Getting ready to purchase this mill but had a question, I was going to get the one that has the gap set at .045" but then I see that for $34 more I can get the adjustable one. Don't really think I would tinker with the gap but why would I want the one that is adjustable? are there certain grains that you would want to mill finer? here is the link : http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?products_id=10125{80}308

Yes, some grains you will want to mill finer. Depends on a lot of things but to be simple( as I
am ) I grind specialty grains finer than base malts, the darker one as fine as i can. This also
depends on the type of beer being brewed. I could be wrong though.Grind it 'till you're scared
you'll get a stuck lauter then back off a little.

Get the adjustable one. Or save some cash and get a Barley crusher.

If I was to do it all again I would get a mill that would allow me to adjust the gap to .000 like a Monster mill. My BC goes to .015" and I wish I could set it closer. It came set at 0.036" and that would give me about 67% eff. Only when I closed it to .025" did it shoot to 80%. I closed it to the max and I started getting upwards of 85%. I've had trouble since but I firmly believe it's not my crush but something else. I would crush past scared way into terrified if I could.

I have the non adjustable..I'm pretty happy with it, I get good efficiency, though if I were to do it over again, I would have gotten the adjustable..

Yeh no LHBS AFAIK will crush like you need. So some sort of decent mill is required. One can always adjust the grain bill, but in the long run using less grain will pay off. Maybe $1-2 a batch.

I have the adjustable JSP MaltMill and absolutely love it. I generally keep it at .042" and have found that to work great for my taste. Spend the extra $$, you'll appreciate it.

I've got a JSP and I'm glad I got the adjustable. I have the gap set much smaller than the way it came.

I have a 'Phill mill' bought it 'bout 8 years ago and it's adjustable. I have no idea what the
gap is set on I just know i found my 'sweet spot' for base malts ( with MO I back it off a tad)
It took awile to find it by adjusting. I grind too fine and my lauter is slow slow slow, but I
always get 85 to 90% eff. My last brew was 93%. So get the adjustable mill and tinker with
'th' gap'. My mill is a cheap one and it gets it done.
Matt

i have this mill with the preset gap and get efficencies in the high 70's to low 80's. My wife got it for me for christmas so I didnt get to pick. I love it and it works great.

Note that unless things have changed, the Schmidling Maltmill only adjusts on one end. It's still very functional but not exactly as advertised.

They have a model that adjusts on both ends (I have it). Not sure when it was made available, but it's been a while.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/grain-mills.html

"Model AA has adjustable spacing on both ends of the rollers for maximum crush control."

People make a big deal about the JSP only being adjustable on one end, but I've never found that to be an issue. It is what it is and it works great.

I tried running my grain through twice for the Berliner-Weisse I'm doing and I got great results. However, I'm doing an extended no-sparge mash. Oh- check out NorthernBrewers Crankandstein mills. These puppies are supposed to be the best.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/grain-mills.html

In response to Radtek's post (no offense meant), I did a lot of research on mills and in the end it came down to a choice between a Crankandstein and a MonsterMill.

There is a lot of discussion regarding these two but the short story is that MonsterMill is made by the guy who used to do the marketing and customer service for Crankandstein. They split up and he's making his own mills now. I talked to the guy on the phone and got a really good feeling so I ended up going with a MM3 (3 roller, adjustable).

It arrived the other day and it is a solid, well made piece of hardware (as I'm sure others are). I haven't had time to try it out yet but I've little doubt that it will improve my efficiency over the LHBS crush.

I know this is not exactly what cohiba 73 was asking but wanted to weigh in, with my opinion, as I've spent a lot of time reading up on these. In the end I think that most people are happy with the mill they have so I don't think there is a wrong way to go.

I've heard this debate for years and I've come to the conclusion that all the mills out there do a good job. Go with whichever suits yer fancy....

and lets not forget the wallet. Buy what you want and what you can afford then just adjust the recipe's to fit your setup.

Yeh, it crops up periodically when people decide to go AG and start looking around for a mill. Sheldon reminds me of why I decided on the BC. I got upset when I got zero response from Crankandstein in regards to some questions I had. Now I know the folks involved were having some sort of meltdown. By the time I found out I had purchased the BC and used it quite a bit. Turned out to be appropriate for my needs despite my small small niggling discomfort with the lower limit on the gap settings. I certainly recommend the BC since I was able to start milling right out of the box! Still, I feel bad about what happened with the C&S guys and I don't think you could go wrong with whichever of their competing mills you choose. I have no experience with this, but I think for the best price a corona mill is popular.

Ya, I wasn't aiming at staring the old mill debate, just pointing out to Cohiba73 thyat you could get an adjustable Barley Crusher with shipping for a bit less than the adjustable Schmidling mill without shipping. I paid about $125 with shipping included and they seemed like great people when I spoke to them on the phone.

I have a C&S 3D and love it, but I think you won't go wrong with any of the mills mentioned. I got the 3D as a birthday gift, I don't think I could have spent the money on myself. Good thing the wife could.

Doug

I have the BC mill and it is set at .038. and crushes almost to powder. Someone above said they had theirs at .025 and mine likes to stop if it is that tight. Maybe it has something to do with the speed of the mill, mine is set up at 431 RPM. How about you guys for speed. Do you find that a faster speed can have a little wider gap and achieve a fine crush.

I would be cool to see a list of gap ratios compared to mill speed.

I guess though without an actual comparison of crush it would be hard to tell what the speed/crush ratio tells us except for the resulting mash efficiency and then that will be influenced by system specs and mash procedure.

CLB

My C&S mill runs at about 15-20 RPM. It doesn't move too fast, but neither do I these days.

I'll have to check my gap. I know that it's the smallest gap my mill will allow.

I think the Valley Mill is the bestest mill in the world. It's sooo perfect that they decided to stop producing them because they didn't want all the other mill makers to feel inferior

Thanks for all the advice, i will be purchasing a Barley Crusher, $133 with shipping.

I suggest you look into the C&S aka

www.monstermills.com

Good deal!.... BC is a great mill... get that big hopper 10 or 15 # hopper for... It works like charm!