Grain Mill?

[dmcmillen]

Anyone have any suggestions for a good adjustable grain mill that I can attach a drill to. I'm doing 10 gallon batches so my grain bill is 20 - 25#. What are the things that I should look for in a good mill and what are the things I should stay away from? I am assuming I want to stay away from mills that have any plastic parts.

 

[Beer-lord]

I recently bought the Barley Crusher and have done 2 batches with about 15 lbs each. I used my cordless drill and 15 lbs only took me about 7 minutes. Mostly because I'm still new with it but it did a great job. I have great efficiency both times.
They have the 7 and 15 lb sizes and I got the 7 as I only do 5 gallon batches.
It's available at a number of online stores including it's own. I know 4 others with this same crusher and everyone would recommend it. I'm sure there are other good ones around as well.

 

[rico567]

I've been using a Corona mill for 3.5 years with great results- hit my numbers every time I mash. Only cost me $23 delivered. I drive it with an old Craftsman 1/2" drill.

 

[OkashiiBrew]

schmidling.com/maltmill.htm but get the bigger hopper. I also selected the gear drive option for the 2nd roller as many on the forum have seen the 2nd roller stop turning if not cleaned on a regular basis. Any roller mill is with adjustment will be fine and give a great crush. Mine came in about 2 weeks and I ordered the gear drive twice by mistake. There was a refund check stuffed in my mill when it came.

 

[alemonster]

barley crusher here. Love it!! lately some questions about customer service with them. However, many, many great crushers out there and everyone has their favorite!! pick one and go with it!! best purchase ever.

my barley crusher was ready out of the box. have great results. hook it up to my drill and I am off and grinding!!

have fun,
mike

 

[mendesm]

I've been using a Corona mill for 3.5 years with great results- hit my numbers every time I mash. Only cost me $23 delivered. I drive it with an old Craftsman 1/2" drill.

This is what I do too.

 

[seanoj]

I have this one and it rocks: http://www.monsterbrewinghardware.com/mm-320.html

Bought it after NHC last year and, while it won't pay for itself for many years, is is built to last long enough for that to happen.

-Sean

 

[Tiber_Brew]

JSP Maltmill, adjustable rollers, gear drive, standard hopper. I made a hopper out of a 7 gal bucket by notching the bottom rim to fit the stock hopper adapter then cut a hole in the bottom of the bucket to match the size of the hole in the stock hopper adapter. You can rip right through 25# of malt as fast as the drill will turn, but I usually go about 75% speed.

It comes at a preset roller gap with notches to help you find the original gap if you play with it. I've set mine just a tad tighter than the stock gap (which I forget what that is...0.043" perhaps?)

 

[wiggybrewer]

I love my barley crusher, One of the best things I have bought for allgrain brewing.

 

[hercher]

barley crusher here. Love it!! lately some questions about customer service with them. However, many, many great crushers out there and everyone has their favorite!! pick one and go with it!! best purchase ever.

my barley crusher was ready out of the box. have great results. hook it up to my drill and I am off and grinding!!

have fun,
mike

I didn't have a problem with the customer service. I got my BC about 3-4 weeks after I ordered it. It works like a charm. I'm still working on the setting a little bit, but that's a trial and error process with any mill.

It's well made, it's made in America, so you are supporting a small businessman, and it's really easy to use.

 

[Grimm]

had a corona, didn't really like the results and it took forever (probably user error) sold it and bought a Barley Crusher, I can go thru 12lbs in well under 5 minutes with a corded drill at no more than 1/4 power. The only problem i have is feeding the hopper while trying to hold the drill, I have the 7lbs hopper and my drill weighs more than the crusher and will pull over my bucket and mill. I've never had to adjust it and get a good consistent crush. I love the thing.

 

[ThreeDogsNE]

Anyone have any suggestions for a good adjustable grain mill that I can attach a drill to. I'm doing 10 gallon batches so my grain bill is 20 - 25#. What are the things that I should look for in a good mill and what are the things I should stay away from? I am assuming I want to stay away from mills that have any plastic parts.

