Schmidling or Barley Crusher…any opinions? I’ve read that Monster Mills are nice, but they seem a little pricey.
I need to buy one since I just bought 3 bags of base malt lol!
Can’t say anything bad about the Schmidling but I’ve had a BC for several years and really like it. Adjustable and easy to power with a drill. Does a nice job.
BC with a good corded power drill is the way to go. Hand cranking is not fun, but it is good to have the option if drill fails or power is out.
MM are not that expensive. Check their web site for pricing.
BC develops stuck roller after some time.
My own experience.
If those were my only two choices I would go with the Schmidling. No, we’re not related.
I have a MM.
Schmidling fixed gap, 10 yrs., no issues.
My Schmidling malt mill is 12 years old and is still crushing a lot of grain. Those 3 roller Monster Mills make me drool.
I have a 5yo BC. Great price and grinding ability but you will need to maintain it. Regular cleaning and adjustments or performance will suffer or even halt.
The upside is maintaining a BC isn’t all that difficult and should give you years of service grinding grain.
The base price for the MM basic mill is $117. If you’re handy you can build your own base and hopper, though I paid the $40 for the prebuilt option. I’m very happy with mine. I went with the MM after reading a ton of reviews.
You need more power for those.
I use 1/2 hp motor for MM3.
It works pretty well.
Thanks for the responses…looks like I’m going to have some time to think about it, as I gotta sink some money into my truck for a new timing belt, so it’s a little setback on buying that mill…those MM’s seem pretty nice though!
A few years ago I retired an adjustable home-built mill for a non-adjustable Schmidlin. With a 1/4 hp motor and sheaved at 500 rpm I could mill 50 lbs in 90 seconds. I have since scaled it back to 300 rpm and still love it.