cheap grain mill

I'm ready to start all grain and am wondering where i can find a grain mill for a cheap price.i do 5 gal batches about every 2 weeks.so i won't be needing something all that fancy..i have a local HBS.where i can get everything i need but i have to drive 45 min to get there .they have a mill there that i can use when ever i want but i would like to buy my grains in bulk..thanks.

Rev-

Everyone raves about their own! Crankandstein has a basic $70 one, with prices going up from there. The Barleycrusher comes complete w/ base, grain bin, & crank for $132 or so shipped. That's what I'm leaning toward. Schmidling's MaltMill seems a little expensive- nonadjustable $110+, and going on up. The Philmill is very basic and $$. All good mills, check their sites. ALSO, the HBT "SEARCH" feature will lead you to 1000 or so dicussions of just this subject! The EACs here would have said that first, and maybe wished you 'goodday!' Have fun whichever!

Sully

Yeah pretty soon this thread will turn into the "get this one" thread

Fact is they all reportedly do a great job. I don't think any of the commercially available roller mills will not function as expected. There are slight differences between them, but pretty much any of them is a great choice. Fwiw, for a complete model ready to go with everything you need it seems the Barley Crusher is the least expensive. Crankandstein's are beefy buggers raring to go. The most prominent difference between those two examples and the MM is roller length. The BC and CS's are in the 4" length, and the MM is 10" which is probably one of the factors in the price. I think the Barley Crusher sports the smallest diameter rollers, followed by MM, then Crank (in increasing diameter)...but this should be a minimal effect on the actual crush itself. I'd challenge anyone to do a full study. You might find some minor differences in efficiency is my guess. Any one you choose from the 3 are sufficient and you'll be happy. After all, it is a simple device.

It is money well spent, and the cheapest has been mentioned but you'll need to do all the work to mount it etc and use a drill.

I agree, I'm sure there are no "bad" mills still on the market. I personally chose the crankandstein barebones adjustable. I wanted 1.5" diameter rollers and gap adjustability for a low price and no other mill delivered that. The Maltmill is unique in having the same larger diameter rollers, but also 10" long. The C&S is only 5" long but it provides enough resistance on my drill motor that I don't know if I'd want the longer roller length. You'd probably need a higher torque wired drill to run it. There's also the BarleyCrusher that a lot of people like because it is probably the best price for a fully functional mill. I was a little worried that it had 1.25" diameter rollers, but no one has said it matters. It was a very tough decision between the C&S and BarleyCrusher.

I suspect you were hoping for something under a hundred bucks, but now you're talking Corona mill and most users say they would have gotten a roller mill if they did it again.

Bobby_M said:

I suspect you were hoping for something under a hundred bucks, but now you're talking Corona mill and most users say they would have gotten a roller mill if they did it again.

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Yeah I 100% agree, cause pretty much a good mill is a one time purchase. They all iirc have lifetime warranties. I even think CS reknurls for free? But you'd have to crush LOTS of grain to need rekurling, or if you crushed lots of stones in your malt which isn't really an issue these days.

Ditto on the roller mill - buy one if you can! I love my DIY version.

Corona mills are intended for making flour, though they can usually be adjusted to provide a suitable crush for barley.

I use a Porkert (corona style) and while definitely not ideal (I do want a roller mill at some point) I get mid to high 70's for efficiency. If you take your time to get the crush adjusted properly it does an excellent job. And it was less than $50CDN. I use my drill and it goes through 6KG of grain in less than 5 minutes.

thanks for the info guys ..looks like i'm gonna be looking into the crankandstein.basic.i'm wanting to keep this under $100

Does anyone know if the triple rollers make a real difference in the crush?

I've never used a two roller, but my 3 roller rocks:rockin: It really separates the husks from the endosperm. And fast too! Even throttling back on my drill I can grind 10lbs of grain in less than a minute. Being a handy kind of person, I had no problems fabbing up a hopper.