I’m getting ready to add a grain mill to my all grain equipment. I do mainly small batches, less than 3 gallons. I was thinking of getting a Corona mill and connecting it to my cordless drill. Has anyone use a corona mill without the cover over the burrs?
I have no direct experience with a Corona mill, but I think in the long run you’ll be happier with a two-roller mill designed for the job. They start at something like $80. At your scale I’d consider just buying pre-milled grain too.
I used a Victoria mill (same as a Corona for all intents and purposes) for several years with good results. It made a bit of a mess even with the cover in place and using the hand crank. I’d imagine that without the cover it would be a disaster.
I used a Corona in my early years. They are more of a “flour producer” than a “grain breaker” and they make quite a mess. I think they are fine for specialty grains if you are an extract brewer, but eventually you will want to upgrade to a roller mill.
I have a corona mill that I have been using for 6 years now. Like you I do mostly sub 3 gal batches with an occasional 10 liter batch once a year or so. Since I do BIAB, it has served me well but it does need some work to make it perform as well as a roller mill. I disassembled the whole mill when I first received it and re-threaded the retaining nut for the rotating plate to get a finer adjustment. I then added a bolt in place of the handle so that I could run the mill with a drill and evened up the plates so that the rotating plate ran true to the fixed plate.
The result is that I get a nice crush with very few intact kernels and a minimum of flour. So it can be done.
Given that, the cost of roller mills has come down greatly in the past several years that I would move in that direction if I were to make a new purchase. Skip the cheaper mills and aim for a 3-roll mill for the best control of your crush.
I have used a Barley Crusher for the past several years. The difficult part for me using this tool was tweaking it to just the right point where I could extract as much sweet wort as possible, yet not get a stuck sparse. That took me several brews to get right. Now that I have it dialed in, my mash efficiency is in the mid 90’s with every brew. I also use my cordless drill to run the mill. I bought it on sale through BeerSmith for about $125 including the larger 15 pound hopper.
I started extract brewing in 1988 and bought a Corona mill to crush my specialty grains. In 1992 it went in a box because I had kids to raise, but in 2008 I got it out and did one last extract brew for old times sake. Then, on Jan 4, 2009, I cranked my way through 11 lbs of grain for my first all-grain batch. Needless to say it took a while to crush 11 lbs with the old Corona.
My first purchase as an all-grain brewer was a CrankandStein 3-row mill, and I’ve still got it. You couldn’t give me a Corona mill these days, much less sell me one!
Charlie
^^^^ 10 or 15 pounds of grain through a hand crank mill is a powerful motivator to move up to a powered roller mill, even if the power is a drill motor. I milled one batch by hand and said “never again!”.
I hear you. My first roller mill was a Phil-Mill. I ran 10 lb grain bills through that for about a year before I went to a motorized monster mill.
11 years later I’m still running mine with a hand drill. The drill is a 1/2" DeWalt, and the unit is manageable and compact. My equipment space has always been limited, and I don’t know where I would put a motorized mill.
Charlie
My fist motorized setup was able to be folded up and hung on a wall. I used a Barley Crusher, an old motor, 3/4" plywood and a set of hinges. The homer bucket acted as the 3rd leg. It worked great was easy to store but got upgraded when I had some more room. The BC came with a crank handle and I never used it.
It’s fun to think back on all the gadgets I’ve built over the years.
Happy New Year!
Paul
The 1st batch I did after resuming brewing was 13# grain through my old Corona mill, the next day I ordered a JSP Maltmill. After trying a couple other drills for power, I settled on an old [late 50’s or early 60’s] 1/2" chuck, 5 amp, 525 rpm Sioux drill that weighs about as much as a Buick, but boy will it mill the grain. The mill as shipped is equipped with clear plastic “baffles” that block off all but about 3" of the rollers, even with that limited mill area the other smaller drill I tried really chugged down, and were pretty hot by the end of the run. With the Sioux I removed the shields/baffles, exposing the full 10" of mill face, and the drill doesn’t bog down at all, it’ll mill ~20# grain in about a minute and a half. My arm would fall off before I could get through that much grain with the Corona. Gotta love those old tools from the Eisenhower era! ;D
Just a reminder. JSP is no longer in business if anyone is looking to buy one of his mills. He had a fire in his shop a couple years ago that destroyed everything and he is not going to rebuild. Told me that in response to an e-mail I sent to him.
I wondered about him. Good to at least know what happened, but a bummer that he wont be making mills any more.
LHBS owner told me a number of years ago he had already retired and stopped manufacturing, but LHBS could still occasionally buy spare parts he had in inventory, though he wouldn’t take any new orders for mills or cheese supplies. But it seems the fire finally eliminated the inventory too. I was surprised that the whole operation was just Jack in the workshop and his wife in the office, all in their home, and that with such a successful product there was no succession plan for the business. Sure, there are arguably better mills out there now, but not only was his the best available in its time, it still hasn’t been matched (not even close) by anything currently in its price bracket.
Yeah, I haven’t see any current mill that can match the JSP. Mine is nearly 20 years old and has had literally tons of grain through it and still works like a charm. I had heard a rumor at one point that he had a son that was taking over the biz, but that was obviously incorrect.
He was based out of Marengo, Illinois, which is only a few miles from my home, so I bought the mill and still have it today, mounted on a table with a low rpm high torque motor. Works great and it’s at least 15 years old…a tank.
My notes seem to tell me that I got a new JSP mill for Christmas 1992. I’m still using it.
So does that mean that my mill will last as long as the old drill? 
I don’t know if you got this answer already, but if you want to minimize the mess and effort in minimizing that mess, tear a hole in the side of a zip-lock bag. Slip it over the end of the mill so that it covers the burrs. The weight of the ziplock mechanism helps to keep it opening-side down. I looked for a photo, but I just have a video.
Last Friday night, I brewed my first batch in over a decade. I still have all my stuff after a few moves, including my corona mill. I’ll come up with a more elegant solution someday, but on Friday I kept it simple. I clamped and drywall screwed my mill to a scrap of 2x4 and clamped that into my bench vise. I used an eye-bolt that I cut into a hook, chucked into my cordless drill to drive the eye that I have threaded where the crank used to be.
Eventually I’ll dedicate a crummy old corded drill that I have and rig something up so that I can have both hands free for loading the grain into the hopper and drinking a beer. “Alexa, grind the grain”