Malt mill from brewuk - any good?

[Dave S]

If you're still thinking of buying this, BrewSmarter are selling it for £39.95. It's identical.

Excellent. Cheers Dave.

It's amazingly how much prices can vary from one supplier to another.

[Manx Guy]

Do you guys whom have used a mill get an improved fresher taste to your beers?

Well the answers seem to suggest its worth it so I bought one!
Got the postage down by ordering more than £65.00

Got a couple of bits like new fermenters, sanitiser/cleaners (stuff you cant have too much of...)
etc.
Looking forward to trying it !


Guy

[zgoda]

With a crusher you can stock more grain, uncrushed takes much less space.

[Naich]

Got one on order from Brewsmarter now. I think one more brew from the one year old bag (lots of hops to compensate for any malt deficiencies), and then I'll chuck the rest and start crushing my own. There's nothing like the childish thrill of the anticipation of the arrival of a new bit of brewing kit

[TheFlatulentCow]

I got mine from The homebrew shop for £22.56 http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/aca ... ZE0QbWR9J4 when it turned up it was branded as Brewferm on the box (corona on the mill) and looked exactly the same as the one pictured on the first post. It even came with some spacing washers. I've only used it twice an the crush was a bit too fine for my liking. Tried to get it course but too many uncrushed grains were getting through. I'm sure there is a knack to it though.

[seymour]

...when it turned up it was branded as Brewferm on the box (corona on the mill) and looked exactly the same as the one pictured on the first post...

Yeah, I bet that despite the name it's marketed under, every single one of these are identical (except that some include a larger after-market hopper), because if you think about it, we're talking about a very old-fashioned die-cast-iron machine, there aren't many plants still making stuff like that. This is definitely a niche product, and the huge start-up costs to design and fabricate a new mold wouldn't be worthwhile. So in that sense, they're all "Corona mills."

...I've only used it twice an the crush was a bit too fine for my liking. Tried to get it course but too many uncrushed grains were getting through. I'm sure there is a knack to it though.

Yeah, you have to fiddle with it a bit, checking and then slightly tightening or loosening as you go, but I've found that to be the case with very expensive motorized mills as well. It's not hard to master. You'll see, your mash efficiency will the same or better than ever.

[zgoda]

Just observe the crush, it has to be at most 2 mm diameter, the smaller the better but watch out, if it'll be too small you'd get stuck sparge. Some flour is ok, I'd say up to 30-35%. Soon you will know these 2 settings that produce best crush, larger gap for barley malts and smaller for black/choc and wheat.

[barney]

As brewers we know that you have to learn how to use each piece of equipment and be patient in an effort to get the best results from our kit. Malt mills are no exception, perseverance will reward you generously.

[Cazamodo]

I ordered one from thbs a while ahgoand finally took it out to use it today. Wasnt too happy. The hopper was bent and didn't fit, and the stationary grinding plate is stuck at an angle. It turns out the holes where its screwed on don't match up to the ones on the main body. Luckily I had the tools to make the holes latger so atter much messing around the plate stits flat. However I'm still having trouble setting it. It seems its still not even as if I tghten it one side is powder and the oither coarse or if I loosen it one sides coarse and 5he other is still whole.

Anyone else have issue? I can't complain cause it was rather cheap and I would rathr try to adjust this oe to work than look for another!

[Naich]

Just thought I'd pop back in to post about my experience with this, having just used it for the first time. Overall, the build quality is pretty poor, with a bit of jiggling required here and there to get it all to fit together. As Cazamodo says, the grinding plate isn't flat to the stationary one, but this actually is a good thing because with about 10 minutes of fiddling with the plate spacing, you can get a reasonable mix of fine and coarse grains coming out at the same time. I haven't brewed with it yet, but what is coming out seems to look about right. You get some whole grains popping out, but I don't think it's so many that it'll not work for brewing.