Why'd you pick the grain mill you did?

[Seabee John]

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?

 

[tbulger]

THe lhbs schedule doesnt work with my shedule. I hope to be able to keep plenty of grain and hops on hnd to brew whenever i need to without having to go to the hbs.

 

[ScubaSteve]

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?

John-

From what I understand, the LHBS doesn't crush well enough. Most (if not ALL) report an increase in efficiency when they crush their own grain.

All I know is that Santa has gotten nothing short of certified mail about a BarleyCrusher.

As a reference, I live 10 miles from MoreBeer (Probably one of the biggest LHBS'S IMHO) and they are quite knowledgeable. My eff is 65%

 

[Cookiebaggs]

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?

My LHBS has an old JSP maltmill that has crushed so much grain for customers that I believe it has lost it's ability to produce the crush I am looking for. I went to another HBS and the crush was much better looking and my eff jumped up.

On Monday I ordered my Barley Crusher.

 

[b33rm3]

LHBS- 58% efficiency

Barley crusher- 80% effiency

and now i can use bulk grain

 

[Ryan_PA]

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]

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.

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.

 

[mr x]

Keep in mind that there is a huge difference in load between the two roller BC and CrankandStein and the three roller Crankandstein model. I can't see a cordless doing a fine crush on a three roller mill, I burned up a 5.2 amp corded. I'm converting to a motorized unit with a Bodine gearmotor.

 

[Ryan_PA]

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.

Agreeeeeed

 

[Cookiebaggs]

My BC arrived today!

I guess I need to get a starter going for Saturday.

 

[z987k]

http://cgi.ebay.com/Crankandstein-2...ryZ38172QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

that + a piece of plywood a drill and a bucket for a hopper? Probably do it for ~$75

 

[c.n.budz]

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.

 

[Cookiebaggs]

I just ran the numbers on 10 gallons of Ed Wort's haus pale Ale I brewed today. I got in the lower 90's for eff with the barley crusher! :rockin:

What a beautiful crush. I did notice that the fly sparge was a little slower than with the crush I got at the LHBS. I like the results.

 

[WBC]

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.

I bought one too and the quality was great!!! Call or write them, they stand behind their products. You should not accept bad quality. You paid the price!

 

[agentgonzo]

Does anyone know of where to get a decent mill in the UK? The Barley Crusher seems to be great, but there's only one place in the UK that seems to sell it and it's listed at £150, over twice as expensive as buying it in the USA! Other mills I've seen seem to go for £200. Anyone know where to get something in the £70 range (equiv to $140, which seems to be what they are going for in America).

 

[mr x]

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.

Remember that 2 gap mills require much more torque than a single gap mill. I solved my burnout problems this way:

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=9amxsi&s=2

 

[Rudeboy]

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.

I bought a Corna Mill and have done two AG brews and have just ordered a BarleyCrusher.

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.

Or ah.. I mean no. (putting on best Jon Lovitz as President of the Liars Anonymous voice.) Corona Mills work great. You wanna buy mine.


Rudeboy

 

[Germey]

Well, my head was spinning after just a couple of pages. For posterity’s sake, here is my summary of this thread. Feel free to correct me on anything I missed or got wrong and I’ll edit the chart. The price and the throughput is from the Mfg websites.
While there was quite a bit of hypothesis on the diameter of the rollers, there was not much mentioned about the length. That would seem to clearly increase throughput.
I did not have a column for adding a drill or motor since that seemed pretty easy across the board (at least for the folks here ). Also, my general impression is that 3 rollers makes for a lot more resistance in cranking, but may provide a higher quality grind. In general, efficiencies and lauter speed seemed pretty comparable and probably has more to do with other factors from brewer to brewer.

Good shopping,
Jeremy

 

[FlyGuy]

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.

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:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=32437.

Here was my solution to reigning in the mill, which took about 30 mins to construct from some scrap wood:


If you are patient, you can adjust the crush pretty fine. It may not be ideal, but these mills work fine for AG, especially if you are batch sparging.

 

[Rudeboy]

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.

OK maybe I was a bit hasty. Yours seems a bit better than mine I don't have that metal hub cap thingy over the stone that yours has.

I'm just cheesed off because I made a Robust Porter for my second AG whose grain bill was somewhere north of 16 pounds and it took me forever.

Also the same mill I paid 40 bucks for is in the Princess Auto flyer for 18 beans.

If I was good at MacGyvering I'd make a proper hopper (mines smaller than yours too.) And a proper collector. Also my first two AG's got good efficiencies and no problem with stuck MLT's or turbidity. And tasted pretty good out of the primary and into the bottles. :rockin: (If I can count those chickens before they're tapped.)

Still I stand by my statement if one is thinking of going AG get a good crusher to start with you will more than likely be looking to upgrade at some point.

Rudeboy

 

[the_bird]

Went ahead and ordered my Barley Crusher for my birthday. Should be here before Yankee Ingenuity V. Now, gotta go buy me a sack of grain!

I also bought a vial of Papazian's "Cry Havoc" yeast to play with...

 

[Evan!]

Went ahead and ordered my Barley Crusher for my birthday. Should be here before Yankee Ingenuity V. Now, gotta go buy me a sack of grain!

yeah BOYEEEEEE. Welcome to the club. I think you'll find that it rocks faces. If you don't get at least 80% efficiency most of the time (with the factory settings) then...uhhh...quit

Congrats.

 

[user 574]

Bird, I'm doing the same thing for my birthday today as well. SWMBO fears the Paypal (getting the barley crusher too) so she just told me to "buy it".

I'm just getting the 7# hopper variety.

 

[Willie3]

I got the 15# hopper for x-mas last year and it ROCKS HARD!! Factory settings work but I tweeked it a bit and crush a little finer. I goofed on my last brew but come tomorrow I should have a great beer! I will post results. See thread "QUAD B PORTER".

Thanks

- WW

 

[ScubaSteve]

OOOOOHHHH MAAAAAANNN! SWMBO is feeling generous all of a sudden and told me to "go ahead and order it". I gotta figure out what the occasion is; part of me says to just order it before she changes her mind! I'm looking at the 7#, just cuz' I don't want to store a massive hopper, and I can just as easily add grain incrementally.

 

[denimglen]

Looking at getting a barley crusher for xmas, or maybe a refractometer, can't decide...but anyway...

When you guys say 80% efficency with this mill is that into the boiler or into the fermenter?

 

[kenb]

I got the Crank based upon reviews, quality and price.

 

[SuperiorBrew]

I finally got my Crankenstein mounted and tried it for the first time. It rocks, chewed thru 9.5 pounds in well under a minute. I mounted it on a $39 cart from Northern Tool and picked up a motor off ebay.

 

[WBC]

Should'nt you be running a 12 inch pulley on the mill. Seems to me it would run way too fast and throw stuff all over the cart. I thought mills were supposed to turn 250 to 300 RPM tops.

 

[mr x]

You can buy gearhead motors that step down the output shaft speed. I run mine under 150 RPM off a 431 rpm Bodine gearmotor with a 3:1 pulley ratio (2" and 6")