Any feedback on the Captain Crush Grain Mill?

[biertourist]

These are their claims; I think they're generic claims focused on the difference between knurled vs. fluted rollers.

" The horizontally ribbed rollers facilitate feeding while being gentler on the delicate grain husks. Slotted rollers don’t perforate the husks the same way knurling does, and the dual gap adjustment allows you to fine tune your mill for a perfect crush, with uniform particle size to deliver consistent lauter performance. "

From the dimensions of the mill body (7" long) I'd say we're dealing with 6" length rollers; they state 40mm roller diamter which is SLIGHTLY bigger than a 1.5" diameter.

So it's comparable to an MM3 but with very slightly bigger diameter rollers; it's the fluted rollers that make a difference, IMO. If the purpose of moving to a 3 roller mill is to leave the husk more intact a fluted design will do that better than a knurled design.

NB has thrown down the gauntlet and hopefully Monster follows suit with a fluted roller design of their own in a 2"x6" 3 roller version. -If we're going for an increase in crush quality and really focusing on treating the husks well we'd get a 3 roller design with a geared drive for the first two rollers (fixed gap) and then an adjustable gap for the 3rd roller.

-These would make great homebrew shop mills if they had hardened rollers and if they'd make a 12" version you'd have a great mill body for large nanos / small micros. (Geared designs reduce sheer on the grain husk and fluted designs reduce perforation so a great 1-2 punch for treating those husks nicely without resorting to malt conditioning or wet milling.)


Adam

 

[Pilgarlic]

Is anyone aware of any evidence (or experience, or anecdote) that fluting either a) yields a more consistent particle size, which, I think, is counterintuitive, or b) does less damage to the husk at any given particle size? Since this is the only real innovation here I'd like to know if they're just doing some product differentiation here for marketing purposes or if there's some evidence that it's actually in some way superior to knurled rollers.

 

[63belair]

So they're using crappy plastic for the stand instead of crappy wood. Who cares?!?!?! I'm not going to order one, but I wouldn't rag on it because of the material the base is made of. The base is the least important, most easily replaceable/up-gradable piece of a mill.

 

[archer75]

Fluted cracks the grain. Knurled crushes it. Breweries are going to use fluted or smooth.

If it hasn't been said yet the northern brewer mill is using stainless steel rollers. I'd like to know if that 3rd roller is powered.

 

[Nagorg]

Again, I'd sure be willing to test it... Hello NB???? Send me a PM and I'll give shipping info!

 

[the_wickster]

I have one of these mills. I won it at a raffle at our club's Christmas party. I have been using a barley crusher for many years. Its powered on a cart from a direct drive low speed high torque gear motor. 177RPM The timing works well for me as the knurls on the BC seem to be wearing down and every so often the mill would slip on the grain. I mounted the new mill onto my cart and relocated the motor to line it up with the higher drive roller. I have only used the CC once but I can give you my impressions so far.

The machine work is well done, and tolerances seem tight. The mill parts are definitely heavy duty. I believe this should have a very long life. There are detents in the adjustment knobs for the set screws to lock in making it easy to set the gaps. No need for feeler gauges. The fluted or slotted rollers are sharp and grab the grain well. They are also larger in diameter than the BC and it went through the grain much faster at the same RPM. Only the one roller is powered the other two spin with the grain. Crush was great. With the adjustability of two gaps I think people could fine tune for whatever they want. I'm a set it and forget it type. The clear "plastic" is nice for viewing the grain. I don't use the base but I would think that would be nice if you were using it on a bucket to see how full it was. My only complaint is the hopper has flat "ledges" right at the rollers where the last bit of your grain sits and won't go down into the mill. Its only maybe an ounce or two but you need to either brush it in or shake the mill to get it down. Oh and the plastic builds up some static and dust from the grain has coated the inside of the hopper.

I would not have bought it out right, but was a great raffle prize win for a few bucks! For me its definitely a step up from the BC.

 

[trboyden]

Hmmm... static and grain dust not a good thing... hope a static discharge doesn't happen to someone some day. Can you say boom?! Probably a similar effect to filling gas on a plastic truck bedliner.

 

[the_wickster]

That's a rather silly fear. Slight dust clinging to an item from a slight static attraction. Not "charged" like rubbing your feet on carpet. If you get that much dust in the air you probably have other concerns. A variable speed electric drill that uses a universal motor would blow it up first.

 

[archer75]

I bought one and have it here. However I haven't had the chance to use it yet so not much I can add for now.

 

[ostey]

20% off this mill today (1/23/14) for 2 days only. Looking for any more feedback from the two guys who own this mill. That makes it $223.99 plus $15.25 shipping to CA.

