grain mill for 3 bbl brewery

[CasselBrewery]

We also started with a 328D, was great for first few months then it had to be engage with a screwdriver, it quickly became a PITA.

We bought a Economill fro Apollo and we love it. Fast (even though we have the feed trap almost close!), well built and affordable.

http://www.apollomachineandproducts....ller-mill.html

[kevobutler]

Thanks for the replies.

So it seems that the issues you guys had was with getting the mill to engage?

I was mainly a little more interested in the monster mill because of the hardened steel rollers. Did you notice any significant wear on the rollers of the crankandstein?

[CasselBrewery]

Thanks for the replies.

So it seems that the issues you guys had was with getting the mill to engage?

I was mainly a little more interested in the monster mill because of the hardened steel rollers. Did you notice any significant wear on the rollers of the crankandstein?

Yes the issue was getting the rollers to engage after a few months. The rollers showed no wear cause it didn't had time to wear out

[othevad]

Effort

Hey .

If you want to save yourself some time and effort, I actually recommend having your malt supplier mill your grain on the small scale.
It costs about $2.50 a bag or something and it saves you a good amount of time and effort.
BSG has been pretty good for getting me a crush I want and it's been way better than using a MM. Saves me about 30-45 minutes of labor for minimal money.
Unless you are gonna drop some coin on something bigger anyway

[3guysandabeerd]

crushed grains

we have are milled from BSG med grind it takes and extra day for them to ship to us. but the consistency from them is spot one every time
we started it a small crankandstein lasts us about 8 months got a monster mill 2 roller got a about 1 years or so out of it then we got a 3 roller from them lasted just over a year
all were mounted to a 3/4 hp motor at about 850 rpm
after three mills we just order are crushed saves me time, space, and I cant say it enough the consistency is great
were on a 7bbl system so I order once a month from them

hope this help
cheers matt

[Warrior]

328D gear driven

So has anyone tried the 328D Crankenstein gear driven model?

[IdiomBrewingCo]

So has anyone tried the 328D Crankenstein gear driven model?

Funny, I was about to ask the same thing... I am looking at that, since the gear drives all 3 rollers.

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[IdiomBrewingCo]

I just put together a Crankandstein 328D. You have to build your own stand and hopper and provide your own motor, whole thing cost about $500-600. Since you are building your own stand you can make it any dimension you want to fit in the space you have. I am using it for our 3BBL system, double batching. Crushing your grain in 10-15 minutes sure beats my old homebrew mill which took 30-45 minutes to do the job.

I am crushing 55lb bags in right at 2 minutes so their claim of 25-30 lbs per minute (~1500-1800 lb per hour) is spot on.

http://www.crankandstein.net/index.p...91f1daf8bf6d80

What size motor did you use?

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[jduke]

I was coming to ask about this:
https://www.morebeer.com/products/mo...rain-mill.html

but it looks like the Crankandstein might be the way to go. is this still the best option (or having the supplier mill the grain) for 5bbl with 3 turns a week?

[beerme]

crankandstein has really bad customer service

in my experience, crankandstein customer service is horrible. I would never buy from him again. The 328D 3 roller mill will often not start on it's own and we start it with a piece of wood. Also, the mills wear out and need to be re knurled every so often. I found it easier just to buy a completely new mill. Since i already have it mounted in a box with a motor it is easiest just to replace it with the same kind i already have.

It is basically a toy. it is fine if you make homebrew but if you want to operate a commercial brewery, get a proper mill.

I would recommend buying a used $2000 small mill on the probrewer classifieds. If you are paying $2.50 per bag to get the malting company to crush it, then a 40 bag skid costs you $100. After 20 skids the mill pays for itself.

[saltyturtlebeer]

Didn't want to start a new thread, so what are you guys going with as far as mill's are concerned. I notice some had issues after a year with both the Monster Mill and 328D Crankandstein. I would hope my mill would last longer than a year if i paid $350ish for it!

[tbgallant]

Didn't want to start a new thread, so what are you guys going with as far as mill's are concerned. I notice some had issues after a year with both the Monster Mill and 328D Crankandstein. I would hope my mill would last longer than a year if i paid $350ish for it!

Bumping this question up.. I've been eyeing up either the Monster 2 roller PRO or the 328G (fully driven all 3 rollers) Crankenstein. I have heard bad things about customer service from Crank, but I'm sure most folks wouldn't do all that much better from Monster if their mill is just plain worn out.

I like the idea of all rollers being driven, as it seems the #1 complaint is that when the knurls wear the mills stop pulling in the grain consistently.

Tim

[Sauvage Beverages]

Mm3

We use a Monstermill MM3 with a Milwalkee Super Hole Hog driving it on low speed, around 300 rpm. Works great with the exception that we have to have the mill running prior to adding grains or it will not feed. Don't know why. We opted for the stainless rollers so we could wet mill to help control dust.

[augiedoggy]

Hello,
I have been comparing a lot of these mills and researching reviews and really believe one of the largest issues with the cheaper mills are the use of bronzed bushings instead of real bearings. These seem to get impacted with grain dust and cause the rollers not to turn as easily over time...(The barley crusher was notorious for this in the home brewing world)

I may be crazy but I just bought the cheaper ball bearing version of the mm3 clone mill thats sold as the kegking maltmunchier and the kegco 3 roller mill... I have been using the 2 roller version of this mill for home brewing for years (cereal killer) and the mill has never failed me. Ive never even had to clean it. I drive it with a gear reduction motor and pulleys. (something that cant be done reliably with bushing mills without sidewear)

The fact that the 3 roller kegco/kegking mill uses stainless steel ball bearings and the mill it copies is twice the cost and only uses bushings still surprises me but when comparing them side by side if one didnt know which came from where they would thing the kegco was the better mill...

We do have a number of mills in our arsenal now including the mm3 (non pro) so well see how the $150 kegco hold up. (for some reason the description is incorrect on their site and states it uses oil impregnated bronze bushings but this is not true.)
I realize none of this will help if the non hardened rollers wear down quickly but as we are just starting out We need to conserve funds and make what we have count. my homebrew mill does not look worn yet so well see I guess.