Good quality malt mill? - How much we need to spend to not get ripped off by poor quality products?

[gyurmaember]

I want to express my disappointment in an another well known homebrew brand. After about 15 brews my bulldog malt mill started to sticking, when I finished milling, I've noticed some metal shavings, disassembled it, and realised the cog wheels were assembled completely dry. And the bearings already have a play.
My question is how much we need to spend to get quality equipment?

 

[Clint]

How long you had it? Send it back!

 

[An Ankoù]

I got a Grain Gorilla (£89 from Geterbrewed). Had no trouble with it at all, but I use the hand crank. Perhaps if I used an electric grill it might produce the same effect as the OP's

 

[IainM]

I want to express my disappointment in an another well known homebrew brand. After about 15 brews my bulldog malt mill started to sticking, when I finished milling, I've noticed some metal shavings, disassembled it, and realised the cog wheels were assembled completely dry. And the bearings already have a play.
My question is how much we need to spend to get quality equipment?

Sounds like a manufacturing error. I've got the same one and it's been going strong for years. Contact Hambleton Bard. In my experience their customer service is pretty good.

 

[gyurmaember]

Thank you, I'll do that, but I can't remember where is it came from, therefore I can't find the receipt in my emails, but I'm working on it.

 

[MickDundee]

I wasn’t a massive fan of my Bulldog, I found it difficult to set the gap and I overused my drill on it so the rollers moved about. It cost me about £50 though so I can’t complain too much.

I was treated to one of the new electric Grainfather mills for my birthday and it’s night and day, I love it!

 

[xozzx]

I was treated to one of the new electric Grainfather mills for my birthday and it’s night and day, I love it!

Ive been trying to find one of these in stock for ages. I read some reviews and watched a few youtube videos about it and decided a while ago to buy it but thought I may as well wait until I put in my next ingredients order... now Ive been checking for about 3-4 weeks and no where has it in stock.

 

[MickDundee]

Ive been trying to find one of these in stock for ages. I read some reviews and watched a few youtube videos about it and decided a while ago to buy it but thought I may as well wait until I put in my next ingredients order... now Ive been checking for about 3-4 weeks and no where has it in stock.

I’m quite lucky that my birthday was about a week and a half after the release so I ordered it as soon as Malt Miller had them available to order.

I was struggling to even hit 70% with my Bulldog mill, even after I got my BrewDevil - I hit 72% with a no-sparge brew at the weekend with my Grainfather mill.

 

[Oneflewover]

I've got a Barley Crusher, got it half price in a Black Friday deal a few years ago. It's been fine, nothing to write home about, but seems solidly built - seen quite a bit of action and still going strong.

 

[xozzx]

I was struggling to even hit 70% with my Bulldog mill, even after I got my BrewDevil - I hit 72% with a no-sparge brew at the weekend with my Grainfather mill.

I don't think I've read a single bad reviews on this mill. I was concerned at first about the very small hopper as I sometimes brew with upto 15kg malt but it looks like it just powers through it so I can just keep topping up.
I saw that the maximum is 10kg malt at a time but it only needs 3 minutes to cool after this then can start again, Id probably just mill half then take a 30 min break and mill the rest to make sure not to burn it out.

 

[darkbright]

I don't think I've read a single bad reviews on this mill. I was concerned at first about the very small hopper as I sometimes brew with upto 15kg malt but it looks like it just powers through it so I can just keep topping up.
I saw that the maximum is 10kg malt at a time but it only needs 3 minutes to cool after this then can start again, Id probably just mill half then take a 30 min break and mill the rest to make sure not to burn it out.

Thumbs up from me too. Great mill.

 

[dcbrookes]

I had a three roller mill from MM which worked well but was heavy to move and large to store. I now have the GF Electric mill and I love it: for my last brew I milled some Hook Head lager and Weyermann's carapils on the 5 setting, speed 4 and got 83% efficiency from my BZ. What's not to like? (apart from the price of the GF in the first place).

 

[Wynne]

I had a three roller mill from MM which worked well but was heavy to move and large to store. I now have the GF Electric mill and I love it: for my last brew I milled some Hook Head lager and Weyermann's carapils on the 5 setting, speed 4 and got 83% efficiency from my BZ. What's not to like? (apart from the price of the GF in the first place).

 

[Wynne]

I have the same 3 roller mill from MM and I’m looking to motorise it but I’m not keen on using a drill. Any suggestions for a motor that will turn it at around 180 rpm?

 

[Druncan]

Anyone tried this with a drill? - £52.99!!!!
https://vevor.co.uk/products/grain-...40-EcFfEoeqX3WSNKt3WeUTFsYQ_-BDhoCWrcQAvD_BwE

 

[scomet]

My 3rd and last mill is a fluted and geared mill from MashMaster and its worth every cent and has a hopper for ~$60, Im sure if you hunt around on the interwebs You'll find a good price, run mine of a Ryobi cordless np.

http://www.mashmaster.com/p/4571858/millmaster-grain-mill.html

 

[BarnBrian]

I have the same 3 roller mill from MM and I’m looking to motorise it but I’m not keen on using a drill. Any suggestions for a motor that will turn it at around 180 rpm?

I've been using a rechargeable drill on mine for over two years only takes a few minutes to do around 5kg, a hell of a lot easier than using the hand crank.

 

[Dorst]

I had the same issue with the Bulldog malt mill and I hated it.

Since malts never come pre-milled in The Netherlands I decided to splurge a bit and go for MattMill Master. They run about 250 euro (210 GBP) which admittedly is quite expensive. I do convince myself that buying my base malts in bulk (25kg) saves me quite some money and it will pay for itself in the longer run..

You do feel the difference in quality immediately though, especially when using a crank to hand mill. You could use a drill to power it but the hand crank runs so smoothly and my grain bills tend to under 6 kilos most often that I stick with handmilling. I can recommend this mill if you want to buy a high quality mill that will last you for a long time.

 

[An Ankoù]

I had the same issue with the Bulldog malt mill and I hated it.

Since malts never come pre-milled in The Netherlands I decided to splurge a bit and go for MattMill Master. They run about 250 euro (210 GBP) which admittedly is quite expensive. I do convince myself that buying my base malts in bulk (25kg) saves me quite some money and it will pay for itself in the longer run..

You do feel the difference in quality immediately though, especially when using a crank to hand mill. You could use a drill to power it but the hand crank runs so smoothly and my grain bills tend to under 6 kilos most often that I stick with handmilling. I can recommend this mill if you want to buy a high quality mill that will last you for a long time.

View attachment 56059

It looks a lovely bit of kit.
I, too, have noticed that once I've decided to have something- affordable or not-needed or not- I can always find a number of irrefutable arguments to support why I couldn't possibly do without it!

 

[dv12]

I spent £99 on my Bulldog mill from geb last year. Can't say I rate it at all. The rollers are not centred, so they oscillate. Impossible to set a gap because they are +- a mill on every rotation. Build quality is just crap for the price. If it was £40 I would still think the price a bit steep.