Grain Mill or Pump and Chiller

A little about my home brewery:

I brew five-gallon all-grain batches using a 10 gallon cooler, a 10 gallon mega pot, a banjo burner, and a couple 5-gallon buckets here and there to collect/hold first runnings/sparge water. It isn't pretty but it works very well. I chill my batches with a 25 foot stainless steel immersion chiller, that I am honestly not happy with. It uses way too much and doesn't cool very efficiently, especially in the hot North Carolina summers.

I am on a limited budget but I would like to upgrade my brewery with some upcoming potential Christmas presents from family. I am considering purchasing a grain mill or a pump and plate chiller.

Mill - My efficiency doesn't seem to be very consistent, likely due to the crush I'm receiving from the LHBS. I also like the idea of ordering a couple sacks of grain and storing in air tight containers in my garage.

Pump/Chiller - Instead of transferring very hot water and scalding myself, I could transfer from the kettle/HLT to the mashtun. I could also purchase a plate chiller to chill more efficiently. I suspect this option would be more expensive because I would need to purchase a pump, plate chiller, and all the fittings and silicone tubing to make it all work.

What are your thoughts?

Sound like we have similar setups. I'd go with the grain mill. Your efficiency is certainly suffering from the crush that's being provided to you. I solved the summer chilling problem with a pre-chiller. I got a roll of copper tubing and soldered some fittings on to attach it to my hose. I stick this pre-chiller in a buck of ice water and run the output from that to my wort chiller. It only cost about $30 and made a big difference.

My setup was similar to yours. This is what I did,

I bought a Corona mill from Discount Tommy on Ebay and mounted ii in a bucket and attached my drill. ~$25 It works great getting consistent 80% mash efficiency.

I got a Chugger pump which I use to transfer liquor to the MLT, Mash recirculation and for whirlpooling with the Immersion Cooler.

I like the IC as it easy to sanitize and it leaves the cold break in the kettle. If your ground water is too warm, think about a prechiller before the IC. With a plate chiller or IC, you cannot chill below your water source temp anyway.

I thought a pump would be awesome....it was more headache than it was worth....just made my brew process more complicated than it needed to be
Grain Mill will also allow you to buy bulk and save money in the long run

Love love my plate chiller....since I sold my pump I just gravity it.....I actually tested it and its about the same amount of time to gravity feed compared with a pump

That's my 2 cents

I gravity feed my plate chiller and it works fine.

Grain mill - Buying bulk is cheaper, plus you can get a finner crush. my two cents.

Grain mill for sure. Of course my ground water is dang cold this tile of year and I can cool a 6 gallon batch in about ten minutes. I have a old corona mill that has stone instead of metal blades. It turns the grain ok but it does make a awful lot of flour with it.

Dang I am talking myself into getting a new mill now LOL

If you look at the money outlay, I would go with the pump and chiller. The grain mill can be skipped if you buy from places like Farmhouse Brewing that has invested in a nice mill.

The savings required to recoop from the mill requires you to buy a whole lot of malt and unless you are a very active brewer, it will take a long time. To complicate things, you will need to wait for a group buy in your area to "find" these savings.


I know.. this is a different way of looking at things.

A lot depends on how much you could improve upon the mill at the LHBS. My LHBS lets me gather and weigh all the grains, dump it in their mill and doesn't charge any extra. I can also buy a bag of a particular grain and don't have to take it, they put 50 pounds on my account and I just draw it down as I take it. A mill means very little to me. If your LHBS has a crappy mill, charges extra to use it and doesn't let you get bulk pricing, then I could see how it would be a priority.

Plate chiller, then grain mill, then pump. A plate chiller can take you down to temp in about a gallon per min. I love my gain mill but I could also use the one at LHBS. I have a pump but don't use it much, until the brew stand gets built.

Buy yourself a corona mill from your local hispanic grocery store for $25, and ask your family for a 50' x 1/2" copper chiller. You can use your smaller SS chiller as a pre-chiller (like Huhwha mentioned), it'll make a huge difference.

I have all three, they're probably the most important additions to my brewing setup - but if you can't get all three then I'd probably just get the plate chiller. I'd be wary of using a plate chiller without a pump because they can be a real pain to get clean without some pressure on the backflush.

I've been too lazy to get the brewstand out for a serious cleaning, so I've been soaking our plate chiller in PBW and back flushing mine with hot tap water for two days and it's still got particles coming back out. If you're patient, you can clean it this way - it's just somewhat tedious.

Thanks for the feedback guys!

I use online vendors as my LHBS so I'm really stuck with whatever crush they give me. I've noticed the crush at the main vendor I use seems to not be as good as it was once and my efficiency has dropped. On the other hand, I don't particularly like filling up a gallon pitcher from my kettle one gallon at time and occasionally scalding myself. A plate chiller would be great but is also a pretty expensive investment.

For what is worth, I'm looking to add quality pieces to my home brewery. I started out buying low quality equipment start with and upgraded recently. My budget is limited so I do have some decisions to make. I'll have to do some more research on what is available and for what price. Thanks!