grain grinder

i'm new here, and am in need of a grain grinder. preferably a grinder that has large volume potential. is there a search tab on this forum to look through other threads, or if not, could some one give me some tips on this topic.

thanks

Barley Crusher
Monster Mill

There's plenty of others. Try Midwest Supplies, Northern Brewer or Austin Homebrew's websties to get some ideas what you might need or want.

I use a Corona Mill. Works great, not very costly. Here is a good thread about how to modify a corona mill to hold more grain.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/my-ugly-junk-corona-mill-station-90849/

thanks, ya'll have been very helpful

I use the Barley Crusher and it works great. I use my power drill to crush and it only takes a couple of minutes. I also got the 15 pound hopper so I can put in up to 15 lbs of grain at once. Hasn't failed me yet!

catfishman said:

i'm new here, and am in need of a grain grinder. preferably a grinder that has large volume potential. is there a search tab on this forum to look through other threads, or if not, could some one give me some tips on this topic.

thanks

Click to expand...

How large of volume? Will this be for home use or a commercial operation?

RM-MN said:

How large of volume? Will this be for home use or a commercial operation?

Click to expand...

Home brew, but I like do do things in a big way, 20-50 lbs at a time.

I can tell you that you don't want a hand cranked Corona mill then. I would think that one of the other ones mentioned above would be good for you like the Barley Crusher or Monster Mill.

I agonized over my choices for a mill for several months. Have been using a modified pasta mill for the last 9-10 months Last brew day was painful to say the least, took around 45 minutes to grind a 12 Lb grain bill. It's time for a real mill... Considered a Corona style mill, I decided against it in favor of a mill designed to crush grain for brewing. Nothing against a Corona, many brewers are getting good results with them, just my personal preference.

I ultimately decided to get a Crankandstein 3D mill with a hopper and an attachment to adapt a 1/2 drive. Planning to use my Shopsmith to drive this thing, ordered the mill earlier this week. Can't wait to get it, but I have to wait for them to build one. Should be here around the end of Feb.

my barley crusher attached to a drill with a locking trigger allows me to chug a beer while plowing through a 10 gallon grain bill. OK, so not a whole beer.

I mill over 100 lbs at a whack and use the below mill table I built. If you are routinely milling larger-than-normal weight, I would recommend going with a similar set-up.

It is a three-roller Monster Mill with the hopper. The hopper will hold about 35 lbs of grain at a shot. I hooked up the mill to an old table saw motor I had laying around. Under the table, I placed the motor on a piece of wood and then hinged that piece to the frame of the mill table so that weight of the motor itself would keep the drive belt tight. You want to gear down the RPM a fair amount, which I did with simple drive wheels (a 1 inch vs a 6 1/2 I think). If you don't have a motor, I am pretty sure you could grab one at a pretty reasonable price from Tractor Supply, Harbor Freight or hell... check craigslist for old table saws.

It'll crush 100 lbs of grain in about... I dunno... four minutes?

Just another option.

catfishman said:

is there a search tab on this forum to look through other threads

Click to expand...

Because you asked, the search function is located in the left corner of the black bar on the top of the screen. If you are using the Android or iOS application, I don't know where it is, but I would assume it has one.

You can also use Google to search this specific website just by adding site:homebrewtalk.com to the end of the keywords you are searching for on google.com.

As for what grain mill to purchase, the suggestions that you have gotten are all good ones. It really will come down to three factors:
1. Budget
2. If you want to motorize it, hand crank it, or hook up an electric drill to it.
3. Personal Choice

catfishman said:

i'm new here, and am in need of a grain grinder. preferably a grinder that has large volume potential. is there a search tab on this forum to look through other threads, or if not, could some one give me some tips on this topic.

thanks

Click to expand...

Top of page on the left.

Rick

FWIW, got the new Crankandstein 3D last Tuesday, got it hooked up to the Shopsmith and used it to grind today's grain bill. Took 5 minutes to grind a 12lb grain bill! Got the beer brewed and got 81% for the mash, never got above 75 before. LOVE IT! The system does need a little more tweaking to be really great, but so far it was worth the wait to get the mill. Hope you're as happy with your choices as I am with mine.

Sweet, I've been thinking about hooking up my monster mill to my shopsmith- it works great with the drill i currently use but using the shopsmith just sounds like a fun project.

Do you just have a 1/2in chuck for the drive shaft or some other way to connect the two? What speed setting are you running it at?

EDIT: ButcherBoy- any pics of your shopsmith setup?