Preferred grain mills around $200

[bracconiere]

Actually a router speed controller

yeah, they work good for hot plates too! way better then cycling on-off....

 

[NewJersey]

I can't wait to have experience here.
Where do you guys buy base malts from?
Do homebrew shops even charge to mill malt for you?
I wanted a brain mill mainly to control the crush, but am now also excited to save a few bucks.

 

[bracconiere]

I wanted a brain mill mainly to control the crush,

a mind is a terible thing to taste! j/k

i'm sure you'll love that mill! (except for your planed first hand cranked batch!)


i buy malt from morebeer, but malt my own occasionally. because i think it tastes better and is cheaper.....



LOL, sorry for being a spell checker bot

 

[Bobby_M]

I can't wait to have experience here.
Where do you guys buy base malts from?
Do homebrew shops even charge to mill malt for you?
I wanted a brain mill mainly to control the crush, but am now also excited to save a few bucks.

Be careful collecting more grain than you will use. I overdid it following my first mill purchase and discarded a lot when it expired.

 

[NewJersey]

Be careful collecting more grain than you will use. I overdid it following my first mill purchase and discarded a lot when it expired.

Yes, I'm thinking of only buying sacks of 2 row and german pilsner

 

[bracconiere]

Yes, I'm thinking of only buying sacks of 2 row and german pilsner

i'd honestly make the trip to the morebeer shop in pensylvania from new jersey....but 6-8 bags, with out shipping...if they have a store front there like in SF

 

[bwible]

LOL, nothing like breakin em in huh?




i'd say considering free shipping is actually shipping included. looks like a decent deal? i have an old beat up JSP Malt Mill, the sides have all fallen off, i drilled a couple holes in a hax saw blade to keep the two roller plates aligned so the gap wouldn't mess up. i drilled a 3" hole in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket, and just put that on top of the 2lb hopper it came with. it's really a work of art! lol but it's does the job still!

so all i can say is you'll probably love a mill that fancy!

edit: in hind sight i regret not getting the geared option for a bit more, i have to...hmmm, "finness" mine to get it to catch sometimes....but i'm not sure if that would be a problem with a 3 roller mill?

Yep - thats what I have too. An old, non-adjustable JSP malt mill that I bought in 1998 or 1999. Pretty sure I don’t have the geared version either. Mine is not beat up though, still in remarkably good condition.

You’re right - that little hopper it comes with holds about 2 lbs. I measure all my grains into a plastic bucket first, then I keep filling the hopper and grinding away several times into a second bucket. I brew smaller batches, usually 3 gallons at a time. So most of my grain bills are about 7 - 8 pounds total. Thats not so bad. I use a corded drill. The chuck slips often, I have to re-tighten it after each 2 lb hopper full goes down.

On a side note, that hopper is only thin particle board, so I imagine sitting a bucket full of grain on top isn’t real good for it. Going to break the hopper apart eventually.

When I first started doing all grain, I started out with a Phil Mill, if anybody remembers those. It’s a tiny mill with a small hole. You were supposed to cut the bottom off a 2 liter or 3 liter plastic soda bottle and put it upside down in the hole and use that as your hopper. It had a little wood screw to hold it in. I still have my Phil Mill.

Back when I started brewing, there were basically 3 options: the Corona mill (never owned one), the Phil Mill, or the JSP. The JSP was the “cadillac” of these 3.

 

[bwible]

i don't know if you'd have a problem with getting it to catch with the first two set at .07...mines a two roller, so my gap is one pass at .028, and sometimes the barley doesn't want to go through the mill of death. so it would have been nice if the other roller wasn't free spining and had some drive to it.

Mine only seems to have this problem with straight cara-pils for some reason. I have to either mix in cara-pils really well with the rest of the grain or remember to put some base malt in first to get it started, then put the cara-pils on top if I’m measuring and grinding grains individually.

 

[bracconiere]

When I first started doing all grain, I started out with a Phil Mill, if anybody remembers those

LOL, i remember my phil mill! and yep it was Phil or Jack....(and if you ever wondered what the bolt holes on the side of the JSP were for, it's to bolt a board down on top of the tiny hopper and cut a 2" hole in a bucket to put on top....)


sorry for the blur, delirum tremens....

a 5 gallon bucket sits onto nicely, but i mill over 20lb's at a time!

 

[odie]

anyone buy one of these?

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Electric-G...534274?hash=item5954aa4502:g:PzcAAOSwsaZfq3Ve
Appears to have gears on the roller shafts but I've seen similar listings with the same model number and sometimes the pictures show gears, sometimes not. On what appears the same grain mill. I really want gears since my mill with a free wheeling second roller often doesn't spin