Need a Small, Quiet & Effective Malt Mill!

Well, I finally bit the bullet. I either made a great economical purchase or a phenomenally stupid decision.

After finding out that my LHBS sells bulk grains at better prices than most online retailers, I made an impulse decision and bought 165 lb of bulk imported grains there for less than $190 (German 2-row, German Pilsner, and Maris Otter). I think I got an amazing deal but that's besides the point.

Now I'm caught at a crossroads. My LHBS has already told me I can use their mill at any time, free of charge. I've never experienced poor efficiency from their mill, but the LHBS is still a 30 minute drive & probably not worth the gas & effort of $5 worth of adjunct every brew. So I think I want to take the next step down the homebrewing rabbit hole. I want my own malt mill.

However, any potential purchase must overcome a few issues:

Issue 1: I live in a tiny 1BR apartment. And it's pretty much at capacity with all of my homebrewing crap. Another (potentially) huge piece of equipment will stretch my storage space to the breaking point. The mill has to be small.

Issue 2: I live in a tiny 1BR apartment. And it's surrounded by cranky neighbors and paper thin walls. I can't make noise like I'm performing dental surgery every 2 weeks. The mill has to be quiet.

Issue 3: I hate taking half-measures. I'm not going to buy a piece of equipment with the expectation of it breaking a few months down the road. I've used Corona mills before, and they are not fun. I'm intrigued by the Cereal Killer, but I've read they are somewhat temperamental as well. The mill has to work, again and again.

Tl;dr looking for a small, quiet & effective malt mill for a decent price. :rockin:

Haha, so you got 165 lbs of grain to save a few bucks, but now you have to buy a $100+ gadget to mill the stuff.

If you already have a kitchen blender or food processor, have you tried just using those? Just take care to take breaks and don't overheat the motor. If your brewing method does not require a precise crush, I think you could get by for a while. (The problem with the blender would be to keep it from getting too fine, but that is less of a problem with BIAB).

I went for the Corona knockoff because I am a cheapskate and do 2.5 gallon batches. But honestly my 6 year old can grind 5 lbs of grain in 10 minutes. With a few screws and a bucket you can make a setup that gives you good leverage.

I'm more curious about the situation of not having space for a small mill, but having room for 165lb of grain.

On an on topic note, I love my Cereal Killer Mill it isn't any louder than a blender that's for sure even with the high powered drill I use with it.

Aristotelian said:

Haha, so you got 165 lbs of grain to save a few bucks, but now you have to buy a $100+ gadget to mill the stuff.

If you already have a kitchen blender or food processor, have you tried just using those? Just take care to take breaks and don't overheat the motor. If your brewing method does not require a precise crush, I think you could get by for a while. (The problem with the blender would be to keep it from getting too fine, but that is less of a problem with BIAB).

I went for the Corona knockoff because I am a cheapskate and do 2.5 gallon batches. But honestly my 6 year old can grind 5 lbs of grain in 10 minutes. With a few screws and a bucket you can make a setup that gives you good leverage.

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Actually a $100 mill would pay for itself after 165 lb... I bought in bulk for $1.15/lb versus $1.80/lb. End up saving $0.65/lb x 165 lb = $108.

arnobg said:

I'm more curious about the situation of not having space for a small mill, but having room for 165lb of grain.

On an on topic note, I love my Cereal Killer Mill it isn't any louder than a blender that's for sure even with the high powered drill I use with it.

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Ha, like I said, impulse buy. I definitely do not have room for the grain. But good to know...does the hand crank work well on yours?

I hear the JSP Maltmill will wade through grain manually as fast as smaller ones that are powered. That may be a good fit for you if you want to go manual to keep the noise down.
They offer base units with no hopper or base to keep the price down if you are handy.

Get some exercise and use the corona I'm in a similar situation and couldn't imagine using anything else.

Jsp malt mill or if you can find one a Phil mill, they are cute little roller mills from a number of years back that I don't think a re made anymore, but are pretty solid.

I use a second hand blender, Waring, for BIAB.

I don't use BIAB, so I don't think a blender (or corona mill) will work.

I checked out the JSP malt mill, and I know another HBS that uses one. However, the hopper is minuscule and it looks like any customizations make them ungodly expensive ($143 adjustable mill + $29 hopper adapter)...imo there are better mills for the money.

What about Captain Crush / Monster Mills? I have been extremely pleased with my Northern Brewer equipment purchases...the only issue I see is how bulky they are.

Go for the Monster Mill. I went through 3 Captain Crushes before I finally gave up on them. The Monster Mill is going to last my entire life. If your criteria is something that is going to last, you can't go wrong with it.

