My Ugly Junk- Corona Mill Station...

[Yooper]

Wow- that's looking good Revvy. I'm glad that you have found a use for the corona mill. My barley crusher works great- I ran some grain though it to see how the crush was with the factory settings, but I haven't brewed yet. I'm hoping to on Wednesday this week.

My crushing station is uglier than yours- but I do have a nice shiny BC sitting on a bucket. I'll try to take a picture when I crush on Tuesday night.

 

[MoRoToRiUm]

Holy BFD! Wonder when that was made... Looks good though! Personally I would do something to seal the wood, just in case you are storing it somewhere it could soak up moisture.

 

[bradsul]

I don't use them anymore, but my porkert was what got me started into AG brewing and I loved it. I only moved to a monster mill because I fell into a nice motor and some birthday money. Here is my ugly junk setup!



Here it is upgraded to control some of the mess, as you can see it still got covered in dust so I ended up throwing a garbage bag over the entire works so I could avoid having to wear a respirator.

 

[Revvy]

I don't use them anymore, but my porkert was what got me started into AG brewing and I loved it. I only moved to a monster mill because I fell into a nice motor and some birthday money. Here is my ugly junk setup!



Here it is upgraded to control some of the mess, as you can see it still got covered in dust so I ended up throwing a garbage bag over the entire works so I could avoid having to wear a respirator.

Yeah Brad, you're was one of the first setups I found when I was searching for info on it....Your and ****oos, and the guy that has a page on tweaking croronas off site.

 

[Revvy]

Do any of you have pictures of the gap in your plates? All the picts I've seen shows the blast shield on...nothing with the gap in the grinding plate.

 

[Otis The Drunk]

How do you use yours? Yesterday was the first time I used mine and knew half way through the grain, that I needed to rig something a little more stable up...hence the...oh geez, I need to name it or something don't I?

I have mine clamped to a piece of steel and grind into a bucket with a garbage bag over the whole thing so that I don't lose any grain. I use a 5 gallon plastic water bottle with the bottom cut out as a hopper and a 1/2 inch chuck drill... (I have burned up a couple of 3/8 chucked drills to the point of smoking)

As far as my grind, I grind 1/3 granules, 1/3 husk, 1/3 flour.
I Batch sparge (because I am basically lazy) but I sparge painfully slow (2 hours).

As far as a name for your creation, Looks like a Choo - Choo to me.... Run with it.

 

[wilserbrewer]

Revvy,

The way my mill is adjusted, the gap in the grinding plates is almost nill, maybe the width of a credit card. Running the milll empty at the end of a run, the plates will actually clack together intermittantly. I believe some of the crushed grain actually exits via the grooves b/w the plates??

 

[rod]

i just tighten mine until i don't see any uncrushed grains then back off 1/4 turn.
i usually get into the 80's for effeciency.
30 minutes grinding each brew day by hand is good excercise for my bad rotator cuff

 

[niquejim]

Wow- that's looking good Revvy. I'm glad that you have found a use for the corona mill. My barley crusher works great- I ran some grain though it to see how the crush was with the factory settings, but I haven't brewed yet. I'm hoping to on Wednesday this week.

My crushing station is uglier than yours- but I do have a nice shiny BC sitting on a bucket. I'll try to take a picture when I crush on Tuesday night.

Why didn't you try to use it Yoop?
I get it, you must be one of those "rich city folk"

I thought about getting a roller mill, but with 83% efficiency why change

 

[BierMuncher]

Yep Revvy...

That sure is purty...

Purty damn ugly...

Welcome to the club.

 

[Yooper]

Why didn't you try to use it Yoop?
I get it, you must be one of those "rich city folk"

I thought about getting a roller mill, but with 83% efficiency why change

I never used it because I'm not smart enough to make a hopper, and adjust the settings, I guess. I used one at a LHBS once, and I tore the **** out of the husks and got 58% efficiency besides. I decided I wasn't smart enough to even try.

I'm glad it can be used- and I have a new barley crusher, so I'm happy. And Revvy's happy. We should have a group hug!

 

[flyangler18]

We should have a group hug!

Pictures are mandatory. Non-negotiable.

 

[IrregularPulse]

Pictures are mandatory. Non-negotiable.

but of course in another section!


And thanks revvy and all others for saying good things about the corona. Gives me hope to crush my own sooner than I thought. Often times on this forum things that work perfectly fine get a bad wrap because of how people over analyze things. There is a drawback to too much knowledge. It's never being satisfied with good enough. I'm sure other products are far superior, but this works.

 

[MoRoToRiUm]

If it ain't broke, don't fix it!

On another note- ain't ain't a word, and I ain't gonna use ain't no more!

 

[Evan!]

Damn, Revvy...talk about a ghetto-rig. Did you get help from the dude with the air conditioner and generator on his car?

In the Ghetto...

As the snow flies
On a cold and gray Chicago mornin'
A poor little baby child is born
In the ghetto..IN THE GHETTO!

 

[TerapinChef]

Looking good there buddy, you may have helped me figure out why I should spend my March Pump money on a grain mill....I shouldn't!

 

[Revvy]

Damn, Revvy...talk about a ghetto-rig. Did you get help from the dude with the air conditioner and generator on his car?

In the Ghetto...

As the snow flies
On a cold and gray Chicago mornin'
A poor little baby child is born
In the ghetto..IN THE GHETTO!

I love this version! *heads off to see if it's on youtube+

 

[boo boo]

I ground up 10 lbs yesterday by hand. While I was doing it I decided that it was the last time.

