# Kick Ass Hopper Design For A Mashmaster Minimill



## Oakers (15/10/12)

Hey fellas,

My Mashmaster MiniMill arrived today. I'm very pleased with what is a serious piece of kit. Of course there is no hopper supplied (and interestingly no instructions or schematics, but I can work that one out.) I'd like to press it in into action this weekend so I need to fabricate a hopper. The Minmill deserves a blingin hopper so I'm looking for any kick ass hopper designs that fellow MiniMill owners would like to share. I'm happy to fabricate in MDF or similar myself or even contract out a stainless design to the local metal fabricator. Any suggestions welcome.

Cheers,
Oakers.


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## bignath (15/10/12)

Big Ass Hopper (trademark  ) made out of a big water cooler bottle for the win! Piss easy to make up if you have access to a set of hole saw drill bits.

Admittedly, not exactly what you would call "bling" by any stretch, but very effective at holding 4-5kg of grain and guiding it through your rollers.

Awesome mill that one.


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## breakbeer (16/10/12)

I like the acrylic ones they sell seperately, think I'll fabricate one @ work when swmbo gives in & lets me buy a mill


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## Maheel (16/10/12)

made this to test with intentions to make a nice hopper..... still going strong 1yr later ...
using the cupboard contains dust nicley and i just vacuum it out  

it kicks the grains ass.... 

click for the video


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## Malted (16/10/12)

Maheel said:


> it kicks the grains ass....
> 
> click for the video


'Appears' to have more flour than I expected. Is this the case or are my eyes deceiving me? Not poking shit, it's a genuine question.


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## Maheel (16/10/12)

maybe mate i dont really know ?

BIABing anyway so always plenty of stuff in the kettle along with commando hop pellets


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## Amber Fluid (16/10/12)

breakbeer said:


> I like the acrylic ones they sell seperately, think I'll fabricate one @ work when swmbo gives in & lets me buy a mill



Nah, I got one. I liked it at first but they only hold about 1.5kg grain and it broke within 1 or 2 brews. They are really fragile at the bottom where they screw into the mill.

Nevertheless, they are based on Chad's design and you can get a plan for it HERE.

Florian has a pretty good hopper as you can see HERE. Easy design to work with too.


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## beerdrinkingbob (16/10/12)

Malted said:


> 'Appears' to have more flour than I expected. Is this the case or are my eyes deceiving me? Not poking shit, it's a genuine question.



I agree with malted, it looks all flour to me..


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## reVoxAHB (16/10/12)

A few pics of mine: 










Side door for access to gap setting & retaining screw: 























Cheers
reVox


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## Mattress (16/10/12)

reVox said:


> A few pics of mine:
> 
> 
> 
> ...



Now thats just showing off


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## Oakers (16/10/12)

Some nice looking bits of kit and improvisation. ReVox.....Now that's what i'm talking about!!!!! Although I might make do with the water bottle for this weekend that looks like the sort of think I'd like to build in the longer term. Please share more on the build process. It looks like painted MDF. Is that right?


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## Camo6 (16/10/12)

Hey all. Attempting to upload some pics of the hopper for my minimill. Simple MDF and pine construction with some aluminium sandwich board i had floating around. Probably holds about 10 kilo and feeds beautifully. Powered by a wiper motor hooked up to 12v battery which chugs away at a slow and steady 60 rpm. Bit slow but creates bugger all flour and lets me get everything else organised while it mills. Working on a pc power supply and forward/reverse switch but want to keep it all compact and mobile. One of the best additions to my brewery IMO.


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## jlm (16/10/12)

Beers before mash in. The only way to brew.

Edit: Re Revox's mill.


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## reVoxAHB (16/10/12)

Oakers said:


> Some nice looking bits of kit and improvisation. ReVox.....Now that's what i'm talking about!!!!! Although I might make do with the water bottle for this weekend that looks like the sort of think I'd like to build in the longer term. Please share more on the build process. It looks like painted MDF. Is that right?



Cheers. Yep painted MDF. I used silver hammer tone rattle-can paint. Took 2 cans. 

I threaded my build elsewhere. I'll see if I can dig it up and copy and paste here over the next couple of days.


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## alfadog (16/10/12)

slightly.... well... very off topic but how do you guys in Tassie go with getting grain in bulk, I may be moving down and am wondering if I can get good grain down there.

Cheers


Alfadog


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## ratchie (16/10/12)

Filled with 10kg of grain.


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## Oakers (16/10/12)

alfadog said:


> slightly.... well... very off topic but how do you guys in Tassie go with getting grain in bulk, I may be moving down and am wondering if I can get good grain down there.
> 
> Cheers
> 
> ...



I haven't participated yet but there are bulk buys organised through this site. Tas Home Brewing Supplies in Hobart sells a limited variety of grain.


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## Batz (17/10/12)

What's the big deal with large hoppers?

