Amazon Corona Mill yes or no

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tflew

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Since I discovered I was able to buy buy bulk grain for half the price that I was able to buy it in bulk at my LHBS I am now in the market for a corona mill. Does anyone have this one from amazon for $14.99 or have some serious advice against it? And I am set on going with the cheaper Corona mill instead of a roller mill for now before that discussion gets started.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0038NPJVG/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

Thanks

Tom
 
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From reading the reviews on that one I would just invest the money in a better mill. Seeing as you are a premium supporter I would think you can afford to buck up for a quality product seeing as equipment is more valueable to me than a forum. I would and did go with the barley crusher personally, the lifetime guarentee kinda sold me on it.
 
From reading the reviews on that one I would just invest the money in a better mill. Seeing as you are a premium supporter I would think you can afford to buck up for a quality product seeing as equipment is more valueable to me than a forum. I would and did go with the barley crusher personally, the lifetime guarentee kinda sold me on it.

Yes I understand that a barley crusher/roller mill is technically "better" but plenty of people use corona mills for years with great success. Again not the discussion I wanted to get into more wanted to know the difference between a cheap corona mill vs the more expensive ones. Will it crush my grains more effectively than the LHBS or not
 
just read the reviews of the product, they will give you better insight as to it's quality than anyone that doesn't own it.
 
Thats why I asked for peoples opinions who own it or use something like it

I use a real Corona from Austin Hombrewer and it works fine. You'll want to motorize it with an electric drill. Grain flies everywhere.

I looked into buying the Amazon one but they were having problems because lots of people had complained it wasn't a real Corona. Even if it isn't, Amazon will make it good.
 
I believe most of the "corona" mills people around here are using are the cheap chinese ones like you are looking at on Amazon. Sure they are crap quality, but they are sturdy and can work well for crushing grain IME.

Cheaper here w/ free shipping FWIW.
http://www.discounttommy.com/p-189-...er-for-wheat-grains-or-use-as-a-nut-mill.aspx

From reading the reviews on that one I would just invest the money in a better mill.

If you acually READ the reviews, you will find that the people using it for homebrewing are happy! The idiots trying to make wheat flour w/ a corn grinder are unhappy, no surprise, these things are NOT flour mills!!!
 
I can't imagine there is a huge difference between Corona style mills. They do the job, you just have to set the gap properly and keep an eye on it.

If you have the money, I would recommend adding a drill into the price, if you don't already have a drill to drive it. Unless you want your arms to look like Popeye's.
 
I just got a corona mill for Christmas. I've used it once, and it worked great. Find the thread "My Ugly Junk" in the DIY section. It's an entire thread about mods people have done to improve the crush and mounting the mill in buckets to better use it.
 
I use one that looks like that one. I got it as a gift so I don't know where it came from though. It works well though it shreds the husks. I don't know how much difference that makes. I also suggest using a drill but get one that has a lot of torque. My cheap ones get very hot doing a large grain-bill, I have even seen smoke coming out of one of them. (still working)
 
If you think you will be homebrewing for years to come, buck up and get a decent mill. I got my Barley crusher for $100 and do not regret the investment.

Now if you think you might stop brewing in a year or 2, then spring for the cheaper mill. Personally I think that a lifetime hobby like homebrewing requires equipment that will work well and last long enough that it still works when you finally hang it up one day.
 
I bought the walmart version for about $20 with free shipping to a walmart. It looks about same but front piece is a hood so grain only ejects towards bottom. I mount it on a countertop and have a baking pan to catch grain so I get very little loss/mess.
Works good and handcrank isn't that bad.
 
I have one of the Discount Tommy corona mills. $28 shipped to me. Works great. Beer tastes good, crush gets 78% efficiency. That's the same was I was getting buying crushed grain from LHBS with roller mill.
 
They work great for some people, but not for me. I used mine twice. The second usage is where I spilled 10lbs of grain all over the floor. It was my fault for not securing the hopper, but the entire thing seemed of questionable quality and was just an overall rickety affair. After that, I ordered a MM2 2.0 Stainless with the extended hopper and there's just no comparison. Granted, there is a huge difference in price, but my corona mill acted like it was cheap, and the MM acts like it's expensive. I imagine any of the cheaper roller mills are still leaps and bounds better than a corona mill. When mine wasn't spilling grain all over the floor, it was just spraying grain all over the place. I didn't even keep it as a backup, because I'd rather not brew if I had to use that thing again. It's gone by way of dumpster, and the roller mill is standing proudly in my brewery. My wallet is much lighter, but my mind (and brewday) are on easy street.

tl;dr - My Corona Mill was a POS. Get any roller mill before you get a Corona. My .02
 
I have the “500” corona grain mill and have put over 350 pounds through it without a problem. Very happy I went with it.

262055_558713710808645_7755668_n.jpg
 
I got a corona mill from austin for $29 at christmas and couldn't be happier with it. Needed to be cleaned to get the machine oil off it, but that was easy. It does spray crush a bit, but like the guy above a little McGuyver solves the problem again. I just took a gallon ziplock bag and put it around the grinder part and sealed up as much as I could. Worked great. Used the hand crank as I only need a small couple pounds at a time, but you can set it up to run with a power drill as well. for $29 bucks, a good deal, but I bought a real one from Austin, not a copy.
 
I would second the my ugly junk thread. I use the mill and with a little DIY I have a pretty servicable piece of equiptment.

This is my stealth version of the corona mill.

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I bought my Corona because if the ugly junk thread.

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Here is mine before I motorized it.

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1st try with the motor

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Installed in a cabinet

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I have run hundreds of pounds through this mill and get consistent 80% efficiency with it.
 
Wow that is an awesome set up. I love that you attached a full blown motor to it
 
Happy corona user here. No intention of "upgrading" here. I get a great crush and don't shred my hulls.
 
tflew said:
Wow that is an awesome set up. I love that you attached a full blown motor to it

Thanks! I had to, my arm was killing me after I milled for a 5 gallon batch and now I make 10 gallon batches there is no way I could do it before a brew I would have to start milling the night before. It will mill about a pound a minute, love it!
 
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