GregKelley
Well-Known Member
Has anyone had experience with this type of Grain Mill? I brew extract with specialty grains so this mill appears it might just be the one I need.
FlyGuy said:I don't mean to pick on you Bird, but I respectfully disagree. Are you basing this opinion that "Coronas=bad" on experience?
When you ask people about their experience with the mill, you actually hear about a lot more successes with Corona's than failures. See here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=32437
I think these mills have an unfair bad reputation. Yes, you will find someone who didn't like theirs, but that could be said of any product, I am sure.
FWIW, I use a Porkert mill (Corona knock-off) and was getting efficiency in the 70's on my second batch (now mine are all in the high-70's or low 80's consistently). It's not actually hard to control the grind, it is just hard to switch it back and forth between different grinds/crushes (that's where an adjustable roller mill shines).
I've seen the Victoria mill before (though have no direct use personally). My brother's bakery used one for milling various ingredients occasionally. It's essentially identical to the Corona, just slightly different construction. It's still just a turning disk against a fixed plate. I imagine it would work equally well (I'm in FlyGuy's camp on this one, I get mid to high 80's with my Porkert).the_bird said:What I still don't understand (and what I think the OP was asking originally) is how this "Victoria Grain Mill" is different from a traditional Corona. OP, wish I could help, but I've neither seen it myself nor heard of anyone using that particular mill.
As long as it hasn't rusted it'll be fine. You should be able to find a new one for very little money, I wouldn't even bother with used.GregKelley said:Good point, but I wonder how good a used one would be.
$1.00 modification (bolt and nut) and hook it up to a drill. I run through 6KG of grain in 3-4 minutes with my Porkert. There is a great thread on here somewhere talking about these mills. I replied in it so I guess I should be able to find it, but I can't.chriso said:...Seems like everyone ignored one of the concerns that Bird originally pointed out - if you are doing all grain, you still have to run all 10+ lbs of grain through the Corona/Porkert/Victoria, and that takes some time...
No, the Porkert meat grinders and grain mills are not the same thing.beergears said:A dumb question, maybe: Looking up Porkert on eBay turns up meat grinders and such -no "mill", apparently.
Are these grinders the kind of Porkert we are talking about...?
That's probably what I should do with mine. I needed something really quickly when I built this thing and it just kinda stuck.boo boo said:Here's mine. I have it mounted to a piece of board on top of my bucket with a chute made up to direct the grain into my bucket.
Same here. I just can't justify $140USD for a monster mill or barley crusher when my efficiency is so good with the porkert. If someone gave me one though I'd drop the porkert in a heartbeat.Onescalerguy said:...That said,i'd love to have one of those higher dollar ones but this one suffices.
I just (cluelessly) bought a victoria mill on the advice of LHBS ($50).....I am heartened to see people coming in here and rescuing it from the negative, but I probably should have done my research before taking said advice......I'll be using it this coming week sI'm sure, and I'll report back!
EDIT: Holy crap (a 2 year old thread) - I gotta start looking at the dates more!
It has tips on tweaking them to use them....just know that if a coroa style is good enough for CHarlie Papazian...AND he gets 87% efficiency, than it isn't the piece of junk you or others may think it is....
I just (cluelessly) bought a victoria mill on the advice of LHBS ($50).....I am heartened to see people coming in here and rescuing it from the negative, but I probably should have done my research before taking said advice......I'll be using it this coming week sI'm sure, and I'll report back!
Should work fine, just a matter of ease and convenience. But, you definitely did overpay for it. I think they're around $20 online.
Corona's are cheap (don't spend more than $20) and probably adequate for grinding a pound of specialty grain. If you ever get into AG or even doing decent-sized partial mashes, you really would want something better. VERY hard to control the grind; it's rare when people are able to get good efficiency, at least with any consistency, with a Corona.
I'm pretty sure Victoria has the old Corona plates or something. Pretty much all of those style mills are essentially the same.I don't know anything about the Victoria mill other than it LOOKS exactly like a Corona but MoreBeer says it's not... in any case, if you are looking at it new, I would REALLY hesitate to drop $60 on it, as for $120 you can get an excellent, excellent mill that will work for you for life, regardless of where your brewing takes you (the Barley Crusher).
I disagree with absolutely everything above. I hit 72% efficiency on my first brew (batch sparge), and mid 80s on all subsequent batches with the corona. It hasn't been hard to control at all.
LBHS put rubber grommet on the adjustment threads - I haven't fiddled with that much, but he says it makes for ease of adjustment.
Careful with the Grizzly mill. I had to do all manner of tweaking just to get it to work at all. The tolerances were awful there. I still haven't been able to get my grinding plate straight, and I had to hit it with a Dremel and hacksaw just to put it together!
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