Think it's worth it for my first mill?

 

[brewcephus]

20% off this mill today (1/23/14) for 2 days only. Looking for any more feedback from the two guys who own this mill. That makes it $223.99 plus $15.25 shipping to CA.

Think it's worth it for my first mill?

Yeah, I was just looking at that too... I'm tempted to pull the trigger, but I'd like to hear some feedback first.

 

[BrandonS]

I ordered one during the sale but it will be a bit before I get to use it. Homebrewfinds is in the process of doing a review on it: http://www.homebrewfinds.com/2014/01/first-looks-captain-crush-adjustable.html

 

[ostey]

Brandon,

I'm looking forward to your review. The sale is over but I decided to hold off since I won't be brewing for a little while. I just maxed out my system with 4 batches.

Doug

 

[DarkShadesBill]

I purchased one on sale. It arrived, but was damaged in shipping. NB were great about processing the shipping return and replacement. From what I saw of it, I liked it: very heavy, solid construction of the mill body. I'll post again when the replacement arrives and I get to mill with it.


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[zombiefreak]

Shame you can't just buy the roller section. I love NB but I would never overpay for the rest of that plastic stuff just because the rollers seem good.

 

[branman]

I would have to disagree with you on NB's customer service.. Good friend of mine who I told should order some bottles from them almost half his bottles were shattered and they would not respond to any of his emails, but gladly sent him promotional emails about all the great stuff he could buy (captain crush). Just my opinion...

 

[DarkShadesBill]

Yeah - I'm still waiting for the replacement. Should be here Tuesday. It take a follow-up email on my part to confirm they were sending the replacement. Not bad service, but not stellar.


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[beermetoo]

Hey just a quick review, got this when it was promoted with 20% off.

It's a nice mill... I've worked in a Homebrew store, brewed forever, and am familiar with other products... Even owned a few other mills.

The adjustment on crush is quick, the mill will do fine crushes without trouble or jamming. And the rollers grab grain so a geared drive isn't necessary to keep a feed going.

As to the plastic... I actually like that the most; I can see when the bucket is full and there's a coolness factor like watching beer ferment in glass... You can see the crush happen. Newbies will love that. And I gotta say I like it too.

The three roller gives a nice even crush, and yes if you frig with grinds and go real fine, you can get higher efficiencies (at the risk of a stuck mask and getting some husk in your boil). But hell, that's preference, Miller pulverizes it's malt with a hammer mill. They get 95 + efficiency by doing so. That's closer to mash filters than lauter tuns.

I have a barley crusher too... (I have brew setup a in multiple states ... Haha) the barley crusher is great too. I don't care for wood though, gets a little musty and moldy if it gets wet. I'm lazy and hose off equipment to keep things clean and prefer plastic or metal; those materials dry without mold.

Anyway the thumb screws don't appear to be a problem but will keep you all posted. All and all, slick mill with selling points for sure.

 

[NeoBrew]

Just pulled the trigger on one today. Thanks to Christmas gift cards and my AHA 10% discount the sticker shock was not too bad.

I was set on picking up a MM3, but after seeing the Captain Crush in the store my concerns about "cheap plastic" were alleviated. (For those in the plastic debate, the instructions call it polycarbonate) Whatever it is, it's 1/4" thick or so and seems solid as a rock. It's much more substantial than the galvanized tin on many of the other mills. The roller assembly weighs a ton. I would say there is a lot of quality in this thing. I'm hoping to brew this weekend, so I'll follow up with my impressions. My rationalization for buying my first mill at this price point was that it would be the last mill I would need to buy. Time will tell.

 

[NeoBrew]

Finished my brew day. It was the first use of my Captain Crush. It would appear there is a bit of a learning curve.

I have no first hand experience with other mills, so I can't say if my problems would have happened with an MM3 as well. I ran into some trouble experimenting with the gap. Since I'm doing BIAB, I tried setting the gaps a little tighter than the recommended starting point. This worked for a few seconds, but then the lower roller would stop rolling and get stuck full of material. It was very frustrating for a while there. I began experimenting with different settings until I got it to work. The bad news is I didn't get much time to play with different settings to get it fine tuned. The good news is that it sucked that grain down in just a few seconds! Once I got things set right it devoured about 10 lbs of grain in less than 30 seconds. I was using a 3/8" Dewalt corded drill. My poor drill was working about as hard as it could to roll that grain through.

I did get pretty poor efficiency despite running it through the mill twice. I've gotten just over 70% with the crush from the LHBS's mill set at 30. I got around 60% today.

