Grain mill stopped working

[bendog15]

I’ve got a Barley Crusher grain mill. It’s worked like a champ for 4 years. Recently moved to BIAB so I adjusted the gap to credit card width, very fine crush. Since then, it’s been nothing but problems.
It’s a 2 roller mill, so the one roller moved by my electric drill spins fruitlessly while the other roller just stays immobile, refusing to move. I’ve tried everything. Disassembled the entire rig, cleaned and oiled it, put it all back together, nothing. Obviously the small gap is what’s causing the problem. Any advice? I’m looking into 3 roller mills, and they are pricey...

 

[myndflyte]

So if you make the gap a bit bigger, it works just fine again?

 

[bendog15]

So if you make the gap a bit bigger, it works just fine again?

Yes. I adjust the gap larger, and it works fine. I’m just trying to get a fine crush and it doesn’t seem to want to cooperate

 

[myndflyte]

Yes. I adjust the gap larger, and it works fine. I’m just trying to get a fine crush and it doesn’t seem to want to cooperate

What if you crush the grain in the first pass at the wider gap and then try running it through at the smaller gap? Maybe milling it that first time will make it a bit easier to get through the small gap.

 

[bendog15]

What if you crush the grain in the first pass at the wider gap and then try running it through at the smaller gap? Maybe milling it that first time will make it a bit easier to get through the small gap.

Yeah I’m willing to give that a shot. Beats shelling out $200 for a new mill.

 

[bendog15]

I’ve read about a lot of guys who double crush. Maybe that’s the answer.

 

[Hwk-I-St8]

Yeah I’m willing to give that a shot. Beats shelling out $200 for a new mill.

If you end up getting a new mill, you don't have to spend $200. The Cereal Killer is highly regarded, has premium features (hardened rollers, ball bearings, etc.) and can be had for just over $100. I got mine for $90 on sale. Short of wanting a high end 3 roller, I honestly don't know why anyone would buy anything else.

 

[kh54s10]

Have you tried any adjusting in between the original setting and the too tight setting. You might just tighten closer until you get a problem then back off a tiny bit.

 

[augiedoggy]

I’ve got a Barley Crusher grain mill.
...

Stop right there... Thats honestly your problem... It has soft rollers that wear out quickly and soft bronze bushings that also wear out and pick up contamination which causes the rollers to not turn as freely.. do a search here for "mill problems" or mill rollers not turning" and you will find many many threads on the barley crusher.. they spent a good buget on advertising and claimed to be made in the usa so they were very popular although in my personal opinion they are the worse home brewing mill out there.

Just Google "grain mill problems" you will find 99% of what comes up is about the barley crusher mill and rollers no longer Grabbing grain and turning.

I second the cereal killer, way better.. been using mine for almost 5 years without any issues. the kegco 2 roller is the exact same mill as well... ther kegco 3 roller is also a great value IMO real ball bearings and harder rollers make these mills the best choice. they and the keg king maltmunchier line of mills are all made on the same assembly line, just sold with different accessories at different prices. (Between my brewing partner and I we have a barley crusher that doesnt work, a mm3 a 3 roller kegco and the cereal killer we are opening a nano so we bought the 3 rollers for that.)

supposedly the BC has a lifetime warranty but some waited months and Ive seen people claim they never got them back... a few people have sent theirs in to be rebuilt multiple times... the rollers wear out very fast. also double check the rollers spin 360 degrees without rubbing and catching on the mill sidewall which can happen if the cams are out of sink.

 

[bleme]

Does the small gap work if you hand crank?

 

[Upthewazzu]

I’ve got a Barley Crusher grain mill. It’s worked like a champ for 4 years. Recently moved to BIAB so I adjusted the gap to credit card width, very fine crush. Since then, it’s been nothing but problems.
It’s a 2 roller mill, so the one roller moved by my electric drill spins fruitlessly while the other roller just stays immobile, refusing to move. I’ve tried everything. Disassembled the entire rig, cleaned and oiled it, put it all back together, nothing. Obviously the small gap is what’s causing the problem. Any advice? I’m looking into 3 roller mills, and they are pricey...

