My Ugly Junk- Corona Mill Station...

I hand crank as well. I don't mind it. I just crush the grain the day before.

Just hand cranked my second batch. Gonna do a 3 gallon ordinary bitter in the A.M.

I hand cranked maybe a lb if that, realized doing 15 lbs was going to suck and chucked up my Milwaukee drill to it. I'm done milling in less than 5 minutes now

I enjoy hand cranking. I have a 1/2in D handle HF drill even sitting in my garage, with no plans to hook it up.

MotorcycleMatt said:

I hand cranked maybe a lb if that, realized doing 15 lbs was going to suck and chucked up my Milwaukee drill to it. I'm done milling in less than 5 minutes now

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I think I am picking up on a theme here. Most of the hand crankers appear to be 5 gallon batch brewers. Most of my batches require 20-25 lbs of grain, no way I am cranking that much.

I've hand cranker 20 pounds before. You just need to take breaks and drink beer during said breaks. It's not so bad plus you get some excersie.

Here's mine that I worked on this weekend. Set up to had crank, at least at first. Still planning on expanding the hopper using a water bottle or small bucket.

Sheesh I am a wuss I guess. 9 pounds and I use a drill

autobaun70 said:

I think I am picking up on a theme here. Most of the hand crankers appear to be 5 gallon batch brewers. Most of my batches require 20-25 lbs of grain, no way I am cranking that much.

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My last grain bill was about 24 lbs. Beer and HBT breaks make hand cranking easier.

WesleyS said:

My last grain bill was about 24 lbs. Beer and HBT breaks make hand cranking easier.

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Hell yeah in my mind I instantly heard " real American heros"

I hand cranked about 15lbs today for the first time. Wasn't that bad at all. Took about a half hour

Dang it... I have a corona mill at home and you guys are making me really want to set it up to crush my grist. I am intrigued by the "Hand-Crankers" out there. I have 2 batches I need to brew that have already been crushed though...
Maybe I should go back to the first post to read up on setting this thing up. It would be VERY interesting to brew a few batches with it to see how the efficiency works out. I've been hovering right around the 90% mark with my setup and using the LHBS mill. Sometimes 85%, sometimes 94%...

There really is nothing magical about a mill and efficiency. If you thoroughly crush your grain with your corona mill, your efficiency should be on par with your LHBS crush, as you seem to have the mash and spathe process worked out. Just check to see that ALL pieces of grain are broken and NO whole grains remain.

I hand crank, but usually brew smaller batches: 2.5-7 gallons at a time.

So hand cranking a 30+ pound grainbill would be a challenge?

Huaco said:

So hand cranking a 30+ pound grainbill would be a challenge?

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Not a challenge, but 30-60 minutes of "work" I would guess. Very simple to hook up a slow speed drill, unthread the bolt that attaches the crank, locate a similar longer bolt, either cut the head off the bolt and chuck it into a drill, or use a socket attached to the drill to drive the bolt.

Yeah I thought I was going to hand crank out a 9 pound grain bill last night. I got through about a pound and hooked up the drill. Nice to know it can be done I just am not going to be the one doing it.

Huaco said:

So hand cranking a 30+ pound grainbill would be a challenge?

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I had to hand-crank about 11lbs. of grain once...I bought a drill the next week. Just not for me.

tre9er said:

I had to hand-crank about 11lbs. of grain once...I bought a drill the next week. Just not for me.

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Exactly, I mill the grain as my strike water is heating up.

Helly said:

Here's mine that I worked on this weekend. Set up to had crank, at least at first. Still planning on expanding the hopper using a water bottle or small bucket.

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That thing looks good also what did you use to make the mill stable

In the first picture i cut part of a water jug to attach over the grinding plates to prevent grain from flying all over the place. The second picture is where i used painters tape to seal up the gap inside the hopper.

I hand cranked mine for a few 5 gallon brews and when I moved to 10 gallon batches I knew I was not gonna hand crank close to 30 lbs of grain so I motorized mine. A few months ago I brewed 2 15 gallon batches back to back and had almost 80 lbs of grain and was glad I didn't have to hand crank that!