So, I'd love some advice from others with a three roller mill like the MM3. Is it finicky about that third roller if you crush too fine? If I can figure out how to get it dialed in, I'm going to love this mill. It's way more sturdy than you would think. If I continue to have to grind too coarse to get it to work, I'll be bummed.

 

[heckels]

Finished my brew day. It was the first use of my Captain Crush. It would appear there is a bit of a learning curve.

I have no first hand experience with other mills, so I can't say if my problems would have happened with an MM3 as well. I ran into some trouble experimenting with the gap. Since I'm doing BIAB, I tried setting the gaps a little tighter than the recommended starting point. This worked for a few seconds, but then the lower roller would stop rolling and get stuck full of material. It was very frustrating for a while there. I began experimenting with different settings until I got it to work. The bad news is I didn't get much time to play with different settings to get it fine tuned. The good news is that it sucked that grain down in just a few seconds! Once I got things set right it devoured about 10 lbs of grain in less than 30 seconds. I was using a 3/8" Dewalt corded drill. My poor drill was working about as hard as it could to roll that grain through.

I did get pretty poor efficiency despite running it through the mill twice. I've gotten just over 70% with the crush from the LHBS's mill set at 30. I got around 60% today.

So, I'd love some advice from others with a three roller mill like the MM3. Is it finicky about that third roller if you crush too fine? If I can figure out how to get it dialed in, I'm going to love this mill. It's way more sturdy than you would think. If I continue to have to grind too coarse to get it to work, I'll be bummed.

How fast were you running your drill? Too fast and the mill will start tearing apart the grain husks and you'll get a less consistent crush - hurting your efficiency.

Most folks recommend between 150-250 RPM. If you went through 10lbs of grain in 30 seconds you would have likely been running mug faster than that. 10lbs typically takes me about 5 mins with my barley crusher.


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[NeoBrew]

That may certainly have been the problem then. I tried to keep it going slow, but it would tend to surge as I think it didn't have enough power to turn slowly and consistently. I suppose this would explain why it would not crush to a smaller size in one step. It didn't have the power to push it through and crush.

I'll have to look into something with more power for my next try.

 

[beermetoo]

Try a 1/2" drill with more power.

 

[63belair]

+1 for a more powerful drill. Harbor freight makes a corded 1/2" high torque, low speed drill that many on here use with great success.

 

[thadius856]

Agree on the drill. This one is especially good, and even sweeter if you toss a 30% coupon on top of the listed price:

http://www.harborfreight.com/1-2-half-inch-heavy-duty-spade-handle-drill-93632.html#.Uy8WzfldW5g

 

[BrewBQ1]

I am having lots of problems with our clubs new Captain Crush. This is the second one. When the first one Refused to feed we just assumed it was a defective mill. Mainly because the design quality seems so good. New mill is in and attached to our 180 RPM gear motor. 77 lb to grind and the first 50 was smooth sailing. Then it refused to feed again. When we can get it to feed its letting lots whole grain through. I noticed that the plastic feels warm. Could it be warping? I am rather frustrated!

 

[fuzzy2133]

I am having lots of problems with our clubs new Captain Crush. This is the second one. When the first one Refused to feed we just assumed it was a defective mill. Mainly because the design quality seems so good. New mill is in and attached to our 180 RPM gear motor. 77 lb to grind and the first 50 was smooth sailing. Then it refused to feed again. When we can get it to feed its letting lots whole grain through. I noticed that the plastic feels warm. Could it be warping? I am rather frustrated!

That could be possible looking at the pics on line. If the gap between the rollers and side aluminum plates open up enough grain could jam it up. Measure the width of the roller box cold and when it heats up see how far it expanded. The next question will be why is it getting hot enough for this to happen?

No I am not with NB. I know a machinist that worked with plastics and he always had the QC room set to 72F when customers came to evaluate/measure a run of parts.

 

[BrewBQ1]

At any rate it's not working well at all when you want to do 100 lb at a time. I think we are going to get a crankandstein.

 

[fuzzy2133]

IF you have not done so get in contact with NB and see if they can help before spending money on another mill.

 

[NeoBrew]

I've used mine a few times now. I picked up the Harbor Freight 1/2 drill. It does a much better job. On the advice in another thread I'm conditioning the grain as well.

I am still playing with the gap adjustments. I've been fairly inconsistent in my efficiencies. I'm not surprised because I've crushed differently every time. Even with the new drill, it struggles to push the grain through, especially if I try to go slow. I don't know how I could get it to go slow enough to take 5 minutes for 10 lbs of grain.

I suspect I'm still trying to crush too fine because I'm still getting a lot of flour in the mix. I really should pick up some cheap base malt and just experiment with settings. So far I've just experimented with each brew day.