I recently upgraded from a corona type grain mill to a roller mill bought from The Homebrew Shop in Aldershot. It is listed on their website HERE. I thought I would post a little review in case it helps anyone else looking to buy one.
Anyway here are some pics and my thoughts so far.....
Lets start with a really sexy shot of the box.. :lol:
There is a little bit of assembly needed but nothing too onerous.
A dozen nuts and bolts hold the hopper together.
Roller assembly ready to be fitted to hopper and base.
Hopper attached with two bolts. I had to bend the two flanges up a bit so that the hopper fitted snugly otherwise they would catch on the rollers.
Couple of bolts hold the base to the mill. Here you can see the three plastic feet that help prevent the mill sliding off the container that you use to catch the grain. These could be moved to suit the size of bucket you might want to use.
Handle is bolted on and she is good to go. Apparently it is possible to use a drill or other motor to turn the mill but I probably won't be doing that as exercise is not something that I need less of in my life.. :wink:
I ran some cheap white rice through the mill to help clean the rollers and then this morning I have milled a little grain to get the gap adjusted to where I need it.
The mill sits nicely on top of an old 25l FV. I tried it on one of the wider 30l Youngs buckets and found that the base was a little too small to sit comfortably.
A little grain in...
I don't have any feeler gauges but I had read that some people find that using a credit card gives the right gap width so that is what I tried for the first attempt. As you can see the grain was crushed finely but the hulls were more shredded than I would have liked.
So I adjusted the rollers. The rollers are adjustable from both ends and it is just a case on undoing the wing nuts and turning the knob at each end of roller then tightening it up again. It takes a bit of practice and you need to make sure that the roller turns freely once you have done it but it is a piece of cake really.
I got lucky with the tiny adjustment that I made and the crush was a lot better second time round. Here you can see the hulls are a lot more intact and underneath there was a lot less flour than with the first lot.
So that was it really. I will be using it for a full batch tomorrow morning when I brew my tried and tested Cascadian Dark Ale.
Cheers!
Jim
Anyway here are some pics and my thoughts so far.....
Lets start with a really sexy shot of the box.. :lol:
There is a little bit of assembly needed but nothing too onerous.
A dozen nuts and bolts hold the hopper together.
Roller assembly ready to be fitted to hopper and base.
Hopper attached with two bolts. I had to bend the two flanges up a bit so that the hopper fitted snugly otherwise they would catch on the rollers.
Couple of bolts hold the base to the mill. Here you can see the three plastic feet that help prevent the mill sliding off the container that you use to catch the grain. These could be moved to suit the size of bucket you might want to use.
Handle is bolted on and she is good to go. Apparently it is possible to use a drill or other motor to turn the mill but I probably won't be doing that as exercise is not something that I need less of in my life.. :wink:
I ran some cheap white rice through the mill to help clean the rollers and then this morning I have milled a little grain to get the gap adjusted to where I need it.
The mill sits nicely on top of an old 25l FV. I tried it on one of the wider 30l Youngs buckets and found that the base was a little too small to sit comfortably.
A little grain in...
I don't have any feeler gauges but I had read that some people find that using a credit card gives the right gap width so that is what I tried for the first attempt. As you can see the grain was crushed finely but the hulls were more shredded than I would have liked.
So I adjusted the rollers. The rollers are adjustable from both ends and it is just a case on undoing the wing nuts and turning the knob at each end of roller then tightening it up again. It takes a bit of practice and you need to make sure that the roller turns freely once you have done it but it is a piece of cake really.
I got lucky with the tiny adjustment that I made and the crush was a lot better second time round. Here you can see the hulls are a lot more intact and underneath there was a lot less flour than with the first lot.
So that was it really. I will be using it for a full batch tomorrow morning when I brew my tried and tested Cascadian Dark Ale.
Cheers!
Jim
