Maybe time to take the next step with the homebrew gear.

So the big advantage of the three roller mill is that it feeds consistently. Some two roller mills cannot draw in grain well, the kernels bounce atop the roller gap, particularly with smaller gaps. This can be overcome, but on a larger scale brewers just don't need the troubles.
 
I can see where it may seem a little redundant to grind twice, but I've also been around mills and stuff long enough between living on a farm as a kid as well as in my career as an engineer to know that rolls flex, even if they are high quality steel. They either flex, or they break. Some grains are harder than other grains, without a doubt, and what goes through the middle of the rollers may not get crushed quite as fine as what goes through the ends near the bearings. Anything that was cracked enough make it through should just fall through leaving only what needs another 'bite' to crack it. Can't see it making much more flour.
I went from a two roll to a 3 roll and would do it again! I grind once and move into the next step. Not to mention, it just crushes better (based on what I had for a 2 roll mill).
 
So the big advantage of the three roller mill is that it feeds consistently. Some two roller mills cannot draw in grain well, the kernels bounce atop the roller gap, particularly with smaller gaps. This can be overcome, but on a larger scale brewers just don't need the troubles.
Exactly! My two roll mill would struggle at the gap I wanted - irking me the whole time. When I switched to a 3 roll mill, I never had issues and ended up saving myself time a frustration. - I'm not a pro but still certainly don't need the trouble. :)
 
Yeah, the Brewzilla is one of the options I'm considering. I've got 220 out here in the shop, so just a matter of adding a receptacle.

Not sure how I'm going to answer 2-roll versus 3-roll unless someone out there has had both and can give me some idea if there's ANY real difference. 2-roll seems to be most common, but I've seen some 3-roll stuff around the same price range. I'm of the school of thought that all a 3-roll can do is crush twice (two of the rollers will always be pushing into the gap). Crushed grain is only gonna come out between one pair, so at max, a double crush in one step. Not sure that's a huge gain considering @Zambezi Special 's reply. Two buckets will be required whether 2-roll or 3-roll. I do 5 gallon batches, so I'm guessing nearly double the time she said to double crush. Looks like a 2-roll is the direction to go. So maybe I CAN answer the question. o_O
I have a 2 plate grinder I used on corn. I set the gap right and locked it down for malt and it does a fine job without trashing the hulls too bad, I have zero issues with my mash draining. It's rated for 650 pounds an hour to make fine cornmeal so it rips through the malt. 30 pounds in 2 minutes. Still works, still makes beer, no issues with efficiency. Point is, just find something that will work. If you BIAB you don't need to worry about hulls unless you are using a lot of cereals like wheat, oats, and corn and then you can just add rice hulls to help things drain faster.
 
@RoadRoach
When I started all grain brewing in 1980 the person at my LHBS said hey you know you’re paying $.10 more per pound to have me mill the grain why don’t you get yourself a corona mill.
Back then it was about $15 for the mill I was going to get 10 pounds milled almost every week, so he said get a 55 pound sack of grain and a Corona mill and you’ll save money after about three sacks. Back then the only mill options were very expensive about $400.00, so in today’s market about the price of the new Spike mill .

I used corona mill for a long time until 2roller mills were about $250 and got one, gave my corona mill to a new homebrewer, he still uses it.

I guess the lesson I am trying to part is that you can do whatever you want with a cheap mill or an expensive mill. If you were going to do BIAB then the crush is not an issue you can go as fine as you want to almost flour . But you can still dial in the corona mill to recirculation three vessel brewing if you want.
But if you were looking for the typical AIO device you will want your crush to be more course so you do not have flour hitting the bottom of the device and tripping the circuit breaker within the device because the element has overheated. Ask me how I know
I am currently on my second two roller mill, man I do miss my Corona mill.
 
Whatever you wish to do my advice is to spend your money on the fermentations side. It was the best investment I ever made
Me too. Temp control and ability to purge kegs did more for me than most other improvements. Keeping fermentation cool helps allot with clean beers and is required if you do lagers

A mill is nice for efficiency and ability to store bulk grain.
 
I Milled my grains for years in a thermomix.

I bought a mill 2 years or so ago and I don't know why I didn't do so earlier.

I just feel it's one of them must haves in hombrewing like a hydrometer you use em every Brew day...
 
A little late to the party on this one I guess, but. I have had 2 mills.

First a "Hullwrecker" 2 roller from Northern Brewer, set the gap a credit card width(about 35) and normally ran one pass. After a few years it started not pulling the gain through quite as good(could be I was turning it too fast with the M18)

Replaced that with a Crank and Stein 3GT fully gear driven 3 roller, running it with a 1/2hp electric motor and a 10:1 reduction gearbox to spin it at 172.5 rpm. Probably major overkill, but my efficiency is a little better and I tend to overbuild things anyway.
 
A little late to the party on this one I guess, but. I have had 2 mills.

First a "Hullwrecker" 2 roller from Northern Brewer, set the gap a credit card width(about 35) and normally ran one pass. After a few years it started not pulling the gain through quite as good(could be I was turning it too fast with the M18)

Replaced that with a Crank and Stein 3GT fully gear driven 3 roller, running it with a 1/2hp electric motor and a 10:1 reduction gearbox to spin it at 172.5 rpm. Probably major overkill, but my efficiency is a little better and I tend to overbuild things anyway.
Plus it's more fun :D
 
My LHBS has raised pricing some on recipe kits, probably to the point where it's time to consider bulk buying of ingredients and a little more equipment. Any advice will be greatly appreciated. Last two recipes cost me nearly $100. I can buy a lotta craft beer for $100.

