Grain Mill Recomendation

Yakima 728
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I’m only one year into AG brewing and bought a Cereal Killer. Having never owned anything else, it seems to be a good mill and does a fine job for me. Being the holidays, you could probably find one on sale.
 
Cereal Killer. You can pay more, but it seems to be the best at the approx $99 price point. If I were looking for one around that price, CK would be the one I'd go with.

Do not buy a Barley Crusher. Bad customer service (if you can get any), the rollers seem to wear out after relatively little use....and it costs more than the CK.

You can go higher in price--Monster Mill is one, and you can really go ridiculous and motorize it (instead of using a drill as typically is done with the Cereal Killer). But it's more an issue of convenience.

PS: My son wants a mill for Christmas. Ordered a CK for him here: https://www.homebrewing.org/Cereal-Killer-Grain-Mill_p_2310.html. Free shipping.
 
Have a Monster Mill. MM-2 2 roller. Use a 1/2" drill to run it. 8-12 pounds of grain for 5 gallon batches goes pretty quickly. Happy with it. Haven't used any of the others. It was $199. Easy to adjust, but I do check the gap (I use .018) each time I use it as it can loosen.
 
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The last mill I'll ever need is the Monster Mill MM2 Pro, with 2 inch rollers. Truly a monster, and probably the best available to homebrewers. [Don't be taken in by 3 roller mills with an unnecessary feed roller that just looks fancy. There is actually no such thing as a three roller mill in brewing. Commercial mills are composed of a series of 2-roller mills, but one good one is all that's needed, if you can't shake, screen, and separate the various particle sizes between sets.] The MM2 Pro is pricier, and you should note that it cannot be run with a cordless drill, much less a hand crank. You'll need a high torque, corded, 1/2" drill or other motor option. If I were looking for an inexpensive option, since the venerable JSP Maltmill has sadly departed this world, I would pick the Cereal Killer, as others advise.
 
mongoose33 said:
Cereal Killer. You can pay more, but it seems to be the best at the approx $99 price point. If I were looking for one around that price, CK would be the one I'd go with.

Do not buy a Barley Crusher. Bad customer service (if you can get any), the rollers seem to wear out after relatively little use....and it costs more than the CK.

You can go higher in price--Monster Mill is one, and you can really go ridiculous and motorize it (instead of using a drill as typically is done with the Cereal Killer). But it's more an issue of convenience.

PS: My son wants a mill for Christmas. Ordered a CK for him here: https://www.homebrewing.org/Cereal-Killer-Grain-Mill_p_2310.html. Free shipping.
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I had the same issue with the BC. After i cleaned the rollers with a wire wheel it worked fine but the shaft bent.
 
i have used a Ferroday Malt Crusher for about 6 months now. Works great, and easy to adjust. use a drill to operate it.
 
Lol, I do have the Barley Crusher and maybe I lucked out compared to others experience but it's been flawless since day one.
Got it on sale for $106 and it was adjusted perfectly out of the box to credit card thickness.
 
Cato1507 said:
Lol, I do have the Barley Crusher and maybe I lucked out compared to others experience but it's been flawless since day one.
Got it on sale for $106 and it was adjusted perfectly out of the box to credit card thickness.
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It's a funny thing. Like you, there are brewers whose Barley Crushers have worked well; makes one wonder if there was a stretch of production or two where it was well made, interspersed among less quality-oriented periods of time.

But it's not the way to bet. Glad yours is working.
 
Cato1507 said:
Lol, I do have the Barley Crusher and maybe I lucked out compared to others experience but it's been flawless since day one.
Got it on sale for $106 and it was adjusted perfectly out of the box to credit card thickness.
Click to expand...
how often do you use it?

I have both the cereal killer at home (its motorized and has been going for 6 years with zero problems) And we use a kegco 3 roller aka maltmunchier 3 roller at the brewpub where it gets used for 3 bbl brews every week for a year now and it also has had zero issues. (literally thousands of lbs of grain through it now and it looks new)

Both these mills are made by the same manufacturer and they have true ball bearings and hardened rollers. Ive found nothing else in thier price range with these upgrades.
I believe the ferroday mentioned above is another rebranded version of the one sold as the kegco 2 roller and cereal killer as well as the maltmunchier 2 roller by keg king.

