Monster Mill MM-3 review

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jdoiv

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So my old mill died and I decided to buy the Monster Mill MM-3. I ordered it several weeks ago and it came in within a couple of days of the order. I built a mill table and hopper that you can see here.

Well, I finally got around to brewing with it a couple of days ago and I gotta say it rocks.

After I built the table, things got a little out of whack and I had to reset the gap. Fred was real nice in emailing me back with a couple of issues I had (totally user related and in no part from the mill). I went and got some feeler gauges and set the gap to .41 of an inch.

I decided to brew a Belgian Wit and the recipe called for 2-row Plisen, Flaked Wheat and Flaked Barley. I poured everything into the hopper, hooked up the drill and started crushing. The crush was gorgeous. The mill popped the kernel and separated the endosperm from the husk with minimal husk damage. I have never had much luck with milling the flaked grains, but the Monster Mill rocked through them. Only issues I had with the crush were related to my hopper and not the mill as the flaked grains had to be coaxed into falling into the mill. All in all it took me less than 10 minutes to crush up 18 pounds of grain. Most of that time was in my messing with the hopper. The mill never stuck and ate up everything I fed it very quickly.

System efficiency after the brew was 91%. I had the recipe set to 85% which was my previous norm. All in all, I would highly recommend the MM-3 if you are willing to build up a milling station.
 
Great review! I still haven't been able to use my MM-2 but I've got my milling station all designed. Did it do much to the flaked grains or did they basically just pass through? My porkert (corona-style) mill crushes them into smaller pieces, not that it's really necessary - more curiosity than anything.
 
It broke the flaked grains up into smaller pieces. I have heard conflicting advise on flaked grains (some say crush, some say don't). The recipe was based off one of Jamil Z's recipes and he said crush 'em, so I did. I'm not sure if this aided in the higher efficiency or not, but the crush was probably a little coarser on the pilsen than I had with the old mill, yet the effciency was higher. I had a pound of rice hulls in the mash to help prevent a stuck sparge and I probably didn't need them. The husks from the the pilsen were more or less intact, just no endosperm. I'm brewing again this weekend and will probably have a more normal grain bill. I'm looking forward to seeing it in action.
 
I love my 3 roller station. The only thing I would have done differently was get a 1/2" shaft on the drive roller. I may just get one machined and jam it in sometime in the future.
 
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