Grain Mill

[rodwha]

I'm setting a grain mill into my Christmas wish list this year. The Monster Mill 2 has been recommended to me. Are there any others that are as good or better? I don't like how all of the pieces need to be bought separately. I find it odd.

 

[dk21]

Similar to Monster is Crankandstein. Both sell items such as hand cranks and hoppers separately since a lot of people tend to motorize and build custom stands and hoppers. Also check out the JSP Malt mill.

I think you'll find that most everyone is happy with whatever mill they bought, which is good news.

 

[outside92129]

here's one that can avoid many jamming issues that mills with a free roller get:
http://www.mashmaster.com.au/p/4571858/millmaster-grain-mill.html

 

[kevink]

I recently shopped around for the "ultimate" grain mill and went with the Mashmaster. It is a serious piece. I owned a Barley Crusher for a few days before I got the Mashmaster and they are not even comparable.

Some cool features of the Mashmaster:
Thick side plates that tie the whole assembly together. Most mills only have one plate on each end and nothing on the sides (or flimsy, thin aluminum sheet metal on the sides like the Barley Crusher). The problem with this is that the mill will only be as strong as what it's bolted to. Flexing of the front plates will cause bearing misalignment and can lead to binding.

Stainless steel rollers

Gear driven (reduces stuck slave roller and grain shredding)

The cover that goes over the gears to prevent grain from getting crushed by the gears is a great idea and is nicely machined. The whole mill is really nicely machined.

Both ends are adjustable (I actually can't believe there are grain mills out there that are only adjustable on one end)

No "grain engaged" gear teeth like the Crankandstein. The Mashmaster has real gears that maintain mesh throughout the whole gap range. When the drive roller makes on revolution, the slave roller also makes exactly one revolution. There is not, and cannot, be any slippage. You probably can't say that with the Crankandstein. There is a picture of the underside of the mill that shows the gears on the website linked above. They claim it's the "Only geared roller mill on the market that is fully adjustable at both ends." I think that's a true statement.

 

[unionrdr]

Since I do PM with no more than some 6 1/2lbs of grains, the Barley Crusher has worked out great. 7 pound hopper, 2 roller & adjustable at both ends. The factory setting with the notches by the thumb knobs of .039" works great for pb/pm biab that I do. Less of that foury stuff as well.

 

[outside92129]

I have a MM3-2 that i was *mostly* able to run trouble free, it took a while though. Everything that kevink mentioned is right on the money, if i had to do it over again i'd get the mashmaster (and the mm3-2 is supposed to be one of the cadillac mills). Every other brew day we get the mill stuck, it's a pain when you're doing 200lbs, but we've mostly figured how to quickly un-stick it (for me it's the 3rd @#*%$& roller.

kevink - what's the lowest gap you can get out of your mashmaster? Can you post a video of it running and pics of the milled grain?

 

[kevink]

kevink - what's the lowest gap you can get out of your mashmaster? Can you post a video of it running and pics of the milled grain?

The tightest gap you can get out of the Mashmaster is 0.006"! I don't have any videos, but here's a photo. I just modified the mill by slotting the two thumbscrews/eccentric locks so I can unlock and lock them with a screwdriver instead of using my hand. My hopper is a 5 gallon bucket, so I can't reach the locks with my hand when it's bolted to the mill. Now I can just put a flat-head screwdriver through the holes in the wood side and loosen/tighten the locks.

I don't have any pictures of crushed grain, either, but at 0.047" the crush looked great and I tried a lot of gaps around that range on the last batch. I'm going to try 0.049"-0.050" on the next batch because the end of my runnings were 1.015 and I want to see if I can get a slightly faster recirc with my HERMS. I'm not into chasing efficiency.