I started with a corona BTW and while it did work ok it was messy and required a lot of figiting to keep the plates adjusted right.. maybe it was just my mill though. I agree you wont see any difference between mills as long as your crush is set where you want it (I dont see how consistent crush is possible with a corona since it made a lot of flour for me)

I think the CK is the best bang for the buck since if seen no advantage from the 3rd roller myself. The 3 roller is a PITA to adjust as well compared to a 2 roller.
 
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augiedoggy said:
how often do you use it?

I have both the cereal killer at home (its motorized and has been going for 6 years with zero problems) And we use a kegco 3 roller aka maltmunchier 3 roller at the brewpub where it gets used for 3 bbl brews every week for a year now and it also has had zero issues. (literally thousands of lbs of grain through it now and it looks new)

Both these mills are made by the same manufacturer and they have true ball bearings and hardened rollers. Ive found nothing else in thier price range with these upgrades.
I believe the ferroday mentioned above is another rebranded version of the one sold as the kegco 2 roller and cereal killer as well as the maltmunchier 2 roller by keg king.

I started with a corona BTW and while it did work ok it was messy and required a lot of figiting to keep the plates adjusted right.. maybe it was just my mill though. I agree you wont see any difference between mills as long as your crush is set where you want it (I dont see how consistent crush is possible with a corona since it made a lot of flour for me)

I think the CK is the best bang for the buck since if seen no advantage from the 3rd roller myself. The 3 roller is a PITA to adjust as well compared to a 2 roller.
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@augiedoggy , as someone stated above, I'm a casual brewer so my mill sees fairly light duty. I brew once or twice a month 3.5 -4.5 gal batches.

For my needs it's doing great, knock on wood! I'm glad to know about the CK though as a plan B.

That's a nice thing about this forum, reading about others experiences and opinions on equipment, methods, etc.
 
Cato1507 said:
@augiedoggy , as someone stated above, I'm a casual brewer so my mill sees fairly light duty. I brew once or twice a month 3.5 -4.5 gal batches.

For my needs it's doing great, knock on wood! I'm glad to know about the CK though as a plan B.

That's a nice thing about this forum, reading about others experiences and opinions on equipment, methods, etc.
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Thanks for responding... for how long have you been using it with this volume? just curious as mongoose was on whether some actually do have harder rollers as opposed to the norm issue with them which seems to be worn knurling and bushings.
 
I too have a Barley Crusher, bought it about 6 years ago and have used it for over 50 all grain batches. Has always worked well and has been easy to adjust/held adjustment. One poster above mentioned poor customer service. I did not have that experience. I bent the shaft on the drive roller once and they sent me a replacement quickly (was not warranty however).
 
augiedoggy said:
Thanks for responding... for how long have you been using it with this volume? just curious as mongoose was on whether some actually do have harder rollers as opposed to the norm issue with them which seems to be worn knurling and bushings.
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Been using it 14 months. My setup is small in my garage. 10 gal. 240v Blichmann kettle w/whirlpool, riptide pump, 240v Brew Commander, grain mill, SsBrewtech 3.5 & 7gal Brewbucket, mini fridge w/inkbird. BIAB method.

Lol, end of Januray will be 2 years brewing and I have to quit buying stuff!
 
jamorgan3777 said:
I too have a Barley Crusher, bought it about 6 years ago and have used it for over 50 all grain batches. Has always worked well and has been easy to adjust/held adjustment. One poster above mentioned poor customer service. I did not have that experience. I bent the shaft on the drive roller once and they sent me a replacement quickly (was not warranty however).
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They are supposed to have a lifetime warranty.. although I doubt that covers accidental damage and im guessing that what you mean. there are many threads on the BC and ill leave it at that if the OP wants to search for more info on them and why they are often not recommended.
 
RM-MN said:
Mills do not make beer, malted barley does. Buy a Corona mill for less than $25 and spend the difference on grains. The Corona mill works very well for BIAB and can easily be motorized with an electric drill.
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Honestly if doing BIAB, it's hard to argue with this. I modded a big ugly hopper on mine and it did what it was designed to do for years.

