Changes Afoot At Crankandstein

[Thommo]

Some interesting news.

Being the procrastinator that I am, I have been um-ing and ah-ing over which mill to buy, and finally made up my mind. I went to the Crankandstein website to place my order, and found this...

(Following copied/pasted from the website.)

**************************
We have changed manufacturers in an effort to bring you a better product, better availability, and a better value.

Monster Mills are coming soon!


Completely NEW product!!!

Would a completely CNC machined grain mill interest you? Our new mills are being built on modern equipment with state of the art accuracy. They feature:

* 6" long 1.5" diameter rollers
* Superior steel, almost as hard as stainless, "Stressproof"
* Large diameter 303 stainless knobs that are lightly knurled for a positive grip
* Aluminum frames with SAE 841 oil impregnated bronze bushings - long life
* 3/8" axles, larger and stronger than the competition
* precision machined shafts and bearings for an accurate fit
* Integral drive shaft, fine with CW, OR CCW rotation
* 3/8" standard drive shaft, with 1/2" as an upgrade option for motorizatorization

*The new mills should be ready in the middle of this month. As soon as the web site changes are done, we'll be taking pre-orders, at the low introductory price of $99. Pictured below is our pre-production model. As soon as production mills are ready, we'll have the photos updated.

Initially we will only offer a 2 roller model, with 3 roller, base/hoppers, and even larger models on the way in the future. We will also be expanding our product line outside of grain mills. Look for sanke keg conversion kits (mash/HLT, and boil), motorization packages, as well as pumps, and fittings. We've changed our name and our products, but not the friendly customer service, with your satisfaction being of the utmost importance. Its all for the beer!

 

[JasonY]

Hmm sound sweet, I just bought a CGM-3D and its the ducks nuts so I am sure if it is the same mob running the show they will be good. I can't see this one breaking but so I will have to hold off

 

[Jye]

Looks like they are trying to keep up with Mashmaster by increasing the roller size... but still a long way off.

 

[winkle]

*The new mills should be ready in the middle of this month. As soon as the web site changes are done, we'll be taking pre-orders, at the low introductory price of $99.

US $99 and getting cheaper by the day

 

[troydo]

whats the price gonna be on the mashmaster? still says coming soon...

 

[Sammus]

Looks like they are trying to keep up with Mashmaster by increasing the roller size... but still a long way off.

Only made them an inch longer, I would've preferred to see them larger diameter, they didn't even change that though!

 

[sinkas]

Millmaster says MillMaster is designed for professional micro breweries and pro brewers, so I doubt he'll be floggin them off for anything like US$99

Is he getting hopper designed?

 

[BrissyBrew]

Only made them an inch longer, I would've preferred to see them larger diameter, they didn't even change that though!

length will increase crush speed, but it's diameter which is necessary if you want to reduce the ripping knurl down to a friction and textures knurl.

 

[ffrancis]

I wanted to let you guys know what's happened over at CrankandStein recently. Please allow me to introduce myself. I'm Fred Francis. I've been partners with the guy that builds the CrankandStein mill for the last 7 years. I basically ran all of the shipping, marketing, customer service, etc, and the other guy built the mills. Any of you that have a CrankandStein mill now, I packed it, shipped it, and answered your questions before you bought it. I also paid for the web site at CrankandStein.com, and the advertising that we did in BYO (american beer magazine for brewers) out of my own pocket. In the middle of September '07 my partner decided that his mills "sold themselves", and that he no longer needed me. At first, I really hoped that I could use the CrankandStein.com URL to my advantage to sell my own mill, hence the info above. As it turns out, I'm not allowed to do that!

So, to make a long story shorter, I'm now on my own, running a different company, and selling my own design mill. It's called the Monster Mill, and is what is referred to above. I've made several design improvements on my new offering, and I feel like the new mill is a good value. I'm using 6" long 1.5" diameter rollers made out of a higher grade of steel than the competition. The knobs are knurled and of larger diameter for an easier grip. The axles are larger, and are integral to the rollers rather than screwed into the ends. You can run the mill CW, or CCW with no worries. We offer a 1/2" shaft option with 3 flats for an easy grip on a standard drill chuck. I currently have a 3-roller prototype that we're testing, and hope to offer soon. Later, we'll offer a 2" diameter roller model, and bases and hoppers. All of our mills will be CNC machined on modern equipment for the best in repeatability, and accuracy, and are made in the USA. We don't have 69mm rollers, or gears, but we don't cost as much either. TWOC in Bibra Lake, WA plans to pick up our new product, and may make an order soon.

You can check out the review of our new mill on the Brewboard at http://www.brewboard.com/index.php?showtopic=81794 . We're offering the new MM-2 model for sale at http://www.monsterbrewinghardware.com/ . I can be reached at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Looking at some of the home made mills here on your forum, I'm surprised any of you ever needed to buy a commercially built mill. VERY impressive.