1. How much malt should I possibly stock, for average brewing cycles of 1-2 brews per month? 5 gallon batches, normally with about 6-8 lbs of base malt per brew.

2. Malt mill recommendations: 2-roller, 3-roller, or grist type mill. What's your preference, and why? I see different pros and cons in each type, but am leaning towards the roller type because of the destruction of the chaff by grist type mills. I've got a feeling that would more easily release tannins while mashing, where otherwise whole husks would not, and would act as a better filter.

3. New mash tun, with false bottom, maybe even electric so I can better control mashing temperature and avoid stuck mashe. Recommendations? Maybe something I can use later when/if I decide to switch to BIAB processes.

I know the initial costs will take a while to recover but can't help thinking buying base malts in bulk and grinding them myself would be smarter and less expensive, and then just ordering specialty malts as I need them. I should probably consider getting some hops and yeast stocks too, though buying that fresh is typically a good idea, too.


Uline has 6.5 gal screwtop food grade buckets that are what I use. 2 buckets will hold 1 55lb bag of grain. Each bucket is about $20 with the lid. They are really good. I have used them at other breweries for years and I currently have about 30 of them on hand.

I would get a bag of 2 row and pick your other most used grains maybe 2 or 3 total bags. If you get 10 total buckets you could store 5 different types of grain.

Hops are harder, we buy 11# boxes but we are on a different scale. Unopened bags of hops last a long time. The other option is to buy larger quantities of hops with a group of people and maybe each get 2#s out of the 11. Break it up and vacuum seal it in half pound increments and toss them into the freezer.

Dry yeast generally has a pretty long shelf life if it is stored properly.

We used a little monster mill with a drill at my old brewery for our pilot system. i currently use a big Blichmann mill that is awesome. 2 roller mill is fine. The big mill at my old brewery(30bbl batch size filling 60s, 90s, and 120s) was a large 2 roller.
 
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Uline has 6.5 gal screwtop food grade buckets that are what I use. 2 buckets will hold 1 55lb bag of grain. Each bucket is about $20 with the lid. They are really good.

I would get a bag of 2 row and pick your other most used grains maybe 2 or 3 total bags. If you get 10 total buckets you could store 5 different types of grain.

Hops are harder, we buy 11# boxes but we are on a different scale. Unopened bags of hops last a long time. The other option is to buy larger quantities of hops with a group of people and maybe each get 2#s out of the 11. Break it up and vacuum seal it in half pound increments and toss them into the freezer.

Dry yeast generally has a pretty long shelf life if it is stored properly.
I like this idea. We bought a vacuum storage thingy a few years ago when we decided to try our hand at some homemade sausage so we could keep freezer burn to a minimum. That should work beautifully for hops.

I typically keep my dry yeast in the fridge door, just so it's where I can find it, and to prolong the life as much as possible. I've used some that was 6 months past expiration, and it worked just fine. The missus and I did some wine making, and she bought the yeast in bulk, so figured we'd store that in the fridge too. Just have to make sure I grab the right stuff when I'm brewing.
 
I like this idea. We bought a vacuum storage thingy a few years ago when we decided to try our hand at some homemade sausage so we could keep freezer burn to a minimum. That should work beautifully for hops.

I typically keep my dry yeast in the fridge door, just so it's where I can find it, and to prolong the life as much as possible. I've used some that was 6 months past expiration, and it worked just fine. The missus and I did some wine making, and she bought the yeast in bulk, so figured we'd store that in the fridge too. Just have to make sure I grab the right stuff when I'm brewing.

ya the bins are great.

another idea is to become buddies with your local breweries. They could sell you grain. breweries get grain at a WAY better price than is available to the public. same with yeast and hops and such. Alot of places will just give you yeast as its waste for us, assuming you bring your own sanitized container.
 
Exactly! My two roll mill would struggle at the gap I wanted - irking me the whole time. When I switched to a 3 roll mill, I never had issues and ended up saving myself time a frustration. - I'm not a pro but still certainly don't need the trouble. :)

the blichmann that we use is on the larger size 12lbs/min or more and it has been solid. it can be adjusted while milling. i have not been able to bind it up yet. its obviously a bit more then a 5gal batch brewer would need. the old monster mill we used was solid, but it would bind up if it was overfilled or wasnt moving while the grain was added in.

we used feeler gauges and a flat plate that came with the blichmann to get the proper gap.
 
ya the bins are great.

another idea is to become buddies with your local breweries. They could sell you grain. breweries get grain at a WAY better price than is available to the public. same with yeast and hops and such. Alot of places will just give you yeast as its waste for us, assuming you bring your own sanitized container.
Hmmm, now there’s a thought. There’s 2 microbreweries within 5 miles of where I’m sitting(on my deck). A few more within a 10 mile radius. Oversoul, and Siluria Brewery I’ve been a few times each on the rare night out with the missus. She’s my DD and the only one I trust. It ain’t a long drive to Cahaba Brewers or Avondale brewery either. If they’re chucking yeast, I’d like to try some different strains. A boiled and StarSan sprayed Mason Jar oughta do the trick. IF they don’t give me some BS about Health Department codes, etc.
 
Yep I buy in bulk 150-200lb of grain, built up about 10-15lb of hops. Hops in the freezer, grain in 5gal buckets with Gamma lids.
I get yeast from local brewery, most brewers will gladly help you out with yeast.
I got a 3 roller mill on amazon, Mammoth mill, least expencive 3 roller I have found.
My kettle is a cut up 55L keg, mash tun a cooler with copper pipe drain. My buddies think this system makes great beer and the cost was not alot.
 

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