My old Valley mill needs to be topped up a few times to get my average of around 10Kg of grain milled, but so what, I'm usually right there watching it. What do you guys do? Go off and do something else while your grains are milling?


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## gap (17/10/12)

Batz said:


> What's the big deal with large hoppers?
> 
> My old Valley mill needs to be topped up a few times to get my average of around 10Kg of grain milled, but so what, I'm usually right there watching it. What do you guys do? Go off and do something else while your grains are milling?



Your Valley Mill still going strong too Batz. 
Just about the only choice once.


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## ratchie (17/10/12)

I still have to add to my hopper 60Lt batches so about 12kg of grain,I also normally do 2 batches so while the first is being milled I weigh out the grain for the second.


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## Oakers (5/12/12)

Hey all,

Well I thought i'd share my quick and dirty attempt at a hopper, mill and grain bucket set-up. Yeah, you've seen this design before, or at least variants of it....I had the MDF lying around, so all it cost me was $20 for the two buckets, and a few hours labour. I'll admit it's not perfect, but as a temporary measure it gets the mill into action and lets me figure out what sort of mill stand, motorised set-up i'd like to build in the future. You'll notice the sophisticated use of a pair of multi grip pliers as a crank handle! By the time i finished grinding my first kilo I had the arms of Thor. I reckon i'll go and get a new drill this weekend to power it.....One nice feature i discovered using this set up is that I can very easily run the grain through for a couple of passes. I simply grind into one bucket then take the lid and mill and put it straight on the other bucket and pour the partially ground grain back into the hopper.

I BIAB so i gather I can go for a pretty fine grind. I did find that on the gap setting that gives a nice grind it was pretty tough going on the first pass. So i reckon if i go for a 2 pass approach I can set a fairly wide gap for the first pass and then a narrower gap for the second.

Cheers,
Oakers.


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## Amber Fluid (6/12/12)

Nice. Those mills kick arse..... I don't see why you don't just set the gap to suit the final crush and mill it once. This saves stuffing around adjusting it 2 times every time you want to use it. I run it through once at a suitable width to crush to what I want to finish with the same mill but then again I am also using a motor and not the ol' multi grips.


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## Oakers (6/12/12)

Yeah, I think it's the short leverage of the multigrips causing me grief  . Still, it's a good bit of exercise till i motorise.


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## vortex (6/12/12)

Or just put the end in the chuck of a drill.


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## MartsHomeBrew (14/12/12)

vortex said:


> Or just put the end in the chuck of a drill.



I am also in the market for a grain mill preparing to get my first batch of grain. Aside from Crankandstein & Minimill / Monstermill, does anyone own / has anyone used the grain mills being sold by Ubrewit in Albury / Woodonga? It comes with hopper, can see here:

http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/BRAND-NEW-ALUMI...=item3a7c86bdec

I assume it's Made in Australia but unsure. I did not see it mentioned in this thread. Aside from that, could someone tell me where the US models mentioned above be purchased in Australia (Melbourne)? And how about the Barley Crusher Grain Mill as sold in Grain & Grape in Melbourne? Anyone have one of these? (Comes with hopper)

http://www.grainandgrape.com.au/product_in...roducts_id=6992


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## Beerisyummy (14/12/12)

MartsHomeBrew said:


> I am also in the market for a grain mill preparing to get my first batch of grain. Aside from Crankandstein & Minimill / Monstermill, does anyone own / has anyone used the grain mills being sold by Ubrewit in Albury / Woodonga? It comes with hopper, can see here:
> 
> http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/BRAND-NEW-ALUMI...=item3a7c86bdec
> 
> ...



Hi Marts,

I can't say I've used the ubrewit mill but I just recieved a minimill in the mail and can spot a few major differences straight away from the pictures in the ads.
Q's to ask:

Is it geared so both rollers turn?

How long is the thin sheet of alluminium across the front and back going to hold up to torsion over time and is the hopper component needed to compensate?

How long are the tiny screws used to hold the frame together going to last and what are they made of?

The rollers are what type of steel and how long before they rust?

Not to put the product down, but from someone who has spent hundreds of thousands of dosh on tools and equipment over the years, a mill is the kind of tool that should be solid and will retain a fair bit of value if you do decide to sell it later on. Better to save your pennies when it comes to things like the drill(electric not cordless) to power it when you get bored turning the handle.


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## Clevo (7/7/16)

.


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## TheAussieBrewer (7/11/20)

My little weighing and milling area. Wish I made the hopper bigger when I first made it but it has the right proportions for a nice clean look. I do 60L batches too and just top it up 2 or 3 times to mill the ~12kg


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## dkril (7/11/20)

While I concede the looks would suffer, have you considered buying/making an extension for the hopper?













According to monster mill (who make the extensions shown above) theirs can hold 39lb (18.8kg) of malt.


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