AHB Articles: What is a grain mill to purchase??

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

benno1973

Beer Idiot
Joined
10/8/06
Messages
1,730
Reaction score
112
Sorry, didn't mean to create a discussion topic for this, just clicked on the worng button. Was actually a bit curious to see if anyone had answered this guys question. Anyhoo, back to the forum...

Well, actually, seeing as I was the idiot that clicked on the button, I guess I can provide some sort of information, regardless of how useful or based on fact it is.

Grain Mills go from around $60 up to thousands of dollars.

Corona mills are the bottom end of the market, and your cheapest option. They have a relatively small hopper, but if you're planning on doing partials, this may not be such a big issue depending on how much grain you want to crush. They are adjustable, and you can get a good crush from them.

Marga Mills are the next grade up, at around $140. These are a 3-roller mill, and rollers are preferred over grinding discs for crush consistency. I own one of these, and to be honest, the major benefit it has over the corona mill is that it takes less effort to crush the grain. They also come with a small hopper, but you can make your own and there's threads on here about how to adjust the Marga for the best crush.

After that, you start looking at bigger mills, like the barley crusher, Monster Mill, Crankandstein, Mill master etc etc. in the $200-400 range There's loads of threads on here that talk about the pros and the cons, and I won't regurgitate what they say. Try doing a search like this.

Hope this is helpful
 
Corona mills are the bottom end of the market, and your cheapest option. They have a relatively small hopper, but if you're planning on doing partials, this may not be such a big issue depending on how much grain you want to crush. They are adjustable, and you can get a good crush from them.

Good information but to add: if you've got the willingness for putting in a bit of physical work, a corona can do whatever you want.

I regularly crack 6+kg and it takes around 30 mins or less (no drill - all by hand). I have done three brews in one day which was around 18-19 kg, a brewing friend did 20 kg on it a couple of weeks ago and has also previously crushed the grain for an imperial stout (around 10+ kg from memory) so they are definitely good for doing more than partials. With a bit of inventiveness you can modify/add to the hopper (although the full hopper is very close to an exact kilo of most grains).

Just don't ever wash it, let it get wet or condition your malt. Brush it clean after use.
 
Hey Manticle, where'd you get your corona from? Thinkin about getting one for myself.

Cheers
 
A few of us got Monster Mills for $150 delivered to oz. Mind you this was when the dollar was around 93c!

A seriously good mill for the price ... pay extra for a handle or run it with a drill.

Made myself a timber hopper and it crushes 5kg in no time.
 
Hey Manticle, where'd you get your corona from? Thinkin about getting one for myself.

Cheers

Ebay - around $50 AUD = minimal postage (probably 10ish dollars) so it was a local guy.

Availability unreliable though. I have seen them and variations avaiable from retailers for much more but obviously if you want to spend bigger then some of the other options might be better. If you can find it for under $100 then definitely go for it. If it starts to push too far over, look at some of the other options.
 
Hey Manticle, where'd you get your corona from? Thinkin about getting one for myself.

Cheers


hi goldy,

i bought one from the brewerschoice guys at wacol brand new $40 (no affiliation). it was just lying around, something they had but just never sold...score! dont know if they have another one (dont think they do) but they did have a shop one that as far as i know isnt used anymore. i finally pulled my finger out and used it for the first time today, did a 5.5kg grain bill, didnt time it but if it was more than 20 min i'd be surprised! i'm a fat lazy prick and would have been bitchin my tits off if it took too long.

cheers
matt
 
+1 on the monster mill and cheers to 4star who ran the bb.
 
+1 on the monster mill and cheers to 4star who ran the bb.

Thumbs up on that one as well for me. Was lucky enough to get my hands on the last one after someone else pulled out.
 
Monster mill was purchased here for just a shade over $100 landed a couple years back. They were 'factory seconds', all that was wrong was some double-knurling on one of the rollers. Check the Monster website for any of these offers.

Went halves in postage with Kram. Extremely happy with my purchase

Cheers
 
Inquiring at the moment on buying a "Barley Crusher Malt Mill" from USA. A mate of mine has one, and is very happy.
With currency conversion, it's looking at being $225 delivered to my door. So save about $50 from buying in Aus.
Cheers, John.
 
I know this thread is old but was thinking about purchasing a Monster 3.2. I was thinking about buying the crank handle but have read this is hard work. I'm not really a handyman and know nothing about drills, can anybody recommend a decent cheap drill to operate the Monster Mill?
 
I know this thread is old but was thinking about purchasing a Monster 3.2. I was thinking about buying the crank handle but have read this is hard work. I'm not really a handyman and know nothing about drills, can anybody recommend a decent cheap drill to operate the Monster Mill?


I use an Ozito Drill:

http://www.bunnings.com.au/products_produc...randname--Ozito

Has heaps of power for milling slowly an only costs $90. No modifications needed to the drill or the mill, I guess just keep the size of the drill in mind when building a hopper (if your building one).

I didn't mount mine, I just hold it by hand and mill that way. It only takes a few mins to do 10kg, and mounting it with my setup would be pratical. The drill does have some threaded holes for mounting handles so I thing you could use them if you wanted to.

The other option, and I did this before I got the drill, is to use a pair of Vise-Grips to rotate the mill. Takes about 10x as much time but gets the job done. It will scuff up the mill shaft however...
 
I use a "Taurus" from Aldi, cheap as chips @ about $50, you want one that has plenty of torque at low RPM or you will burn it out (as I did) I think Kev has a similar Ozitto drill, you want one that has the little dial on the trigger so you can set it to the speed you want.

Stay away from using a battery drill, a PITA as the bloody batteries invariably die half way through the grist and then you burn out the power drill trying to finish it off <_<

I set mine mill up on my MT and mill directly into it with a wooden jig to hold the drill so it's all hands free.

ed: piccie

Drill.JPG
 
Just bought the Ozito drill yesterday. Great drill for $90....Variable speed, heaps of torque. You can't go wrong.
 
I use the Mashmaster mini and crank by hand, I don't find it difficult at all...takes about 5 minutes and you've earn't a beer by the end! I might add I crush at about 1.3mm.

I did once have a look around at drills but the "rpm" I felt on most was too high (for my system anyhow - I didn't want to go over 200rpm). But having said that, a little more "flour" in with your crush may not be a problem.
 
Likewise the Ozito. Don't be tempted to skimp and buy a cheaper version, for mills you need a tradie strength tool.
 
Cheers guys, i reckon i'll go for the Ozito.

What RPM would you recommend?
 
I dial mine down to the lowest speed it will go without stopping.

It seems like on mine that full trigger goes full speed no matter what the setting, so you have to practice half-holding the trigger to get it to go nice and slow.
 
it'll become evident when you start to use it, not too fast not too slow, it depends on a few factors like mill gap setting - load on the drill - even type of mill I expect... there is likely be a sweet spot.

At the end of the day let the crush decide. There is pretty much one sweet spot fro my drill, 3 clicks from stop, 2 clicks and it can be too slow and 4 clicks is too fast.

:icon_cheers:
 
I've got that Ozito high-torque one too. Does the job well, as others have said you just need to find the optimum speed. Just fast enough that it will run the mill without jamming, no faster.
Only problem I have with the Mashmaster mill, having a round shaft with no "flat" part, the chuck of the drill doesn't grip it that well and it can slip. I have to tighten the chuck two or three times while doing a 4-5kg grain bill.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top