Corona Grain Mill????

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GABrewboy

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Can anyone tell me where the best place to buy a nice cheap Corona mill would be with the big hopper attached to it.........:mug:

Thanks
 
Well over $100 is a little too steep.......I have read where people have gotten the Corona's for around $25 or so.
 
Do you have a Northern Tool nearby? They were on super discount there last year for $14...I got one shipped for $26. It doesn't have a large hopper (~1lb capacity), but it should be easy to modify.

Most of the ones I've seen outside of this sale are ~$40-50. At that pricepoint you certainly need to consider all your options.
 
I'd go with trying to find one at a Northern. I paid about $50 for my adjustable Corona mill that can hold about 1.5 pounds of grain from Midwest Supplies or something like it. If you can avoid buying from a HBS, you will find that you can usually pay MUCH less...
 
Homebrewery.com has one for sale for $46.95. they have a funnel that you can put on top for a 10 pound hopper.
They can be reached at 800-321-2739
 
ablrbrau said:
Is that the same Northern tool that sells construction equipment? I'm confused.

Yeah, they had them online for $15 a while back, then dropped them to $12. I just looked, and apparently they don't sell them anymore. At least online. You might go check one out, if there's one in your area.
 
Are Corona mills worth buying? I've heard a lot of bad bad things about these mills.
 
I thought I read in one of the catalogs that Corona has the worst efficiency percentages.... is this right?
 
In the 4 batches I've done with my $14 Corona mill I've gotten 82%/79%/72%(wheat)/81% efficiency. If that's bad, spank me. No doubt with a proper mill you'll get a more consistent crush and not watch an entire sitcom while crushing your grist, but I think the Corona wins the value battle.
 
BeeGee said:
In the 4 batches I've done with my $14 Corona mill I've gotten 82%/79%/72%(wheat)/81% efficiency. If that's bad, spank me. No doubt with a proper mill you'll get a more consistent crush and not watch an entire sitcom while crushing your grist, but I think the Corona wins the value battle.

I'd bet a bit of those good efficiency numbers has to do with your mashtun too. Can you post a pic of your MLT manifold?
 
The better efficiency I think is due to the finer crush using the corona vs the roller mills. I know you can crush fine with the roller mills but a properly set roller mill will crush without shreading the husk as much as the corona will. BTW, I use a corona type mill without any complaints.
 
Dude said:
I'd bet a bit of those good efficiency numbers has to do with your mashtun too. Can you post a pic of your MLT manifold?
Sure can...though it's just a copper manifold. However, I do think the sump channel in my cooler which my manifold takes advantage of helps. I'll try to get a photo this evening.

I imagine I could get a more consistent crush and marginally improve my efficiency with a better mill (especially with wheat and other hard grains), but given what I paid for the Corona it seems like the $:efficiency ratio would be too much for my wallet. In terms of time and arm muscle it might be worth it.
 
Check out Corona grain mills on ebay There one on there with a current bid of $9.95 amd a shipping charge of $9.95 and another with at 14.95 closing date tomorrow
 
Yes, I saw those David......Thanks.......My question for anyone that has these Corona Mills, are they worth the money and time to crush the grains to get my effiency up maybe 8-10% more? I am currently right around 68%, is it worth the effort these things sound like they may be a little time consuming and rough on the arm muscles......:O
 
That's up to you, GA. If you're happy with 68% and the HBS's grain mill didn't cost you a dime, there's nothing wrong with that. Like many people have said, grain is cheap so you can just scale up your recipe to hit your numbers (very easy in Promash). I probably would have stuck with that route except that I was considering buying grain in bulk and would therefore need my own mill. After a few test runs I became obsessed with upping my efficiency, but that's more of a mental issue than a beer quality issue.
 
Hmmm.....so it is much cheaper then to buy the grain in bulk? If that is the case, there are so many grains how do you know what to buy......or do you brew a lot of the same beers? I like to brew many different brews depending on the time of the year......winter are heavier brews, summer/sping are light ales and fall are octoberfests.....:) Which I am sure all these would require different grains......right?
 
What a lot of people do, and what I was considering, is buying 2-row in bulk which is the base grain for many styles. You can get it down to $0.50/lb. in bulk and you'll always have it on hand. Something like Crystal 40 is also frequently used, but I was just planning to continue buying my specialty grains a la carte.
 
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