Geez, I'm glad my wife don't feel that way

 

[Boar Beer]

Built this stand a while back it works great
in use we put a cloth over the top to keep the dust down

This little guy works just fine for us.
We put up about 30 lbs per week and get good results

 

[Revvy]

Built this stand a while back it works great
in use we put a cloth over the top to keep the dust down

This little guy works just fine for us.
We put up about 30 lbs per week and get good results

That's an awesome design. If I ever get a garage or basement I would do something like that.

 

[Revvy]

I just started listening to Craftbrewer Radio podcasts out of Australia, and went to the website today. The first article I dug up in the equipment section is all about the Corona mill....

Corona Grain Mills

I'm still in the process of reading it, but it is VERY corona positive...

Corona mills have gotten a lot of bad press over the years, with claims that they are unsuitable for brewing as the give a very poor crush (i.e. tear the grains rather than squeezing them) leading to flavour and extraction problems. The claims have usually originated from either the manufacturers or owners of the more modern roller mills.

But before roller mills (such as the PhilMill, Valley mill and MaltMill) were available for small-scale brewer, Corona mills were the only ones available. Many brewing books had sections on using and adjusting a Corona type mill. Dave Miller's book from the late 80's had a whole chapter devoted to using and adjusting a Corona mill, and he is often quoted as obtaining extremely high extraction rates from the grain.

Anyone got some older brewing books that would have such a section in there? I would love to read it.

 

[Yooper]

I just started listening to Craftbrewer Radio podcasts out of Australia, and went to the website today. The first article I dug up in the equipment section is all about the Corona mill....

Corona Grain Mills

I'm still in the process of reading it, but it is VERY corona positive...

Anyone got some older brewing books that would have such a section in there? I would love to read it.

Hmmm. Interesting. Can I have it back?

 

[Revvy]

Hmmm. Interesting. Can I have it back?

What? After I made it all Ugly/pretty????

Haven't you popped the virginity on your roller mill yet?

 

[TerapinChef]

Haven't you popped the virginity on your roller mill yet?

And if you haven't can we get some video?

 

[beergears]

Corona Grain Mills .

I like the long, vertical sheet metal chute on the blue setup (2nd set of pics.)

BTW, the shaft on my Corona unit is somewhat loose, which make it hard to motorize, as it flops around a bit (*wow* I can't believe I wrote that...!)

I blame it on the Safale-induced Kreauzen I tasted this morning... after a surprise overnight blow out (hmm, what was I thinking?)

 

[camiller]

I just started listening to Craftbrewer Radio podcasts out of Australia, and went to the website today. The first article I dug up in the equipment section is all about the Corona mill....

Corona Grain Mills

I'm still in the process of reading it, but it is VERY corona positive...



Anyone got some older brewing books that would have such a section in there? I would love to read it.

I think I've read that before. One think I noticed with my corona knockoff (Victoria) was that the plate wobbled on the shaft...BUT it was held on with a cotter pin and had another set of holes such that if I removed the cotter pin, rotated the plate 90 degrees and reinstalled the pin the plate was now held tightly without wobble. I'll try to post pics sometime but this week is kind of busy.

 

[Revvy]

I think I've read that before. One think I noticed with my corona knockoff (Victoria) was that the plate wobbled on the shaft...BUT it was held on with a cotter pin and had another set of holes such that if I removed the cotter pin, rotated the plate 90 degrees and reinstalled the pin the plate was now held tightly without wobble. I'll try to post pics sometime but this week is kind of busy.

Yeah mine wobbles because of the cotter pin too, I've read two different solutions to it. One was to replace the pin with a small bolt/nut combination, supposedly that would put equal pressure the plate. Another person took the cotter pin out then played around with the shaft and the plate til it was lined up perfectly parallel and then JB welded it in place.

I like the idea of the JB weld, but I'm a little too chicken to try such a permanent fix right away.

I may try what you suggest with the cotter pin, and see if that works.

 

[rasherb]

I've been very happy with my corona. I've never had less than 75% efficiency and usually get up into the 80's.

It does shred the heck out of husks however. This has given the beer a husky, grainy, astringent-like character that I am told conditions out after a couple months (still wating for that to happen).

Recently, I relaxed the crush a bit trying to reduce the off-flavor, but I still got 78% efficiency (I was aiming for 65-70%). The off-flavor decreased, but not as much as I would like.

Here's my question:
Using a corona, do you have to adjust for a more relaxed crush (and lower efficiency) if you want beer with out the husky, grainy, astringent-like off flavor from shredded husks?

 

[Revvy]

Oh this wins as the most interesting setup for a corona mill...this is NOT from a brewing site, but just came up in google.

Bicycle grinder: Based on a design originally created in the mid-70s in the US, energy is produced through a pedal-powered system that uses adjustable-speed pulleys, permitting fast and easy grinding of a variety of foods. An inexpensive modified hand mill using metal to metal plates grinds foods 10-50 times faster than with traditional methods. Seating is adjustable depending on the operator’s height and the adjustable speeds can be matched to the individual’s power.

Close up view of the “Corona mill” grinder.
Other grinders and implements can easily be adapted to the
pedal-powered mechanism. The grinding system is simple,
but the bicycle design is the result of many tests,
modifications and ergonomic and functional concerns.
The seat position is adjustable according to the person’s height
and leg length.

This site in itself is interesting, it may be worth noting for the coming zombi-pocalypse. VitaGoat

 

[rasherb]

I think I've read that before. One think I noticed with my corona knockoff (Victoria) was that the plate wobbled on the shaft...BUT it was held on with a cotter pin and had another set of holes such that if I removed the cotter pin, rotated the plate 90 degrees and reinstalled the pin the plate was now held tightly without wobble. I'll try to post pics sometime but this week is kind of busy.

Yes pics please. Mine wobbles a lot too. The uneven grind is annoying.