Grain Mill ?

I am currently accumulating and/or manufacturing the materials I will need to switch over to all grain brewing this fall. I have been looking at grain mills and am considering the Schmidling Model P Maltmill (preadjusted). Any comments on this mill? Should I spend the extra cash to get the adjustable model? Is there another mill I should consider?

Thanks

Gilbey

I've never used the Maltmill, but I've got a BarleyCrusher that I love (and everyone that I know who has one, absolutely loves). It's adjustable, although I've never needed to futz with it at all. Makes a great crush; I've got from 60%-ish efficiency to ~85%, in large part due to the mill. Works great right out of the box, sits right on top of a 5-gallon bucket. Pretty fairly priced ($126 or so, shipped, from Northern Brewer).

I'm sure that people who use the Maltmill love it just as much - but take a look at the BC.

I just bought the barley crusher (I think anyway). About the same price and fits over the bucket. I just bought it and used it this weekend and it worked great right out of the box and got good efficiency 77% batch sparge.

+1 on the Barley Crusher. I did have to adjust the gap on mine but it's been a GREAT mill. I'd highly recommend it.

I own a Barley Crusher with the 7# hopper, and I love it. It works with a drill right out of the box and is easily adjustable though I haven't had to mess with it because I get 70-80% efficiency.

I use the one from M3 and its really just a barley crusher.. so
+1 on the barley crusher. I get 80 - 87% with little effort now that I have the mill crushing right for my setup.

Thanks for the feedback folks. I will have to look into the Barley Crusher.

I suppose it really deserves its own thread, but can someone give me some pointers on what the correct crush should be like and whay adjustments I might neeed to make to the mill? I understand the efficiency concept, just trying to get a handle on how to crush grain.

Gilbey

I got a monster mill recently, it was a pain in my ass to build the hopper and base, but it seems to be a solid mill. I am still getting used to it, I have only made 4 beers with it, but it is easy to adjust and it's really nice to be able to buy grains in bulk.

The ultimate answer is - you're going to love whatever you buy. I know of no one who has expressed disappointment with anything other than Corona-style mills (and even those have their proponents). The Barley Crusher is nice because it's cheap (relatively speaking) and works right out of the box. Some of the mills like the Monster Mills are a little bit more robust (arguably more robust than they absolutely NEED to be), but require that you build out a hopper and a base. Nothing difficult to build, but time's an issue for some of us.

Another Barley Crusher user here, fwiw.

FWIW I like being able to adjust the gap on my Maltmill.
I think the default setting is just about right for barley.
But I have to open the gap a little to crush my wheat malt.
It's a once-and-done purchase, so I'm glad I spent the extra $30.

I don't mean to imply that you shouldn't ask the question, but I think the "which mill to buy" question is among the most frequently asked all-grain or equipment/sanitation forum questions, right up there with "infection?" in the beginner's forum, and "stainless or aluminum" questions in the equipment/sanitation forum. Search and you'll find a lot of these grain mill popularity threads.

More than 90% of the responses you'll get in this thread and will discover in other grain mill related threads will be people telling you what they use and that they are very satisfied. About 1% of the posts will be people telling you that they used to use a Corona mill, but found it unsatisfactory so they ended up buying one of the major grain mills. The remaining 9% of the comments will be unrelated banter, and posts with made-up statistics in them like mine. There will be a negligible number of posts where someone says they bought one major brand, didn't like it, and ended up buying some other mill.

What is the take away for this? It is that all of the major brands of grain mills do an excellent job, and you would very likely be satisfied with any of them. Very few people are ever dissatisfied with any of the major brand mills unless they happen to get one of the very rare examples that have a manufacturing defect.

I recommend that you base your decision on whatever factors are most important to you; cost, sexiness, heavy metal, number of rollers, length and thickness (you probably know if you stress over this kind of thing in other areas of your life), glowing reports (good luck, there is no differentiation here), or astrological influences. You are almost guaranteed to be totally satisfied with your decision.

Now, to help support my made-up statistics, here is my obligatory response:

I use a crankandstein, and it is a piece of work, built like a brick outhouse. I'm totally satisfied, and I love it.

billtzk said:

I don't mean to imply that you shouldn't ask the question, but I think the "which mill to buy" question is among the most frequently asked all-grain or equipment/sanitation forum questions, right up there with "infection?" in the beginner's forum, and "stainless or aluminum" questions in the equipment/sanitation forum. Search and you'll find a lot of these grain mill popularity threads.

Click to expand...

Got it, thanks. Honestly I missed the search feature on this site......my bad.

Gilbey

I have the model P and am very happy with it. It's well built, ready to go, and has a lifetime warranty. I don't find the lack of adjustment to be a problem. In fact, I think it is a benefit as it can't get out of adjustment.
Having said that, you may want something adjustable if you use large amounts of wheat, or 6 row, or anything other than the 2 row that I use.

-a.

I have the adjustable model, I am very pleased with it, seems to be a solid mill, I have put app. 100 # of grain through it so far with no problems, I have it adjusted to .036, and am getting 78% in the fermenter, I am going to get brave one day and tighten it down a bit more, I think you will be pleased with any of the major brands, it is up to you if you want to be able to adjust the mill, ( only 30 to 40 more bucks for the adjustable model), good luck with your purchase.

My one attempt at a rye beer (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=71450
]), the rye didn't get crushed very well through the lhbs mill, so I decided that I would get an adjustable mill when the time came. I got the c+s 3 roller mill, and with the hopper and base it wasn't really that much more money. After a few bags of malt it will pay for itself.

That said, how many rye beers will I brew, and will it make that much of a difference?

All of the mills seem to have great reputations; even the corona has it's champions ( I love it for rye flour - I couldn't get the malt the way I wanted it, though). You'll be happy with any one.

good luck choosing!

Gilbey said:

I suppose it really deserves its own thread, but can someone give me some pointers on what the correct crush should be like and whay adjustments I might neeed to make to the mill?
Gilbey

Click to expand...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Evaluating_the_Crush

Barley Crusher for me. Exceptional customer experience as well.

If you order the BC...it's ready to crush right out of the box. No assembly. No
need to build a hopper.

And no need to research "how to crush". It's preset to a very good setting.