I feel ya, man. I also have a barley crusher than I bought 2 years ago. I worked great for about 1.5 years and then started doing the same thing you are describing. Basically, the rollers are soft as clay and they become deformed and no longer grip the malt. It sucks, because I used to crush pretty fine so as to get a higher efficiency (BIAB and all grain). I've had to adjust the gap wider. Maybe I'll start doing a double-crush, but it's a time waster to measure the gap twice every brew day.

 

[Nick Poggetti]

Rather than buying an entirely new mill, you can also replace the roller assembly. I'm pretty sure you can find a new roller set or parts for the barely crusher. I bought a cereal killer 2nd hand on craigslist for 50 dollars, used it for a year before it started crapping out on me. Adventures in Homebrewing, for I think it was 50 bucks, sent me a brand new roller assembly and it was as easy was mounting the new assembly and putting the hopper back on, for half the price.

 

[brew703]

If you are milling wheat then it will sometimes bog down the mill. I usually put any wheat i am using in a food processor. I dont want to reset my mill for two different crushes.

 

[ba-brewer]

I have a cereal killer with a gap about .032 I think, it started to get a bit finicky after about 4 years. It works better for conditioned grain then it does for dry grain. What I do now to keep the mill from spinning without doing anything is I get the mill spinning first empty then slowly feed a little grain at a time until I hear the rollers catch then I dump the remaining grain in.

 

[balrog]

BIAB?
May I humbly suggest a Corona mill?
Altho if you can recondition with parts from AiH like @Nick Poggetti suggests, maybe that.

 

[augiedoggy]

My first mill was a corona... crush was terribly uneven but for biab I dont think it matters as much right?

this thread is the first ive seen where someone reported thier cereal killer wearing out.. I had issues with mine a few years ago not turning consistently but then learned they were self induced when I was playing with the gap and I had the cams adjusted out of sinc causing the idler roller to bind up at times (you can trust the markings on the knobs)... I readjusted and its been fine since. Ive only got about 15-20 sacks of grain through mine but the rollers are still sharp when compared to my new 3 roller kegco.

 

[Hammy71]

My Barley Crusher lasted 5 years. Then, like others have described it died. The rollers seem to be made of soft metal. Retired the old girl and bought a Monster. Hated shelling out the cash, but I can't say I regret it one bit.

 

[doug293cz]

My BC suffered the same fate. I found that if I feed grain in slowly (1-2 cups at a time) it will still grab the grain and work properly.

Brew on

 

[z-bob]

I would like to get a good roller mill, but I don't trust any of them to have hardened rollers with sharp knurling (is that the right word?). So I keep using my 50+ year old Corona mill. It's not pretty and it's not very fast, but it works and it's fast enough.

But since you already have one, maybe you can rough-up the drive roller with a needle file or something?

 

[AnthonyTD]

If you ate going to replace it then consider 7 the mashmaster mini mill. I just recently got one imported and I am very happy with it. The rollers are geared so they both are driven. This reduces shredding of the grain as it is now not being used to drive another roller.
The rollers are both hardened stainless and flutted so there is a cutting and crushing action.

I cost me the same as a MM2 would have and I feel that it is an overall better mill.

 

[bendog15]

Thanks for all the great advice guys.
Update- Still using my old barley crusher, I set my rollers to a wider gap, ran the grain through, then set the rollers to credit card width and ran it again. The double crush method worked just fine. Happy with result for now. Will update tomorrow with efficiency stats...

 

[bendog15]

Does the small gap work if you hand crank?

I threw away the hand crank once I bought this mill. I do 10 gal batches and sometimes were talking 20+ lbs of grain. I’m way too lazy to hand crank that.

 

[bleme]

I threw away the hand crank once I bought this mill. I do 10 gal batches and sometimes were talking 20+ lbs of grain. I’m way too lazy to hand crank that.

