We’ve added a “new” mill to our Cambridge location, the Modern Homebrew Emporium. It is the Monster Mill that we retired from the small milling station when it stopped grabbing grain and started to constantly jam.
We’ve solved that jamming problem by ignoring it. This mill was built for our tella customers who would prefer their grains crushed into flour. This mill doesn’t quite do that but it is set for the tightest possible crush. Since it can’t grab whole kernels anymore, all grain run through it is pre-crushed by our large mill. If you are a committed batch sparger or brew-in-a-bag brewer, upon request we’ll happily run your grain through this one.
The design is super simple. The mill was mounted to a 12″ x 21″ piece of plywood. It was positioned as close to the edge as feasible while allowing for enough space for the thickness of the bucket wall so that all of the crushed grains ended up in the bucket. the 12″ width is sufficient to completely cover the entire opening of the bucket. This helps to keep down dust.
The drill that powers the mill is a 1/2″ Heavy Duty Low-speed drill. We went with one from Chicago Electric that has 7.5 Amps and a top speed of 550 RPM. If you’re getting yours from Harbor Freight was we did, beware that there are TWO Chicago Electric drills that they sell as the same. They are not. You want #93632, not #60436. The #93632 features a lower top RPM (550 vs 600), a thicker chuck (doesn’t disengage as easily, more resilient), a thicker butt end (indicating more robust windings on the motor), and a small wheel on the trigger that allows you to permanently set the RPM when using the trigger lock. The #60436 is missing all of these features.
The drill is mounted to the board using the bolt that came in the side handle. It was a bit long so I have a spacer built in. We just eye-balled the location of the hole then adjusted to actual. It worked out just fine. Tightening the chuck was a bit of a bother but we got it sorted using a pipe wrench and a channel-lock wrench. It would have been easier with the key but that was lost.
This setup is rather noisy, which is why we are not using it as one of our primary mills. We’ll have to see what the longevity of the drill will be. Reviews on Harbor Freight indicate years of use but we sell over a ton of grain a month. Stop in and request a special crush!