I use the Harbor Freight low speed drill, it works pretty well. They have a hand crank available too, that would be really quiet.

specharka said:

I don't use BIAB, so I don't think a blender (or corona mill) will work.

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A corona mill is not limited to BIAB. I have no issue batch sparging with a cooler MT with a corona crush. I think it would likely work for fly sparging as well.

wilserbrewer said:

A corona mill is not limited to BIAB. I have no issue batch sparging with a cooler MT with a corona crush. I think it would likely work for fly sparging as well.

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+1 no issues with my corona mill and a blichmann mash tun.

Thanks for the input, everyone. Don't want to belabor the point, but I don't want a corona mill. Between the tiny hopper, reported reliability issues, and the shredded husks (I fly sparge), I'm not interested.

NeoBrew said:

Go for the Monster Mill. I went through 3 Captain Crushes before I finally gave up on them. The Monster Mill is going to last my entire life. If your criteria is something that is going to last, you can't go wrong with it.

I use the Harbor Freight low speed drill, it works pretty well. They have a hand crank available too, that would be really quiet.

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That's exactly what I was thinking. I've read other people's complaints about the CC, not looking to build on that. The monster mill has the right specs, and even though it's a little pricey I'd rather get something that lasts.

Gonna wait until I get through the next few batches before I buy a MM3.

Thanks again, everyone.

I wrote in another thread that I have a cereal killer which I am very happy with, but that if I'd had unlimited money I would have bought a three roller crankandstein mill.

If you can spend 200-250 on a mill then go straight for a top of the line homebrew mill.

Otherwise, my cereal killer has already paid for itself in bulk grain purchases and is 50% of the way to paying for the crankandstein which will replace it when it dies. However I don't expect it to die any time soon, and it was definitely a good investment even if it will one day be replaced.

NeoBrew said:

Go for the Monster Mill. I went through 3 Captain Crushes before I finally gave up on them. The Monster Mill is going to last my entire life. If your criteria is something that is going to last, you can't go wrong with it.

I use the Harbor Freight low speed drill, it works pretty well. They have a hand crank available too, that would be really quiet.

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This! Don't Skimp, you'll end up buying another. I have a monster mill and have about 50 batches on it after replacing my cheap mill that lasted for < 10 batches.

TX_Brewing said:

Jsp malt mill or if you can find one a Phil mill, they are cute little roller mills from a number of years back that I don't think a re made anymore, but are pretty solid.

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+1 Jack Schmidling Productions Malt Mill.

I think any brand of grain CRUSHER (as apposed to a corona mill) would meet your needs. Most come with the option of using s hand crank (very little noise) and none are huge. I hand cranked for at least 10 batches, before I discovered I could do it with a drill. I kind of miss it!!

Mike

All the folks seem to be fascinated with getting their sack of barley through the mill in the shortest time possible, while I pretty much figure that if it runs quiet and I can leave it to do it's work, I don't really need the massive throughput.

So far, the MattMill Kompact has really caught my eye. http://www.mattmill.de/mattmill-kompakt/ No idea on price, though I figure they are pretty proud of them.

I figure I will likely make mine, rather than buy one, when I get around to it. I have a couple variable speed DC motors that have built in gearboxes, which I intend to power with, instead of the more common portable drill, or similar high rpm motor through a massive gear reduction (noisy!). I am hoping that the steady crunch of grain going through will be about the loudest part of the operation.

TeeJo

That funnel on the MattMill looks like it might create some feed problems. I would think the narrow neck would require a lot of fiddling to keep grain moving down it. Particularly if you are going to condition the grain with some moisture prior to milling.

I have a 3 roller Monster Mill that I motorized. It has been working flawlessly for almost 3 years w/ an average of 25 AG batches per year.
However, given your space, noise & other concerns it strikes me that utilizing your LHBS mill is your best option.
Put your grain in some food safe buckets w/ Gamma lids ( Lowes has the best price).
Mill a couple of batches at a time. Saves time, space, & the unavoidable noise of milling. Not to mention no grain dust!

I upgraded from a corona mill to a Millers Mill and love it. Only did one crush so far, but 14 lbs was an easy hand crank with little noise and effort.

Settled on a monster mill MM2. First pass with pilot 1 lb grain batch looked excellent. Think I might play with the gap setting on it, but honestly the 0.045" stock setting was more than adequate for my purposes. The mill itself is supremely quiet -- the grain husks do pop slightly when the crack but I think that's the malt talking.

Just curious -- what gap setting do folks use for wheat and rye malt?