BeerBorg

In 4 months, my grain mill will be 7 years old. It's been giving me trouble for a few batches and seems to be getting worse. I know it supposedly has a lifetime warranty but just try to get them to answer you. And, I really feel that I got my moneys worth so I may be buying another one. Either the same unit or try my hands at another one. I don't want to go throwing too much money because I must plopped money down for my electric system so, other than the uber expensive ones, which one do you have and would you recommend it?

Beer-lord wrote:In 4 months, my grain mill will be 7 years old. It's been giving me trouble for a few batches and seems to be getting worse.

I would guess BL you have put a lot of grain though it in the seven years. really only two things can happen to them. The knurling on the rollers ware down or the bushings get worn out. both could be fixed with a lathe. But unless you have one or know a friend that does, it would probably cost more then a new one. I have two one I built and one I bought. the boughten one I got from my LHBS was only a little over a hundred. it is a cheap one but works good. I run that one with a drill, my other one I have a motor on. My boughten one http://www.thevintageshop.ca/products/t ... -mill.html

I've got two.

One is a mill that fits on a kitchen aid mixer. It can only handle a small amount at a time, but gives a really uniform crush and can be set to the point where you can mill flour with it (I suppose a barley crusher might be able to do flour, but I think it would be tough to get it that fine).

The other is a Cereal Killer. It looks pretty similar to a Barley Crusher. It does ok, but seems to have trouble with raw wheat, which is much smaller and harder than malted barley. Since it's unlikely that you're using raw wheat, it should work fine for you. I only use raw wheat because I get it in big buckets )that become extra fermenters when they're empty) for about 30c/lb at Costco. I use it in cooking as well.

The Cereal Killer is likely the least expensive one but I went to a number of sites and it gets the least good reviews. It gets good reviews but not as many as others. Really the best ones have those hard steel rollers but I'm not a pro brewery so I really don't need the best.
I may try to reverse the rollers on these and get more time out of it and wait until Christmas sales are on.

Replaced my POS BC with a $99 Cereal Killer about a year ago.

Unlike the BC ... the gap is easy to adjust with two thumb screws.
Base is thin with the short ... small diameter pegs to stabilize the mill on the bucket.
Handle wasn't bored large enough to fit the spindle. I attach a drill so it didn't mater.

I grind ~150# / yr.
Decent mill for my purposes.

Replaced my BC with one of these. Wish I'd done this years ago.

The 2 or the 3? Actually both are almost overkill but MM3 is definitely not needed, IMO, on the homebrew level.
The 2 gets very good reviews but yowza, it ain't cheap. You could go to Disney for 2 days! Imagine how many pounds of hops I could buy.
I'm going to see if I can make mine last a bit longer and hold out for some kind of sale.

Cereal Killer here for about 3 years now, love it. Only problem I had was the gap opening and was because I didn't lock down jam nuts.

Yup...happened once to me too on my Cereal Killer Steve. Operator error, nothing wrong with the mill at all. I love mine. I use a drill and it chews right through the grain.

I use......my LHBS. Sorry, nothing to add here.

Mines the 2 roller mill. It's a beast that weights twice as much as the BC it replaced. I up graded to the hardened rollers because that's how I roll.