I'm hard pressed to remember a post where anyone said that they were very dissatisfied with their two roller or three roller mill. You've already heard good things about some brands in this thread. I have a Monster MM3 with stainless steel rollers. I'm quite pleased with it. At 220 rpm it makes short work of my usual 20-24 pound grain bills for 10 pound batches. I use pulleys and a belt drive to a standard 1/2 hp electric motor left when I upgraded my bandsaw motor. All of them seem to have bushings rather than ball bearings, which would better withstand the side load from the belt. I'll be really surprised if I wear out the bushings, brewing 4x/month tops. I'll be surprised if it's a problems for my sons when they inherit it. I think an adjustable gap is prudent, but I set mine once, and haven't touched it since. Gear drive looks cool, but once my mill starts it doesn't stop, not since I switched from a 1/4 hp to a 1/2 hp motor. I suspect you could pick at random from the ones available, and in a short time join the line of those of us pleased with our mills, whatever you pick.

 

[kh54s10]

Got my corona style mill for Xmas, mounted on my workbench. The only mods I have made were to add 2 washers to adjust the crush, and to tape a plastic coffee container to the hopper to make it hold more grain.

Out of pocket = $0

Hitting my numbers within .004 and any difference is probably not due to the crush.

I am using an old drill and can crush my grain bill in less than 10 minutes. It takes longer to weigh it out than to crush it.

 

[Bsquared]

What he said...Love my MM3

 

[Paul07293]

I use an old Skil hand drill to power my Crankandstein 2D adjustable roller mill. Chews through everything I throw at it. Besides roller diameter I think you'll find most mills are pretty comparable. Larger rollers are gentler on the grain

 

[Accidic]

I bought the Monster Mill 2 roller @ 2" radius and the hopper attachment. It's a little more expensive perhaps than a comparable Barley Crusher but it fit my purposes better as I use it more for just preparing barley for the mash (with a corona and a stone you can make absolutely DROOL worthy cornmeal & grits ). I also appreciate the owner answering any question (even the ridiculous ones to some) with zeal. Anyway, it makes short work of everything and is really nice.

 

[olie]

FYI, the maltmill link above is 404, but I found it (HERE)

 

[Jayjay1976]

Ceareal killer, $99 shipped. https://www.homebrewing.org/Cereal-Killer-Grain-Mill_p_2310.html

I've run a couple hundred pounds through mine over the last year, it always performs flawlessly and I almost always hit my numbers dead on. I power it with a Bosch 18V cordless drill driver, this combination runs like a champ.

 

[SoCal-Doug]

I love my 2 roller monster mill, the thing is a beast. The only other one i've owned was a barley crusher which exploded after about a year. Can't fairly compare against any of the others.

 

[bendog15]

I’ve had a barley crusher for about 4 years. It’s been fine. I also make 10 gal batches every 2 weeks and it chews thru 25lbs fast. Lately I’ve graduated to BIAB and the barley crusher will not do a credit card size gap the first go around. So now I run it through at normal setting, adjust the gap to very fine, and run it again. Getting 79% efficiency and happy with that!
Wish I bought a monster or cereal killer, but I’m just gonna use the barley crusher until it dies. I’ve also heard about bad customer service on barley crushers too, but oh well.

 

[augiedoggy]

I’ve had a barley crusher for about 4 years. It’s been fine. I also make 10 gal batches every 2 weeks and it chews thru 25lbs fast. Lately I’ve graduated to BIAB and the barley crusher will not do a credit card size gap the first go around. So now I run it through at normal setting, adjust the gap to very fine, and run it again. Getting 79% efficiency and happy with that!
Wish I bought a monster or cereal killer, but I’m just gonna use the barley crusher until it dies. I’ve also heard about bad customer service on barley crushers too, but oh well.

when You do upgrade I recommend ditching the cheap bushing style mill and getting one with real ball bearings like the CK or kegking/kegco mills which are all from the same factory in china... Its not ideal and not very often that a china clone surpasses the originals but its been known to happen before (popular mechanics did an article years ago about the chinese iphone knockoffs being better than the real deal for a while).

 

[Rev2010]

FYI, the maltmill link above is 404, but I found it (HERE)

You revived a 6 year old thread to correct a defunct link?

 

[day_trippr]

"Is there a problem, Officer?"

 

[olie]

You revived a 6 year old thread to correct a defunct link?

No, I came to a 6 yr old thread looking for information and, finding a defunct link, gave an update for the next person to come here looking.

...Because we are civilized people, after all!

"You can't stop The Signal, Mal..."