Thanks,

~~fred francis
Monster Brewing Hardware

 

[Steve]

Welcome to AHB ffrancis. Love hearing info from the horses mouth. Good luck with your venture.
Cheers
Steve

 

[alexbrand]

Hello mates!


I already bought this MM-2 mill from Fred and have to say (concerning the price they came for to Germany) they are really good! I only had some test crushes durig assembling my mill housing but i am impressed. First I wondered, if the "rough" surface of the rollers are useful. But I think it's a good idea not to have "blank" rollers. I am quite satisfied, yet.

What I do not like is that they turn slightly rusty in a rather short time in my bureau...


Cheers,

Alex

 

[alexbrand]

Hey peers!

Just some additional information:

I had my first crush with my new MM-2 (see above). I've chosen a medium size gap (didn't measure it) and filled the hopper with 5kg of pilsner malt. My old but wounderful 500 Watts B&D electric drill pulled the grain through in 30 secondes. It's a really good crush. I had no problems with the fact that one roller is passive. I only know now that I have to look for a bigger electric motor if I want to motorize the mill than I thought...


Alex

 

[warrenlw63]

A monster just arrived at my door exactly 1 week after ordering. Talk about quick !! B)

Cost was $147 Aus landed. Fantastic price and great looking bit of kit too.

Thanks Fred and I highly recommend him for great service. :super:

Warren -

 

[AndrewQLD]

A monster just arrived at my door exactly 1 week after ordering. Talk about quick !! B)

Cost was $147 Aus landed. Fantastic price and great looking bit of kit too.

Thanks Fred and I highly recommend him for great service. :super:

Warren -

Warren,

I am waiting for mine to arrive, should be here soon. Will you be able to post some pics once you have it set up? And a bit of a critique would be good too.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[warrenlw63]

No worries Andrew. Not allowed to get my grubby paws on it until next week (birthday). I'll most definitely post some pics of the base, hopper and first crush though.

I don't think my poor, partially shagged little Marga is going to forgive me though. :lol:

Warren -

 

[AndrewQLD]

My Monster Mill arrived today :super: no thanks to Aust Post who delivered it to the wrong address. It's a fine piece of kit and a lot chunkier than I thought it would be, compared to my good old Marga anyway. Looking forward to setting this up and running through my first lot of grains.

How's the pictures of your setup going Warren?

Cheers
Andrew

 

[AndrewQLD]

Ran the first 5 kilo of grain through my new monster mill today, this baby requires a bit of grunt to get it rolling when the hopper is full of grain. My 14.4 volt cordless drill wouldn't even turn over and my VERY expensive XU1 corded drill ($19.99) struggle with the massive amount of torque required as well, but 4 kilo of grain crushed in under 1 minute sort of makes up for the 30 seconds of trying to get it rolling.

Fantastic crush with very little flour and the husk was pretty much intact. I was a little concerned my Eff would drop because my marga tended to produce a lot more flour but my eff went up to 86% from 82% for the same recipe.

Overall this is one well made mill that performs exceptionally well and gives a very consistant crush.

Easy to setup and comes with some good instructions on it's use.

At the moment given the great exchange rate, it's very well priced at around AU$147.00 delivered to your door.




Cheers
Andrew

 

[mika]

So you're happy with the overall quality of the mill and the way it's put together, or did you expect low quality from a budget mill ?. I've seen some up close photo's of the thing which made me wonder a bit about it, but then perhaps I'm just being picky for a mill costing only $150.

 

[AndrewQLD]

So you're happy with the overall quality of the mill and the way it's put together, or did you expect low quality from a budget mill ?. I've seen some up close photo's of the thing which made me wonder a bit about it, but then perhaps I'm just being picky for a mill costing only $150.

The quality is fantastic, everything is precision cut and finished well, to be honest, as much as I loved my marga mill there is no comparison as far as quality goes.

The rollers on the Marga are only 3 1/2 inches long compared to 6 inches on the MM, also the rollers on the marga look to be only about 1/2 the diameter of the Monster Mill ones and the deeper knurling pulls the grain through very well.

Technically this is not really a budget mill, it's only the great exchange rate that makes it cheap. A few months ago this would have cost around $200 plus delivered, the same as the smaller Crankandstien and barley crusher.

Cheers
Andrew

 

[Jye]

Fantastic crush with very little flour and the husk was pretty much intact. I was a little concerned my Eff would drop because my marga tended to produce a lot more flour but my eff went up to 86% from 82% for the same recipe.

Did you use feelers to set the same roller gap? and do you plan to reduce the gap for the next batch?