Crop Duster Grain Mill

When moving to all-grain brewing, I found that milling at the LHBS doubled my shopping time, especially when shopping for multiple brews. Now I can duck in and get my grain, and mill my batches as I use them. This mill is very adjustable and easy to use with a drill. I will say that the instructions are hilariously written, possibly translated through multiple languages. Not a big deal, get this mill!

This is my first grain mill, so the problem might have been user-error. Used it yesterday to mill 25lbs of 2-row, and the grain would not fall through to the rollers...I had to constantly agitate the grain in the hopper in order to get it to fall. The grain was dry. It seems like the bottom of the hopper is too flat, and clogs easily. I read another review on this site that mentioned the same problem, and I will be following their recommendation to bend the bottom metal on the hopper. Once the grain was manually pushed through the hopper, the sturdy rollers easily and efficiently crushed the grains, so it seems like the hopper is my problem. The weight of the drill made the mill unstable, so I will be working on mounting it to a board at 5-gallon bucket height. The rubber edge comes off easily...I removed it half way through the mill session.

I now buy unmilled 5gal kits and mill right before brewing. This mill works great for me.

This mill has increased my efficiency quite well. I used the hand crank and had some small issues milling, but agitating the malt with my hand while itís in the hopper, it ran smoothly. Iíll be using it with less malt and with a drill on my second go around. Overall itís a great mill for the price. I got it on sale and Iíve got no complaints. Pushed the limits and it handled reasonably. I look forward to my future batches. 4 stars as assembled, with modifications it can easily be a 5.

The short version: I was hesitant to purchase a mill, but don't regret it at all and recommend it for other brewers breaking through the beginner stage. Long version: This is the second mill I've ever used, the first being my LHBS mill, and I am quite happy with my purchase! I agree with the rest of the reviews about instructions, they're basically worthless, but assembly was pretty straight forward, with very little to get wrong. I figure if you're brewing your own beer, you probably like to make things and shouldn't have much of a problem. I pealed the inside protective coating off of the hopper pieces, but left the outside, it's a bit of a pain and figure the outside doesn't matter. On brew day, I was able to quickly adjust my crush by starting in the middle and doing a handful of grain at a time until it was a little more fine than were I thought the LHBS crush was. Adjustment is easy, loosen the thumb screws on both sides, turn the adjustment dials, tighten thumb screws, done. I used my cordless drill to eat through my 11lb grain bill in a few minutes, took 3 refills though. I may get or make a hopper extension at some point. This was an experiment for me, I wasn't sure how badly I wanted to go bulk. Seems it would take a year or two to hit the ROI at the rate I brew. But, now realize it's not exactly for cost savings. While, I can buy a bag or two of base malt and save a few bucks, I can have my base malt, then over buy whatever I'm brewing with from there, it just gives me so much flexibility for brew day and sets me up to potentially brew without dealing with the local shop hours. I change my recipe frequently before that strike water is up to temp. I also don't have to wait in line at the LHBS and pick up chocolate malt dust in my APA grain anymore, lol!