There has been a lot of discussion surrounding malt mils and which are suitable for us homebrewers. Until just a few days ago i was using a second hand " corrona " type mill ( the one with the two plates that spin against each other) and noticed a huge drop in efficiency as opposed to using a pre milled grain.
I noticed on another thread here that thehomebrewshop were doing some roller mills, but upon enquiry they said them not willing to send to Norway. I was searching on ebay and found a youtube clip to something called MILLARS MALT MILL version 3! and even though the clip was obviously a marketing idea it awoke enough interest to make me look a little further.
SO, after reading mixed reviews on the net and checking prices of mills here i bit the bullet. I shelled out 85 notes for the actual mill and the postage onto of another 40 and was still well in pocket as regards the ones available here, and seeing as santa had said she had other ideas for my chrissie pressie it was already agreed that i would treat myself:)
SO here cometh a little review with some ( hopefully) ok pictures.
First impressions
Out of the box everything was easilly recognisable, the screws were in a little bag and two allen keys were also supplied.
The first thing i noticed was the weight! the rollers are the single most heaviest bit and with a size of 7 inches they appeared to be really well made. They are proported to have a RC hardness og 55... a friend of ine ( who happens to be a blade maker) tested these and can confirm they are of 55 maybe a tad over. This will mean they will not wear as easilly as the other softer rollers on the market. So far so good.
It also came with a large fine mesh hop bag and a bottle of own brand cleanser. This is proported to be good for all parts of the brewing system but i will leave this for my boiler and the rare time i wash and thouroughly clean the MT etc.
The instructions were very very easy to follow and it took me about 10 minutes to get the entire thing fitted together
Rollers and mount
The hopper was very thin although i do not see this as a major problem. It comes with a plastic coating on the otside that i never notcied til after everything was screwed together. Not that this is an issue either.
Hopper
Inside of hopper
I crushed some grains after i had finished mounting it all together, and used the hand crank that is provided. One thing to note is that if the rollers are already moving then things are a lot easier than if you have the rollers still and a hopper full of malt. With a battery drill life is much easier and the crank spindle is designed to take a drill chuck anyways.
Just after this was done i ground an entire grain bill of around 7.5 kilos in under 2 minutes. Sadly i never managed to get a decent picture of this though.
What can be improved
Well like most things there is always room for imrovement.... and this mill is no different.
The instructions mention a crush setting of o.oo39 to 0.0045 but the gap adjustment settings on the roller are numbered from one to 5. this means that you have to either use a feeler or set the crush by trial and error. I have mine sett on 2 which appears to be fine but i will know more when i run a simpler grain bill and can compare the efficiency with what i got over the last few times 8 with pre milled and also self milled malt)
The hopper is large. Ittakes 4500g in one hit which is great. However if the company used pale malt as a template they coud easilly mark the inside of the hopper with half or whole kilo divisions. This would make simple brews and base malts easier to do rather than having to use a scale the entire time. not a must have by anymeans, but definately a nice to have. For my own point of view i shall be marking the hopper with whole kilo marks at some stage in the future just to make up grain weighing easier 8 especially as a dropped my scales last week and don't know if they still function:))
Overall
To be fair, i have not had the experience of many mills. The corrona type i had been using showed a great drop in efficenecy and was very hard to get a flaoting mash with. The mash consistancy was always strainge with a lot of water above the grain bed. Using pre milled grain gave me a thicker mash and higher efficiency.
This mill also gave me a thicker mash and what appears to be better efficiency 8 hard to tell as there were almost 3 kilos of adjuncts and speciality malts) so i will keep this in mind when i do my next brew in the early part of the new year.
From my standpoint at present there are things on the mill that can be improved but i think this is more a personal thing. A mill that takes 4500g and crushes it well in under 2 minutes is pretty good for the homebrewer. The RC og the knurled rollers will stand ut to what i need it for and the entire thing is built in 316 so should stand the sometimes humid conditions in the garage without too many problems i would think.
For me the price , even with the postage and import costs saved me the best part of 50 notes and delivery too no more than 6 days. It was delivered by fedex and i also got a tracking number the day it was sent. Todd 8 the seller9 was open to my suggestions regarding the marking of the hopper etc and his product is to my mind worth what it cost me and does what it says on the youtube clip.
i hope this is of help to someone at least.