The only time I've really used my hand crank was the one time I tried conditioning my grain on a 23lb Barleywine. Something about the conditioned grains required torque that my cordless drill just couldn't handle. I ended up with a bunch of busted knuckles, but it was better than cancelling a brew day. It's always a good idea to have some back-up plan.

 

[bendog15]

Last update- using double crush method (bigger gap and then much smaller gap) I rocked an 83% efficiency today on a honey kolsch. Not sure if the late honey addition added to the amount of fermentable sugars, but my normal efficiency has been 79% since I switched to a BIAB in my mash tun. Either way, I’m happy with results and will continue to do this for awhile.

 

[balrog]

Yes. Honey adds fermentable sugars. Typ: 35 points per pound honey in a gal. I think that means 7 points in 5 gallons. You can get more persnickity and calc the volume added blah blah blah...but about 6-7 points in a 5G batch for a pound of honey.

 

[bendog15]

Yes. Honey adds fermentable sugars. Typ: 35 points per pound honey in a gal. I think that means 7 points in 5 gallons. You can get more persnickity and calc the volume added blah blah blah...but about 6-7 points in a 5G batch for a pound of honey.

Makes sense. I didn’t think i could achieve such high efficiency with current setup. Either way, I can postpone shelling out $$ for a new grain mill for awhile....

 

[bob1852]

I finally threw my Barley Crusher in the garbage.

After playing email tag with them for months trying to get them to honor their lifetime warranty, they finally relented and said to send it back, but to be clear that I would need to pay for shipping when they sent it back to me.

Between the cost to ship it and have it shipped back to me, I'll just put that in my "future 3 roller crusher" fund and have the store crush my malt in the meantime.

And because it was taking up too much space, the barley crusher went in the trash.

It's not often that I will vocally not recommend a company's product, but the Barley Crusher is one of them, especially due to their sham of a lifetime warranty...

 

[schematix]

As soon as I read the title to this thread I thought to myself, "This guy must have a Barley Crusher!".

You can have mine. It doesn't grind anything though either.

 

[MaxStout]

I have a 2-roller Monster Mill, and like it, but if I were to do it again, would get the Cereal Killer. The Cereal Killer has ball bearings, unlike my MM which has bronze sleeves. (The higher-end MMs have ball bearings, but the lower-end models use sleeve bearings.) For a mill, I think sleeve bearings are a design flaw, and any side-loading will eventually cause them to become out-of-round.

No matter which route you go for a mill, buy a spark plug feeler gauge from the auto parts store, if you don't have one already. Don't rely on credit cards, etc., for judging gap size.

Edit: Forgot to mention...if you're thinking of contacting BC for service, you might want to have a look at this thread. There basically is no customer service.

 

[passedpawn]

I've got a rickety old Schmidling mill that was heavily used when I bought it (it was the only mill at my LHBS). It still rips it up - I never do less than 50# at a time. Each time I read one of these threads I'm thankful I happened on it 10 yrs ago.

 

[BobBailey]

I’ve got a Barley Crusher grain mill. It’s worked like a champ for 4 years. Recently moved to BIAB so I adjusted the gap to credit card width, very fine crush. Since then, it’s been nothing but problems.
It’s a 2 roller mill, so the one roller moved by my electric drill spins fruitlessly while the other roller just stays immobile, refusing to move. I’ve tried everything. Disassembled the entire rig, cleaned and oiled it, put it all back together, nothing. Obviously the small gap is what’s causing the problem. Any advice? I’m looking into 3 roller mills, and they are pricey...

Reverse the drive roller end to end. fun your drill in reverse. There's some wear on the rollers. Another alternative is to double mill.

 

[augiedoggy]

The kegco mills also use ball bearings and harder rollers than the BC. In case I didnt mention it earlier, the 2 roller kegco, keg king maltmunchier and cereal killer are the very same mill just rebranded. The 3 roller version also has the ball bearing which like max stout mentioned is a superior design.