My Ugly Junk- Corona Mill Station...

camiller said:

I still didn't get a chance to take pics of mine, so I'll use yours.

On the collar was one pair of recesses shallower than the other? All I really had to do on mine was pull the cotter pin, rotate the collar 90 degrees and reinsert the cotter pin using the shallower set of indents on the collar. The pin was quite snug and the plate became virtually wobble free. It is possible that my cotter pin was a slightly larger diameter as well, it is hard to tell from the pics.

Oh, and mine is a Corona knockoff branded "Victoria" but I hear they are made in the same factory.

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My collar notches looked the same and the cotter pin on mine was so mangled, that I could get the collar to rotate anyway. That's why I went with the JB weld/bolt...

Either way, my reading has found that that is the one thing that is probably the most important tweak for the corona owner in brewing, to make sure that the grinding plate is not wobbly on the shaft. SO if you're lucky enough to be able to do it without tearing it apart that's probably the preferable way. But if not, a bolt, JB weld, or some other means will work just as well.

my favorite part is the duck sauce bucket

I actually JB welded the ginding palate at the shaft as well...twice, grrr. First time I thought I had it perfectly aligned but unfortunately had a bad wobble to the plate. Whacked it w/ a hammer to get rid of the JB weld for round two. The second time was a charm! I found that if you reassemble the mill w/ the JB weld still pliable, you can get the plate lined up well w/ the the opposite grinding plate.

Hope this makes sense / helps.

Mike

I just found my old copy of Miller (c) 1988. He gives a short discussion on adjusting Corona Mills. Essentially, he says to adjust tight, back out 2 turns on the adjusting nut, then grind a bit and check, with tweaks until the hulls don't get shredded.

Ok, I do not have pictures yet but I definitely win the prize for the ugliest, rube goldbergiest, corona mill contraption.

I tried to just hit it up with a drill. That was hilarious. There was a four foot cyclone of grain spraying across my basement.

To the drawing board. I found some dryer ductwork, you know that circular telescoping stuff. and did surgery on it until it formed a baffle around the whole milling section. Then I used a 2 foot section to serve at the hopper. (The hopper holds 4+ pounds.

Ugly as all get out. I mean it. But I could not believe how well it worked. The grind came out very nice. I did 10 pounds in maybe 2 minutes. I got 79% efficiency on my first batch with it.

Otis The Drunk said:

As far as a name for your creation, Looks like a Choo - Choo to me.... Run with it.

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I'd go with chew chew

dontman said:

Ok, I do not have pictures yet but I definitely win the prize for the ugliest, rube goldbergiest, corona mill contraption.

I tried to just hit it up with a drill. That was hilarious. There was a four foot cyclone of grain spraying across my basement.

To the drawing board. I found some dryer ductwork, you know that circular telescoping stuff. and did surgery on it until it formed a baffle around the whole milling section. Then I used a 2 foot section to serve at the hopper. (The hopper holds 4+ pounds.

Ugly as all get out. I mean it. But I could not believe how well it worked. The grind came out very nice. I did 10 pounds in maybe 2 minutes. I got 79% efficiency on my first batch with it.

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I so can't wait to see pics.

I blew out one of my 3 gallon water bottle fermenters last weekend and ahve been thinking about using a section as a big baffle over the front end...trouble is it may lose it's train like look...Unless I paint it red.

Revvy said:

I so can't wait to see pics.

I blew out one of my 3 gallon water bottle fermenters last weekend and ahve been thinking about using a section as a big baffle over the front end...trouble is it may lose it's train like look...Unless I paint it red.

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Ah Revvy, yours is an elegant and beautiful device next to my contraption. I was going to call it "Frankensteinian" but that would be an insult to Dr. Frankenstein.

dontman said:

Ok, I do not have pictures yet but I definitely win the prize for the ugliest, rube goldbergiest, corona mill contraption.

I tried to just hit it up with a drill. That was hilarious. There was a four foot cyclone of grain spraying across my basement.

To the drawing board. I found some dryer ductwork, you know that circular telescoping stuff. and did surgery on it until it formed a baffle around the whole milling section. Then I used a 2 foot section to serve at the hopper. (The hopper holds 4+ pounds.

Ugly as all get out. I mean it. But I could not believe how well it worked. The grind came out very nice. I did 10 pounds in maybe 2 minutes. I got 79% efficiency on my first batch with it.

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Revvy said:

I so can't wait to see pics.

I blew out one of my 3 gallon water bottle fermenters last weekend and ahve been thinking about using a section as a big baffle over the front end...trouble is it may lose it's train like look...Unless I paint it red.

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You guys think things through too much.