I was hoping to make it uglier. I do have food safe buckets that I use to store the grain.

Shout out to all the hand operators out there, thought I'd had 2 batteries charged to run through 12#, murphys law got me, and only had one and was forced to spin out 5# or 6# by hand....life was rough there for a about 10 min.

Haha. I do 10 gallon batches by hand. It's really not that bad. Good music and good beer make the time fly by.

Take a few breaths and a gulp of beer each hopper load! That's actually the reason I didn't DIY a larger hopper...

I'll have a pic up at next brew day, but we've got a heavily modified 2 liter duct taped to the mill so the grain slides (with the help of some shaking) into a bucket. Hand grinding 25lb of grain is not too much fun, but it's not so bad when you've got 3 people brewing together.

I posted previously and increased my crush per recommendations - here's where I ended up:



My efficiency is up roughly 10% from the crush at Northern Brewer MPLS. I do full volume BIAB. I just brewed a special bitter that i've brewed several times (with LHBS crush) and this latest brew has a bit of a grainy, almost tannic/astringent flavor to it that seems to be fading. It's only about 4 weeks old and typically starts tasting good after a few weeks of cold conditioning, but has anyone else noticed a grainy taste from increasing their crush like we seem to do with these corona mills? I don't think it's PH related as I've never had an issue with this grist in the past, but probably shouldn't rule that out. I think it will condition out, but thought I'd check with you all anyway.

I hand crack my big beers with my left hand to even out my forearms....wait...never mind.

I think thats called the stranger

I thought the stranger was when you sat on your hand til it went numb then hand ground your grain bill.

Itsott said:

I thought the stranger was when you sat on your hand til it went numb then hand ground your grain bill.

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Then its like someone else is grinding your grain.

Itsott said:

I thought the stranger was when you sat on your hand til it went numb then hand ground your grain bill.

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Brewed in 60 Seconds, the movie!

So I am looking at getting a corona style mill... I am attempting to get through the thread, (currently on page 27...) and just wondering if there is an exact brand that is better than others? Should I get one from discount Tommy's (they are listed for $24.00 and free shipping) or should I get it from somewhere else? Thanks for the help!

dhammers91 said:

So I am looking at getting a corona style mill... I am attempting to get through the thread, (currently on page 27...) and just wondering if there is an exact brand that is better than others? Should I get one from discount Tommy's (they are listed for $24.00 and free shipping) or should I get it from somewhere else? Thanks for the help!

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They're all basically the same. I got mine from Discount Tommy three years ago for about that same amount. The "Victoria" version he sells works fine. Read the thread, learn the various ways of implementation and mounting the machine. It's VERY crudely made, but, hey, you're not milling bread flour, you're just cracking this stuff up.

LabRatBrewer said:

I hand crack my big beers with my left hand to even out my forearms....wait...never mind.

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your funny

Ok!!!! After reading approx 60 pages of this teasing thread, I built my PIAP (pail in a pail, would've prefered bucket in a bucket but BIAB is already taken )) However, I see pictures of people using big a$$ drills! How long would last my small corded Black and Decker drill?? I read about low speed drills and I'm not sure this drill has been designed for anything else than drilling through saran wrap! Lol!

Maybe I'm just lucky, but I've been using my 18v Dewalt cordless now for about 10 or so batches without any issues...

Chefboubou said:

Ok!!!! After reading approx 60 pages of this teasing thread, I built my PIAP (pail in a pail, would've prefered bucket in a bucket but BIAB is already taken )) However, I see pictures of people using big a$$ drills! How long would last my small corded Black and Decker drill?? I read about low speed drills and I'm not sure this drill has been designed for anything else than drilling through saran wrap! Lol!

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Try it out, and if it doesn't get hot and will run at (or close to) the proper rpm you are fine. If not, time to consider an upgrade.

Just put the finishing touches on my bucket in a bucket and gonna hand crank 16# for a pliny clone

brewinginnc said:

Just put the finishing touches on my bucket in a bucket and gonna hand crank 16# for a pliny clone

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This is what these mills were made for. Are you doing elder or younger? I'd love either recipe