Good Bad & The Monkey
I have to adjust the crush fineness every lb or two of grain, but that is no big deal. The price was certainly right, and these are fairly small and compact for storage. It breaks the grains without crushing them, which makes for a bit better mashing. So that is good too.
AND you can use it if you want to make a lambic
I'm running somewhere tomorrow. It's going to be beautiful. I can't wait.
Poor baby
Prince of Fatness
Yeah, I'll have to think about it. The cheapest corona type I found was at Northern Tool of all places. I think it was around $40 or so shipped. The cheapest roller type was the Barley Crusher, $125 shipped. I could buy enough grain to make close to 10 batches with the price difference. I'll have to think about it, I'm not in a big hurry. The LHBS crushes my grains when I get them so this is not stopping me from brewing beer.
Not at it at all.
Former runner
I've been thinking about getting a mill myself. I just bought a couple bulk bags of grain with some friends. Now I have to figure out how I'm going to get it crushed. I don't think the LHBS will be too interested in crushing grain I bought elsewhere. Most of my friends use roller mills.
We used a monster mill for our lambic. They have some basic models if you can make a base and hopper.
Ross
With the Monster Mills you order the hopper separately. By the time you add it up you are pushing $150. The cheapest price I have seen for roller type mill is the Barley Crusher. It comes with either a 7 lb or 15 lb hopper. You can get the 7 lb model for $125 shipped from Austin Homebrew Supply. The nice thing about the BC is that there is no assembly required, and you can take the handle off and use a drill without rigging anything if you are interested in doing that.
I can save 50 cents a pound on 2 row at my LHBS. That's $25 per 50 lb bag. So I would need to go through 250 lbs of grain to pay for the BC, whereas a corona mill it would be less than 100 lbs. I am not afraid to tinker with the thing so I am leaning toward the corona type.
Beer recipes from Popular Mechanics.
I am not afraid to tinker with the thing so I am leaning toward the corona type.
Well wouldn't you know it I just ordered the Barley Crusher. The time was right finance wise to go ahead with it. I have a past history of buying cheap, not being happy with what I got, then buying something more expensive and spending more in the end. So this time I beat myself to the punch.
What have I gotten myself into with this hobby?
Next thing you know you'll be buying one of those march pumps.
Nah, believe it or not I am still trying to keep things simple. I want the crusher so that I can keep some supplies on hand and be able to brew a spur of the moment batch without having to drive to the LHBS. Their yeast and hops are always very fresh, so now that I can crush the grains I'll be able to get supplies a little ahead of time. It's over an hour round trip to the LHBS.
Even if I had the money for some of the other stuff I really don't have the storage space.
Well wouldn't you know it I just ordered the Barley Crusher.
It arrived yesterday just in time for Christmas. Coincidence? I think not.
Lazy idiot
I've read this thread front to back about ten times over the last year or so. And now I'm joining in on the fun.
Tick tock
Kit or all grain? And get pictures.
Like you started last year, first one is kit (I don't quite have all the gear for all grain, and I was too impatient to wait for that to be a reality) with the intention of going all grain ASAP.
First batch (porter) started on Monday night. Yeast pitched yesterday morning, by 11 PM I had bubbling in the airlock. I have a few pictures (I was the only one home), I'll probably load them in the next week or so, once I rack to the carboy.
Nice. Trent will bust your balls for doing a kit but I have no regrets doing it that way. I prefer all grain but the kit was good for getting my feet wet.
I know he'll bust my balls. But I think it's okay as I learn by doing, and this will give me a brief introduction to the boil and fermentation processes before introducing a mash. I'll look into something appropriate for mashing in the coming weeks. My birthday isn't too far away, so I might get/make myself a little present.
There are three things that, while not required, made all grain very easy...
I originally mashed in a 5 gallon pot and sparged using the double bucket method (go to any bakery and you can get food grade buckets for free). I find the cooler much easier.