Looking for a grain mill on a tight budget. I’ve been getting by with taking my bulk grains to a friend for grinding for about a year and I need a little freedom, but I don’t want to pay $130 for one off a Home brew supply website…any ideas? DIY?
There’s always Christmas/Hannukah/Kwanzaa/Solstice/winter holidays! That’s how I got mine. I was too cheap to buy one but Santa was nice to me that year.
There’s also such a thing as the blender method that you might want to try out. Takes forever and a day to grind all the grains, but it does work. I did it for several years before Santa came through for me. See here:
http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=67843&hilit=+blender
Google ‘Corona Grain Mill Homebrew’ and you’ll find a mill that will get you going for much less than a standard two roller mill. It will take a little tweaking and adapting, but great if you like DIY.
Are you All-grain or Extract brewing? If extract a corona mill will work for cheap money. If you are allgrain brewing and intend to try a corona mill expect to need rotator cuff surgery in short order. When dealing with the amount of grains needed and in a specific condition(aka husk intact) then spend the money and get a proper mill. A barley crusher will cost you about 125, a Monster mill slightly more. I have seen it argued that a Mill is the most important piece of equipment for brewing.
Just my 2 cents.
Im doing 1BBL all grain and im using a Cereal Killer, works superbly and I hit 82% on the last batch.
Did you buy the bulk grain from a LHBS? I have and they will grind it for me. While I grind most times at home, it is a nice option to have available…
I had never heard of the Cereal Killer Mill. First link I found on Google has it for $99. Not bad.
Paul
Ive used a Corona mill for years to do all grain… and yes, cranking it is a pain. One or two pounds is no big deal… 10 to 15 pounds…that is a pain. I replaced the crank handle on it years ago with a shaft to connect a drill to speed things up, and it has made the mill tolerable for all grain. Without the leverage of the crank handle, the drill has to deal with a bit of torque though, so I either use my plug in drill, or have two batteries ready for my cordless. (usually take about 10 minutes for 12 pounds and drains a full battery charge due to the torque loads)
The biggest issue I have with the Corona is the small hopper size. It only holds a pound or two. (I had modified the hopper at one point to hold 5# of grain, but the mill performance began to have issues.)
I know I am asking Santa for a roller mill for Christmas to replace the Corona, and the biggest things I am looking for is:
1.) 5lb or even better a 10 lb hopper
2.) It can be fitted to a piece of plywood to sit on top of my mash tun so I can grind right into it. (Covering the whole opening would be nice to keep the dust down)
3.) Roller Adjustment (I adjust my mill often when going back and forth from Barley to Wheat)
I have a corona mill that I hand crank. I do a lot of small batches so it’s not that big of a deal but if I went back to brewing larger batches I’d modify it to work off a drill.
I’ve had a Schmidling mill for over 15 yrs. amoritize the cost over that time, add in the savings in buying bulk grain, and hitting 80-85% efficency, I’m at a cost of less than $10.00 /year and dropping.
Buy once, cry once. Don’t cheap out
Agreed. I love my JSP MaltMill.
+1
I got my Barely Crusher years ago and have never looked back. Everyone I know who had a corona mill bought a roller mill when they had the chance.
Paul
Another thumbs up for the JSP Maltmill!
I recently spent $80 on a Nutribullet Pro 900. It replaced an original Magic Bullet which I had for 10 years. We only use it to make smoothies so there isn’t a need to spend more than we have to. Now it can be bought at $32
I had a JSP mill for about 20 years and loved it. I bought it from a Homebrew Shop that went out of business so it was maybe 25 years old. The rollers were getting a bit worn after all that time so I replaced it with a three roller Crankandstein about a month ago. The mill is a bit more expensive but works well and my mash and brew house efficiencies have gone up.
I originally intended to buy another JSP mill before ordering the Crankandstein because I had many good years with that mill. I contacted Jack Schmidling about getting one since his website did not show current availability or pricing. Jack got back to me and told me that he was officially out of business since a fire had totally destroyed his shop and he was not planning on rebuilding it. You might be able to find a used one on Ebay but you are out of luck on finding a new one.
If memory serves, JSP is no longer in business, but my memory is highly questionable.
As a lifelong tool user and junkie I’ve learned the hard and expensive way time and again not to buy any tool until I can afford to buy high quality - and that doesn’t always mean all the bells and whistles.
Goose, sounds like that Crankandstein is working for you. Question. Could it be run off a drill, or is a stand and motor a necessity? I don’t want to build a big piece of kit, I like being able to put my JSP away on the shelf and take it out as needed. Limited space. But I also don’t want to burn out my drill. Or break my wrist for that matter. Need to start considering options, as old JSP is wearing fast.
Rob, the Crankenstein is available with a wooden base plate that will sit on a bucket kind of like the JSP mills were. You can turn it with a drill like the JSP. It turns pretty easily (only one roller is positively driven the others run on friction from the grain) and you won’t end up with any broken bones. I bought the accessory hopper with mine and it holds about 9 lbs of grain. I can crush 21 lbs of grain in less than 5 minutes.
The only thing I had to do is enclose the sides of the mill as they were open when it arrived. I went to Lowes and bought some sheet aluminum, cut it to size and taped it to the sides of the mill with small pieces aluminum tape. That way I can keep the dust down in the brewery. I would attach a picture but can’t figure out how to do it on this forum. I will e-mail you one.
Thanks, Goose! This might be top of the list right now. But I sure hope the old JSP holds on a little longer. I’ve really been abusing it lately with some pretty steely malt (Chevallier.)