bought her the toy so you could use it to make beer
 
Yeah, that one looks like a Corona, basically. Which is fine, but you can pick up a Corona for $20 pretty easily, and it will probably outlast the KitchenAid by an order of magnitude. I use one with a cheapo drill.
 
The Kitchen Aid motor and internal gearing, from what I have read, is not going to stand up to milling 10 or more pounds of malt. As with the previous post, I have found complete satisfaction in a cheap "Victoria" brand Corona-type mill bought from Discount Tommy on eBay for under $25 delivered. Once securely mounted in a bucket, and driven by an ancient Craftsman 1/2" drill I had lying around, this setup produces grist that hits my numbers- every time.

See my setup in the "Ugly Junk" thread:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-ugly-junk-corona-mill-station-90849/index21.html#post1408147
 
I considered the KitchenAid mill but I was worried that it would demolish the grain in spite of it claiming I could set it to "crush". Also, I wondered how much longer it would take for 10+ pounds of grain. I can't imagine they allow more than a couple of cups of grain to be poured into the hopper on the KitchenAid at one time. I assume it also needs to be on low-to-medium setting. The attachments for the mixers are great, but this one was not designed for large scale grain milling as far as I can tell.

The pricing on these attachments is silly so for $150, I would invest in a fairly nice mill.
 
I'd get a roller mill, they work well, are built for the job, and your wife won't stab you if she wants to use the mixer while you want to brew. Also take a look at wet milling, I absolutely love it, and it pretty much eliminated sticking in my RIMs.
 
Back
Top