Monster Mill MM2 Pro

I’m close to pulling the trigger on the current version of the MM2 Pro,  the one with 2" rollers:

http://www.monsterbrewinghardware.com/store/pc/MM-2Pro-p100.htm

If anybody has experience with this mill and knows of any reason I might be disappointed, or has experienced problems,  please advise.

I have had my MM3-Pro for four years and absolutely no complaints. Easy to adjust. Literally seconds to mill for a five gallon beer. I don’t think you can go wrong.

The new name threw me. That is the Mill I have, except it was called 2.2.

I have nothing but good to say. My mill came with the thumb screws and I converted it to the improved adjusters even though I never had a problem with slipping. I do think the larger diameter helps with crush quality. I’ve had it for almost a decade and it’s been no trouble. I would buy it again.

Thanks, guys.  Nobody spoke up against it, so I’ve placed my order.  According to Monster’s claims on roller life, at my current usage rate this should last me at least 40 years.  If I’m still brewing well into my 90s, you guys are invited for a pint or two.

[emoji3]

(One mod – rubber bumpers under the base à la JSP)

Looks great; curious to hear your first impressions

First impression was, the assembly instructions aren’t quite as bad as some reviews say.  As long as you apply some common sense.  More importantly  –

I’ve only run a couple pounds through just to clean it and check gap adjustment.  Factory setting way too wide of course.  Set it to 0.030" where I’ve had the JSP for a long time, though that’s not necessarily where I’ll keep it.  Eats malt fast.  Crushes to a very even particle size, with hardly any flour at all.  Husks look good even at a pretty high speed.  They really should include those locator bumpers on the base.  Pretty sure I’ve bought my last mill.  I won’t brew until next weekend,  but if I learn anything from that run, I’ll report.

(It really is astonishing what a difference 2" rollers make.  But it makes sense, it’s that much more like the grains  being crushed between flat surfaces.)

I run at 0.035", but I run a RIMS and need to assure that my bed permeability is good.

I do condition my malt before crushing and its as if my husks come through the mill entirely intact and their inerds have mysteriously disappeared. I’m left with a nice range of fine and coarse particles from the crushed kernals. I do believe that the larger diameter rollers make a significant difference and I would welcome someone making even larger diameter rollers. Pro mills are typically in the 6" diameter range.

Just wrapped up my first brewday with the new mill.  Set the gap (somewhat arbitrarily) at 0.032".  Gave a nice assortment and again very little in the way of fines or flour,  and ran through very quickly.  I can’t say with certainty there was any effect on efficiency, but lautering went perfectly,  which is a most welcome improvement.  Very pleased,  will heartily recommend this mill to anyone.

A smooth Recirculation/Lauter/Vorlauf seems to be the hallmark of an enjoyable brewday. Cheers!

Yeah, what is that you made me aware of, Darcy’s Law?  I think I got a good demonstration of it!  It was one of those days where everything went right.

Did you use any additional filter medium (such as a Brew Bag), or just rely on the grain husks with a false bottom?  I have gone to .035” with the Bag for HERMS recirc.  I start at a slow draw throttled on the pump outlet (Topsflo 12 v) and after a few minutes I open it up, returning through a Locline Halo submerged just below the wort level.  No stuck mashes and no pulling grain through the false bottom.  Really feel good about the repeatability at this point, too.  My mill is a Schmidling, but if I ever wear it out I would go with that MM2 Pro.

Cheers and enjoy that mill - it sure seems to be a good one.

Old school: mash in kettle, then into round cooler lauter tun with a zero dead space false  bottom with 1/16" holes.  No additional filters.  Grain husks have always been adequate, but it seems the particle assortment and near lack of fines make it easy to run perfectly clear, quickly and start to finish.  I used to have a lengthier vorlauf and intermittent bursts of fines pulling through, particularly as density shifted when the runoff was transitioning from first wort to spargings.  Not sure exactly how this applies to RIMS/HERMS users, but it does indicate improved flow through the bed.  I’ve been trying my best to interpret one data point, and I think I may have bumped efficiency up a minuscule bit.  Even if not, wort quality has still improved. (I used to think I’d lament the passing of the old JSP.  Nope.)

Thought I’d update, a half dozen or so batches in on the new mill.  Strictly speaking, efficiency has not changed.  But the excellent crush I’m getting means I can drain the lauter tun* fully without worrying about the last quart or so running cloudy, and I’m seeing less liquid retained in the spent grain, so wort recovery has improved noticeably.  This has meant I can scale down the mash proportionally, using less grain and water to obtain the same volume of wort into the kettle.  This has me hastily adapting all of my recipes, and quite happy to be doing so.  This MM2 Pro is as good as I’d hoped.  Out of superlatives.

*I run a conventional German style two vessel brewhouse,  mash/boil kettle and separate lauter tun, with a consistent brewhouse efficiency of about 96%.

Man, I’m about ready for a new mill, but I’m trying to wait until the SS brewtech one comes out.

How do you transfer the mash from the mash/boil kettle to the lauter tun?

Just scoop with a pitcher.  I can do it with virtually no splashing, and I don’t have any elaborate equipment to set up and clean up.  Mashing with direct heat in the kettle also gives me the ability to run any mash program, also with no complicated equipment.  I love that.

That’s interesting.  What do you use for a lauter tun?

10 gallon Rubbermaid round cooler with a domed, stainless false bottom.  I’ve extended the center drawoff it came with to within probably less than 1/8" off the bottom, so when fully drained it leaves only about 3 fl oz of liquid behind, as close to zero dead space as I can get.  If all that sounds basic, I also don’t use a fancy ball valve.  I could never come up with a bulkhead that sealed well on a round cooler.  Solution?  A cheap bottling bucket spigot!  Replaced the nut on the back with a stainless reducer, to the barb to connect the draw off.  It takes a couple minutes to wash the tun out with a spray hose.  You may be picking up on a theme in my brewing philosophy…  I like robust.  I like quality.  I like high performance.  I don’t like unnecessary complications, and I like to spend more time brewing and less on equipment management.

Cool.

I’ve been running a pretty simple, no-sparge setup for the last 2 years:  a 10 gallon Spike kettle, a 10 gallon SS Brewtech insulated mash tun, and a Chugger pump.  I can easily perform a hockkurz step mash with it, and I feel it’s enough to make great beer.

I have, however, become interested in the purported benefits of continuous circulation and the ability to run any mash profile I feel like, so I just bought a Unibrau v3, which I plan to use solely as a mash tun.