It looks like our grain mill has finally thrown in the towel. It isn't crushing properly. The board has decided to replace it. We need members who are familiar with grain mills to provide us with some options for purchase. Please post ideas in this thread. The plan is to do this rather quickly, so we'll definitly need peole to pitch in and help.
In the mean time, you can still crush grain with the mill, but will need to do two or three pass throughs.
Monster Mill 3. (https://www.monsterbrewinghardware.com/store/pc/MM-3-p86.htm) It's the Cadillac of home brewer mills. 3 rollers. Never heard a bad thing about it. Perhaps it's worth asking some of our pro brewer brethren about what they use and if it's economical. As we know, we crush more grain than a regular singular homebrewer, so something hardy is in order.
Do not, under any circumstances, think about getting a Barley Crusher.
FWIW, I adjusted the mill to the thinnest setting today and tightened it so it cannot be adjusted otherwise.
This will help with the rollers slipping. I did a double crush today and got my usual 75.5% efficiency on my grain bill. I keep track of this pretty tightly so you can take this with confidence (not that you'll get 75%, but that a double crush will work).
This said - I'm still in board with a new mill.
I have a Monster Mill 2, I have never had any issues with it in 5yrs of ownership. Since then the Monster Mill 3 has come out (a 3 roller Mill). I have friends that swear by the MM3.
--james
So, my thought is, as Kyle mentions above, that we get one that's made for high volume use. Monster Mill offers an option to have the rollers heat treated for an extra $90, which they claim will lead to longer life. I don't know if this is just marketing or a real thing.
I found the standard MM3 on Amazon for $80 less and Prime shipping, so if we decided this is the mill we want, it would be easy to order and fairly inexpensive.
Jeff - that price sounds a little "too good to be true." Can you post the link to that item?
Yep, here you go:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0716FBPNV/?coliid=INHIXZS5BPWL4&colid=1V13CIOK1HACN&psc=0&ref_=lv_ov_lig_dp_it
Reading the description of the Standard MM3: "We do NOT recommend this mill for any commercial operation, brew shop, brewery etc."
I see now they also make a "Pro" version: https://www.monsterbrewinghardware.com/store/pc/MM-3Pro-p104.htm
There's also an option for having a keyed drive (for motor use, such as CHAOS, if I'm understanding correctly).
In the description of the "Pro": "This upgrade is what you want for any mill used in a commercial environment. Brew shops, breweries, and only extremely prolific home brewers with tons of drinking buddies need to look at this option."
With the keyed drive and hea-treated steel, this option would be $409 + shipping.
Then, there is the MM3-Pro-PD which all I think does is add a larger drive shaft to the rollers. This option comes standard with heat-treated steel rollers and is $479 + shipping.
Jeff, that mill is $30 more expensive than on the Monster Mill site (AMZ: $220 vs. MM: $189). Obviously there's a shipping charge, so it might even out. Regardless, it seems we don't want the standard MM3 anyway.
Oh,l I see what happened. I was messing with the options and didn't change it back to the base price. So, it it were entirely up to me, I would go with the MM3-Pro-PD, as it's made to last a long time with a lot of usage. I feel like we would get more for our money in the long run.
What's the cost of just swapping out the current one with the same mill? Not against the Monster Mill by any means, but we should also consider that the current one worked pretty faithfully for a lot of years and use, and there will probably need to be some reconfiguring of the cabinet, whereas just swapping them out would be a 15 minute job. Probably not a huge deal, but not sure.
Rich, I believe the company, Jack Schmidling Productions, that made the current mill is no longer in business. Most of their website is inactive and I can't find their products for sale.
http://schmidling.com/barebone.htm
Guess their stuff lasted too long, so they weren't selling enough of them....the Quality Trap
That thing was a champ, though. We should give it a viking funeral.
For sure, it held up super well. We'll have to create a pyre for it in the back parking lot.
I have a Schmidling Malt Mill and its great. Its non-adjustable, unlike the club's, which has the obvious downside, but the upside is that the gap never ever changes. That thing seems indestrucible. If you wanted to take a look at it and see if it would fit our purpose, let me know.
www.singingboysbrewing.com
Brewed this evening and with a double crush, I was right around my usual 70% brewhouse efficiency. So, it still crushes, but just plug yer ears as it squeals something fierce.