I wrap a plastic garbage bag around the mill and let that direct the grain into the bucket

Great thread! I had given up on the idea of grinding my own grain due to the cost of a barley crusher but you guys have given me new hope. I just ordered my corona mill and I should be grinding my own next week.

Thanks!

My Polish mill was missing the whole "hood" thing or never had it. I just baffle it with aluminum foil to drop the ground grain into a pan - no fuss, no muss, easily adjustable.

On Revvy's setup, I'd just take a sheet and mold it down the the top of the coffee-jar.

Also had no grain hopper - using a tin can that fits inside the thing - got a taller can that will fit as soon as I get the ring at the end (edge of the lid) cut off that will double my capacity - it's a brown bread can.

I will say to everybody...whatever you do DON'T get rid of the handle and make sure you have a way to re attach it in an emergency...like when the battery dies on your drill in the middle of the crush...or if you have a power drill and lose power, so make sure you can get the handle back on in a pinch.

My battery died halfway through the crush...And I was able to get the handle loosely on and crush the last pound or so. Interestingly enough, I think I was able to get a better looking crush going slow..Rather than having grain flying all over the place I was able to look down and see if it needed to be tweaked any more.

Other than to get the worm out for cleaning, I never take the handle off. I just don't "get" the whole business of it supposedly being a huge bother to hand-crank it...

Revvy said:

My battery died halfway through the crush...And I was able to get the handle loosely on and crush the last pound or so. Interestingly enough, I think I was able to get a better looking crush going slow..Rather than having grain flying all over the place I was able to look down and see if it needed to be tweaked any more.

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I also do it by hand. Takes a little bit longer but like you said, grain is not flying all around and I get a good crush. I usually crush a day or 2 before I brew to speed things up on brew day. For an average grain bill for a 5 gallon batch it takes about 10 minutes to crush everything. I also don't have one of those large hoppers but this allows me to take sips and refill the little hopper. I don't think I can attach a drill because my mill has a round rod that attaches to my handle.

Revvy said:

Interestingly enough, I think I was able to get a better looking crush going slow..Rather than having grain flying all over the place I was able to look down and see if it needed to be tweaked any more.

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This is in part why I mentioned my crush. The fact that I went so fast I expected to lose some quality of crush but I looked down and it looked really good.

Dan Listerman(Listermann.Com - Home Page) did a test several years ago and discovered that 200-300 RPM gave te best effiency IIRC

niquejim said:

Dan Listerman(Listermann.Com - Home Page) did a test several years ago and discovered that 200-300 RPM gave te best effiency IIRC

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Ok, because this completely supports my observed results that my grind looked great I will say this is 100% true.

When it comes to ugly milling junk, you guys are mere amateurs!

Where the hell did he find pink duct tape?

TerapinChef said:

Where the hell did he find pink duct tape?

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A gay hardware store?......true answer would be a garage sale.

The pink duct tape does add a certain je ne sais quoi but I still think think I edge you out. I now have the capability to post photos so I'll show you. At worst I'm in your league.

Used mine for the first time after adjustment! what a difference! I'm Shocked. Big difference on a small amount of specialty grains for my Hefeweizen.

Gearing up to my 60% grain 40% extract, partial. Might crush grains for that next weekend! Can't wait

I have had a Corona since before 2000 (Y2K bug gear), but never used it until the past Sunday. I had some 2-row I had toasted in the oven I wanted to add to a small amber ale. Most of the grain had been ground at the LHBS.

I managed to go from whole grains coming out, to flour. I played with it until I got the grind close to the malt I got from the store.

I should have read this thread first...

My Corona came with a fairly good size hopper that clips on. It will hold probably a pound and half.

I still don't understand how, once the width of the crushing plates are adjusted, what stops the plates from coming back together.??

NYbrewer said:

I still don't understand how, once the width of the crushing plates are adjusted, what stops the plates from coming back together.??

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The pressure of the grain pushed by the feed screw is more than enough to keep the plates separated.

bradsul said:

The pressure of the grain pushed by the feed screw is more than enough to keep the plates separated.

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Besides the feed screw that brad is talking about above..some people also tweek it by adding some washers where the plate is attached by the wingnuts on each side.



I don't know if you can see but the washers are shiny in this picture above.

Thanks for the help guys !!

NYbrewer said:

Thanks for the help guys !!

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Glad we could help...anything you figure out as you play around, share it with us here...I'm still tweaking and playing around with mine...

Man...I've seen tons of those things at flea markets and yard sales over the years!

I've always thought that these things were sausage grinders, or maybe the things that I've been seeing out there WERE sausage grinders that just strongly resemble the Corona Mill!

