Beer Forum

Thinking of getting a grain mill but don't no much about them. What makes one better than the other? What do I look for? That kind of stuff. Any advice out there?

Thanks

p.s. I tried to post this earlier but forgot to put a subject. Not sure where it went so I appologize if its on here somewhere twice.

There are alot of good grain mills out there. I have one of the less expensive ones, a phil mill I, and have been perfectly happy with it. Mine is only a single roller mill, if I had it to do over again I would probably get a double roller mill. Some things to think about is how easy is it to adjust the gap setting for different malts? Can you hook up a drill or motor to your mill? And of course price. I think for my money I would go with a Crank and Stein mill. They have a package deal that comes with a double roller mill, base, hopper and drill attachment for about $130. A friend that I brew with recently got this same package and it is nice. Check out there site http://www.crankandstein.com/

Hope this helps.

Doug

Thanks Mashman. I read about the Crank and Stein on another post so this is the second time that name came up. I will look into it.

Crap, forgot to log in! That thank you was from me. Thanks again Mashman.

The PhilMill, the Crank and Steir, and the JSP Maltmill are probably the 3 top mills around. I use the PhilMill I that I motorized with a 1/2 electric drill. The thing works great. Any of the above mills will suit you just fine. The one feature you want regardless of the brand is the ability to adjust the rollers. Some models of them above mills come with preset, non-adjustable rollers. You need to be able to control the crush as the malt grains will vary in size depending on what type of malt (e.g., wheat malt has smaller grains than barley malt). Beyond that, any of the roller mills work fine. Just find one in your budget.

The Barleycrusher is also worthy of consideration.

http://www.barleycrusher.com/barleycrusher.php

I have a single roller philmill that I have been very happy with. Mine had a small problem after a couple of uses and it was repaired and returned to me very quickly. It has worked perfectly ever since.

Leon

I use a JSP Malt Mill. I motorized it via Mike Dixon, and it works fine for everything I brew. It's milled about 5 tons of grain so far, & shows no signs of wearing out anytime soon. (I grind the malt for members of my homebrewing club.)