I was gifted a cereal killer and am happy with it as it is quicker than my Frankenstein ugly corona mill, but if I had to buy something I'd go corona again.
 
augiedoggy said:
Both these mills are made by the same manufacturer and they have true ball bearings and hardened rollers. I've found nothing else in their price range with these upgrades.
Click to expand...

Curious because I have not seen solid info...is the Cereal Killer made in China?

I have a Barley Crusher that I have had for at least 15 years...though I would not be surprised if I only have around 120 batches on it. Most of that time I used the hand crank but moved to a drill ~20 batches ago. I do hear enough stories about their quality that it makes me leary to recommend them.
 
CascadesBrewer said:
Curious because I have not seen solid info...is the Cereal Killer made in China?

I have a Barley Crusher that I have had for at least 15 years...though I would not be surprised if I only have around 120 batches on it. Most of that time I used the hand crank but moved to a drill ~20 batches ago. I do hear enough stories about their quality that it makes me leary to recommend them.
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Yes the cereal killer is made in china I believe by the company that started out making the mill parts for the barley crusher which has american made rollers (which is soft compared to other mills and wears down requiring replacement in many cases) but most of the other components on it come from china.
When you send the BC back for service as many owners have , its usually for new bronze bushings and rollers.. The CK uses ball bearings which dont have this failure and harder rollers.
 
HB2 HughBHomeBrew said:
Have a Monster Mill. MM-2 2 roller. Use a 1/2" drill to run it. 8-12 pounds of grain for 5 gallon batches goes pretty quickly. Happy with it. Haven't used any of the others. It was $199. Easy to adjust, but I do check the gap (I use .018) each time I use it as it can loosen.
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0.018 is pretty dang tight. I mill at 0.035 and it does fine.
 
I'm not sure what brand mine is - Im sure I saved the "manual" that it came with ,I save everything,lol. I bought it on amazon for something like $99 .double roller ,came with a handle to hand crank but Ive never used it , I mounted it atop a 5 gallon bucket lid and run it with a cordless drill driver on low speed. I mill 10 lbs+ in about 5 minutes.
 
RM-MN said:
Mills do not make beer, malted barley does. Buy a Corona mill for less than $25 and spend the difference on grains. The Corona mill works very well for BIAB and can easily be motorized with an electric drill.
Click to expand...

This. I set the plates, filed the hub to make them square, epoxied the "holding cotter pin that's a nail" so it quit "readjusting" and I can reliably get repeatable results, evidenced by efficiency numbers, and brew 5g batches, about 3x a month. Been working great a couple years. I feel no need to go pricier.

Capture.30.JPG
 
balrog said:
This. I set the plates, filed the hub to make them square, epoxied the "holding cotter pin that's a nail" so it quit "readjusting" and I can reliably get repeatable results, evidenced by efficiency numbers, and brew 5g batches, about 3x a month. Been working great a couple years. I feel no need to go pricier.

View attachment 656731
Click to expand...
This is exactly the setup I have as well. Works great. Been using it for about 4 years.
 
Bought the CK from Austin Homebrew Supply, on sale, about a year ago. Had no issues with it, but it doesn't see a lot of use compared with some here. Happy with the purchase.
I checked into a Corona mill and ran into some negative reviews. That pushed me towards the CK.
 
RM-MN said:
Mills do not make beer, malted barley does. Buy a Corona mill for less than $25 and spend the difference on grains. The Corona mill works very well for BIAB and can easily be motorized with an electric drill.
Click to expand...

Agreed. I bought a cheap Corona mill on eBay. I initially had trouble getting the spacing right, so I added some washers to give some space and then worked the disc towards the stationary one until I got a cornmeal consistency. My mash efficiency is about 85% every brew.
 
+1 for Cereal Killer. 5 or 6 years and no issues. I hook up my cordless drill to it and grind away.
I do go easy on it and operate fairly slowly.
It took ine or two batches to dial in the settings to my liking.
 
I have a an old Crankandstein that I picked up off of Craigslist a few years ago and I have yet to experience any problems with it.
 

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