Grain Mill... Cereal Killer or Barley Crusher MaltMill?

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jasonclick

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I'm looking to purchase a grain mill. It looks like you can get the Cereal Killer from Homebrewing.org for $89 and free shipping. Is that a good grain mill or should I spend more and get the Barley Crusher MaltMill? Is the Cereal Killer a good value? Is there a big difference? Thanks!
 
I just got my Cereal Killer this week and I struggled with the same thing. I have not used it yet but there was another thread that talked about it at length and the general thought that the Cereal Killer was a very good value and work very well. Is it better then the Barley Crusher (or just as good) that I am not sure. Only time will tell.
 
I have a crankandstein 2s and love it. Know you were not looking at that brand but thought i would throw is out there. Some people get the 2a for easy adjustment but the crus for the 2a is great at the normal setting.
 
I have a monstermill mm2 which I think is great. I got lucky because my mom went into the LHBS and that was the model that they had and she bought it for me for Christmas. I think the lhbs's in store mill is a maltmill and the monstermill is definately higher quality. You'll surely spend 2x as much as the cereal killer so if budget is the biggest concern I'd go cereal killer if I just wanted a really good mill I'd probably go for the mm3 (3 roller monster mill)
 
I like to Buy things that are made in the USA myself. Speaking of the Cereal killer that is.
 
I like to Buy things that are made in the USA myself. Speaking of the Cereal killer that is.

As the maker of the barley crusher, you aren't the most objective figure on this topic are you?

Is your sole reason for having an account on HBT to trash the cereal killer? All three of your posts seem to indicate such.
 
Pulled the trigger on a cereal killer tonight - I think the mill at my LHBS is part of my efficiency problems... Almost bought a MM2 - but the Cereal Killer for half the price from AIH, I'll give it a try..
 
I went with the cereal killer myself. I have about 1000+ lbs of grain through it so far. No issues at all so far. It solved a lot of my LHBS efficiency issues. Next step get yourself a good scale. That was my next issue my grain weight was never correct due to their crap scale.
 
Close to 1000 lbs of grain through my Cereal Killer mill and no issues. Great mill for a great price. I just keep it dust free and store it in the box in my closet to keep it dry.
 
I was also comparing these two, and ended up with the Cereal Killer mainly because of the use of ball bearings rather than sleeves.

The mill is mounted into an old cabinet with an old but restored 1940's 1/4 hp motor, reduced from 1750 down to <200rpm using 1.5" and 14" sheaves (about 9.3 : 1). Used a cogged belt to accommodate such a small pulley.

The gap is set at about 0.035", and with that amount of reduction, there is plenty of power at the shaft, so startup under load isn't a problem and crushing grain doesn't even slow it down! :rockin:

One little hassle noted is that since the thing is from China, the drive shaft is not 3/8", but 10mm, so I had to mod my 14" pulley. A little bit of a pain, but solvable.

I was having the same problem with LHBS crushers leaving a lot of whole kernels and getting efficiencies in the 50-60s. Not anymore! Did my last two brews with it, and it works great!

Scott
 
I got it (Cereal Killer) yesterday and had time to play with it today - Initial impressions are good, I set the gap at 0.037" and measured the runout on the driven roller with feeler gauges at less than 0.003". Crush looks OK, Definitely finer than my LHBS but intact hulls. We will see on the next brew day.

DSCN1067.jpg
 
I mentioned on the other cereal killer thread that I discovered if you adjust one side of the gap even a bit out of sync with the other it easily binds the roller since they are on cams that actually move the roller up and down as well as left to right... I think this is the source of most of the "stuck roller" complaints.... Easily fixed by readjusting gap correctly.
I have put about 70lbs through mine now since december when I purchased it.
 
I mentioned on the other cereal killer thread that I discovered if you adjust one side of the gap even a bit out of sync with the other it easily binds the roller since they are on cams that actually move the roller up and down as well as left to right... I think this is the source of most of the "stuck roller" complaints.... Easily fixed by readjusting gap correctly.
I have put about 70lbs through mine now since december when I purchased it.


I understand - but how do you sync them up? I placed feeler guages in between them, tightened the cams down and backed them off slightly and then locked them down and checked clearance again. I had to adjust one side a little more because the tightening the lock opened it up.
 
My LHBS is fairly new (7 months) and he told me the other day that he uses the Cereal Killer and has since he opened. He stated he's had zero problems and has run thousands of lbs thru it.
I got a corona a few months ago, but am stuck at ~74% efficiency. Not sure if it's the grind or not, but let him grind my last few brews and hit ~%81 last time. So, am looking at getting one of these. :)
note: Yes, I'm not certain my grind is the reason for the efficiency, but for $100, it 's worth a try.
 

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