Anyway...I've been thinking that these grains were just supposed to be barely cracked/pinched to be ideal for brewing.

If grinding to a meal/flour consistency is accepable, why not use an electric coffee grinder/mill, or simular appliance for this job?

Pogo

Pogo said:

Anyway...I've been thinking that these grains were just supposed to be barely cracked/pinched to be ideal for brewing.

If grinding to a meal/flour consistency is accepable, why not use an electric coffee grinder/mill, or simular appliance for this job?

Pogo

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You don't want to go quite that far. Have a look at this page on the wiki and you'll see what a good crush should look like (including a corona example, which for disclosure, is mine ).

Tried mine the first time today.I ran a few hand fulls thru checking and got it where it looked better then my lhbs.
So i hooked up my drill and went thru the grain bill it looked pretty good better then the lhbs so i started my brew day.
Well I hit my temps just right and at the end of a smooth brewday my eff was only a 63% up 2% from lhbs.
I have gotten 75-78% with northern brewers crush but only like 60 at my lhbs.

Will the speed of the drill effect the crush i used a old drill that cant control the speed maybe a little to fast or schould I adjust the mill?
I am gonna try another batch tommorow hoping to get my eff up to 70-75 and I'll be happy.I know it will still be beer at 63% and still taste good just a little on the weaker side.

Over the next few brews, keep reducing the plate gap until you hit a point where you have trouble lautering (it's not a bad idea to have some rice hulls hanging around in case you go too far ). Once you hit that point back it off slightly. You should get far better efficiency than 63%. If you can get mid 70's with the NB crush, there's no reason your system can't get that [and higher] with the corona.

Thanks for answering Brad....I'm still waay to nooby to be able to handle any questions about this...I still haven't dialed mine in completely yet....

Thanks for the reply's.Gonna try another brew tomorrow or Thursday. I will adjust it and see how it goes and then I'll post some pics of my station.

Good method Brad.

On my last batch I made some "improvements" to my corona mill. I finally got around to cutting a hole in the base for the milled grain to fall through. Then I built a hopper out of cardboard and masking tape to funnel it through the hole.

In the process I must have knocked the plates out of range a bit. My efficiency dropped 5 points.

That part was disappointing but the grinding itself was fun. Took less than 5 minutes for 14 lbs.

dontman said:

...Then I built a hopper out of cardboard and masking tape to funnel it through the hole...

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You can't tell us that and not post a picture.

bradsul said:

You can't tell us that and not post a picture.

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I would, but I'm kind of embarrassed. My junk is too ugly even for this thread.

bradsul said:

Over the next few brews, keep reducing the plate gap until you hit a point where you have trouble lautering (it's not a bad idea to have some rice hulls hanging around in case you go too far ). Once you hit that point back it off slightly. You should get far better efficiency than 63%. If you can get mid 70's with the NB crush, there's no reason your system can't get that [and higher] with the corona.

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I had another thought about this method of tuning in. When I was tuning in I always thought "that must be TOO fine" and then when I lautered it did just fine. I actually never went to the point where it got stuck. I just took it to the point where my efficiency was reliably and predictably at between 80 and 82%. The point is that I think grinds can go a lot finer than most LHBS' go with theirs with no ill effects.

I figure that any points I add at this point have to be weighed against the greater risk of shredding the hulls too fine and the problems that might create versus saving maybe $.50 total on my grain bill.

dontman said:

I had another thought about this method of tuning in. When I was tuning in I always thought "that must be TOO fine" and then when I lautered it did just fine. I actually never went to the point where it got stuck. I just took it to the point where my efficiency was reliably and predictably at between 80 and 82%. The point is that I think grinds can go a lot finer than most LHBS' go with theirs with no ill effects.

I figure that any points I add at this point have to be weighed against the greater risk of shredding the hulls too fine and the problems that might create versus saving maybe $.50 total on my grain bill.

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'Crush until you're scared' is the motto I used when I was dialing it in. It is definitely dependent upon the individual system how fine you can go though. I was able to get upwards of 89% on my system by the time I had to stop. No issues with tannins or anything either since that is affected far more by water temperature and pH.

bradsul said:

'Crush until you're scared' is the motto I used when I was dialing it in. It is definitely dependent upon the individual system how fine you can go though. I was able to get upwards of 89% on my system by the time I had to stop. No issues with tannins or anything either since that is affected far more by water temperature and pH.

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I like the quote. It is a good motto to grind by. +1 to me never worrying about tannins either. This is another one of those bugaboos that is easily avoided by not oversparging.

I hit 87% once. Expecting 75%. I had to scramble to adjust hops on the fly. Since then I have just settled into my easy to duplicate 80% rhythm.