JeffNYC said:Northern Brewer is out of them per their website. Serves me right for waiting...
BierMuncher said:Great customer service from Randy on my Barley Crusher.
Had an issue with the handle being stuck and he sent me a new one within 3 days. Also sent me a UPS prepaid stick-on label so I could return the old at no expense.
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+1 Just ordered it tonight based on the reviews and reputation.mr x said:I bought the 3 roll Crankenstein because I like the idea of two crushes in one pass. Does a fantastic job.
SuperiorBrew said:
Thats why people who get mills immediately report an increase in efficiency. Does the grain need to be THAT crushed? No.devils4ever said:Wow! Is that how crushed grain is supposed to look? I just did my first AG last weekend and I bought precrushed grain from Austin Homebrew. It looked like it was barely crushed. I almost thought they forgot to crush it except for some "flour" on the bottom of the bag. Maybe I should start crushing my old grains. My efficiency was only 62%!!!
BierMuncher said:That’s why people who get mills immediately report an increase in efficiency. Does the grain need to be THAT crushed? No.
I actually ran the batch through twice on the factory setting. Trying to close that gap too much on an initial run can be a little strenuous. I’d [refer to crush, examine and repeat if necessary.
I just wanted to see how far I could take the crush before experiencing a stuck sparge. For this batch, I did have a “slower” runoff but no where near stuck. I also got about a 78% efficiency. (5.2Ph Stabilizer is my next plan of attack.)
the_bird said:Thanks, that sounds like my corded drill. It sounds like from the link Cheese posted (thanks, bro!) that the Crankenstein, while a bit more robust, needs a bit more OOMPH to power it.
Bernie Brewer said:A decent drill takes care of that. My 18v DeWalt goes through 25# of grain on my Cranknstein in no time. Building a hopper was easy, too. I built one out of ductwork. I like the 5 gallon bottle idea, too.
the_bird said:I finally realized - the idiot that I am - why no homebrew shop, local or online, does a good job crushing their grain.
If they give you a bad crush, you end up doing one of two things.
1. You buy more grain to compensate for the low efficiency, or
2. You buy a mill from them and do it yourself.
BRILLIANTLY evil...
Seabee John said:Are you guy's crushing your own grain out of need (freshness) or just because you can? I live rather close to midwest brewers supply and even closer to northern brewers, When I go in to purchase supplies, they always offer to crush the grain for me. I usually brew within a day or so of picking up my supplies. So either I'm just fortunate to live as close as I do to a supplier or could I be doing something different that will result in better brew? Any advise?
Seabee John said:Are you guy's crushing your own grain out of need (freshness) or just because you can? I live rather close to midwest brewers supply and even closer to northern brewers, When I go in to purchase supplies, they always offer to crush the grain for me. I usually brew within a day or so of picking up my supplies. So either I'm just fortunate to live as close as I do to a supplier or could I be doing something different that will result in better brew? Any advise?
Ryan_PA said:I went with the crankandstein package deal with the base and hopper. I love it. I never used a BC, but do not think I ever will have to. I have not noticed the issue BobbyM mentioned. Also, all things being equal, the drill burn out issue should be about the same for any mill assuming there is no flaw with the bearings or the drill.
Cheesefood said:I would recommend a corded drill regardless. It takes a lot of torque to turn wheat through there and that's unnecessary wear and tear on that battery. I want to keep my cordless running as long as possible.
Bobby_M said:I have the cheapest Crankandstein that is still adjustable. I'll say that this might be an isolated case, but I found that the bore for the bearings wasn't made perfectly perpendicular to the side plate (or maybe the bottom edges of the end plates are not squarely cut). The reason I suspect this is when I mounted to an absolutely flat base, the rollers got really tight. When you bow the base by pressing on the side, the rollers spun free. I triple checked that it was indeed a flat surface and it was. I basically had to shim the side plates of the mill to make it spin free. Not so great.
Remember that 2 gap mills require much more torque than a single gap mill. I solved my burnout problems this way:Ryan_PA said:Also, all things being equal, the drill burn out issue should be about the same for any mill assuming there is no flaw with the bearings or the drill.
cnbudz said:I bought a corona mill because it was cheap and I quickly figured out why... It's very tough to control the size of the crush.
Sorry to hear that you didn't have much success with your Corona Mill, but there are quite a few of us that use them and get over 80% efficiency with our AG brews. They work surprisingly well. See here:Rudeboy said:Besides being slow and not getting the right size of crush , it makes a helluva mess. It spits the crush with alot of flour out the side. I guess I could have MacGyvered something but I just said F'it and ordered a proper crusher.
Word to the wise, a Corona Mill might work for PM's or Extract&Grain but if your even thinking about AG get a proper crusher to start with.
FlyGuy said:Sorry to hear that you didn't have much success with your Corona Mill, but there are quite a few of us that use them and get over 80% efficiency with our AG brews. They work surprisingly well.
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