Starting all grain

Buying, building and using brewing equipment and apparatus. Product reviews and questions.

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Monkey Man
Light Lager
Light Lager
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Joined: Sat Mar 17, 2001 1:46 pm
Location: Lincoln, NE, US

Starting all grain

Post by Monkey Man »

I'm switching to all grain. I am debating on whether to get a set or adjustable crush malt mill. What are your thoughts?
Brewer2001
Double IPA
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I don't own a mill but...

Post by Brewer2001 »

Can your supplier mill your grain? If you are new to all grain you probably do not know which you need. If you plan to use a large variety of grains (American 2 row, English 2 row, German, Belgian and specialties) and want a 'tailored' milling for each the adjustable may be worth the money. But for general brewing a fixed may be just as good. I mill my grain at my supplier's store. They have two mills, a general and an old adjustable coffee grinder. Most times I run everything through the general grind mill.
Most brewpubs and micros that have adjustable mills only readjust for specialty brew milling or if their malt spec sheet show that the malt is more or less modified.

It could be worth it if you have the $$$ and like to play. There are a lot of other variables that you should consider first that will produce the desired results. Let me know.

Good brewing....

Tom F
Email: tjflanagan@covad.net
Azorean Brewer
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My $.02 worth

Post by Azorean Brewer »

Good morning, I have been brewing all grain for about a year now, and I have had great luck with a Corona grain mill. This product is shunned by a lot of people but I am on a limited budget, and could not afford the "Primo" high priced products on the market. To my amazement the Corona works great with out "grinding" the hulls, and it is completely adjustable and you can "lock" set it as I have done so that you get consistant mills. I found that if you adjust it out to a pretty good coarse setting and leave it there, you will break the grain and not pulverize the hulls. For $35.00 you won't have to invest big dollars starting out. In the event that you have plenty of disposable income and don't really care how much you spend, go with the high priced units. Hope that this differing opinion helps you out.

Paul.
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KBrau
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JSP MaltMill

Post by KBrau »

I have been brewing all grain for a few years and decided right off the bat to buy a Malt mill. I shopped around for weeks before I decided on the JSP maltmill A (adjustable), which really does the finest job of milling that I have ever seen. The runner up was the Valley mill which also uses rollers to mill the grain. If you are going to brew on a regular basis I would invest the extra $$ in the roller style mill because it will definitly increase your mash efficiency. I will tell you the truth, I have only adjusted my malt mill from its default setting once when brewing a wheat beer. I don't think you really need to buy the adjustable, unless you work a lot with uncommon malts. And even then you can have your home brew shop mill those odd sized grains.
andytv
Double IPA
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JSP Second

Post by andytv »

I have been all-graining for about a year now and until a couple months ago, I used my old corona mill. The problems I had with the corona were as such; 1) too much dust- even when I used washers to expand the coursest setting, I produced too much flour. 2)husk damage - although it doesn't pulverize the husks, it does rip them into little pieces. 3) time... it takes a long time to mill 20+ lbs, eben with a drill attached.

I recently bought the JSP maltmill and have been really happy. The dust problem is solved, the husks are left pretty much intact, and I fly through 20 lbs of grain. Since, our beers have become much clearer a all around easier to make. I did not buy the adjustable mill. The preset is good for most grain types used for home brewing with the exception of wheat. I have run wheat through it anyways and had good results. JSP does a pretty good job of selling their mill design on their website. Check it out.

Andy
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