Kitchen Aid Grain Mill?

[Dave A]

Has anyone used the Kitchen Aid grain mill accessory (GMA)? Is it any good for malt or is it more of a flour maker? I've been looking into mills lately and am trying to decide weather to get a small mill for specialty grains (corona etc.) or just go for broke and go bigger in case I end up trying all-grain someday. While at the mall with the Mrs. today I noticed the attachment for the mixer we already have....

[ray m]

I've never heard of the Kitchen Aid doo-dad. I, however, would be very suspect of this device, because I seriously doubt that this is really suitable for milling grain. If you're looking for a fairly affordable grain mill, I have the Philmill from Listermann manufacturing---sells for @ $75. I've had mine for a couple years now and I love it---started out with extract & now I do all-grain---has filled the need quite nicely for both. I believe either morebeer.com or williamsbrewing.com will have a picture of it for you. If you want to buy it, go to listermann.com for what I think will be the cheapest price.

[Beerconnoisseur]

I'll begin by saying this: even if you switch to all-grain, many places will mill your grains for you, for a nominal fee (MoreBeer charges $0.10 for this per order, I think). Remember that you can get poor extraction efficiency if the crush is too coarse, but you can also get stuck mashes if it's too fine.

To make a long story short, purchasing a grain mill is useful if you are very anal retentive about the crush of your grain...... but at $80-200 per mill (and these are not even the 4-roller mills commercial brewers use!), you have to brew a TON of beer for it to be cost effective.

That said, I would stick with the mills available from the major homebrewing places, unless the Kitchen Aid gadget is cheap enough to where you won't mind missing the $ you spend on it, if you can't use it for homebrewing purposes.

[MagTheGrate]

I have a kitchenaid mixer sitting on my countertop also, so I went to their website to check the price on this.

$150 for their grain mill attachement... For my money, I'd head to a brewshop and get one built for what i want it for.

-Mag

[Dave A]

So far, I've ordered my grains cracked, but I'd like to be able to keep a little of this and a little of that for experimenting. Right now I have 4 or 5 hop varieties in the freezer, mostly 1/2 ounces that were left over from other receipes, that I can be creative with and I'd like to do the same thing with grain. Problem is that grain doesn't store well once it's been crushed, hence my current interest in a mill.

For now a corona type mill ($45) would do it, but I'm thinking ahead. The Philmill ($85) and the Schmidling maltmill ($110) are my primary choices, but as I mentioned the kitchenaid mill caught my eye. Yes, it's $149 on the site (free shipping) but a quick search showed them under $120 at several retailers and there are at least 2 on ebay under $100 ("buy it now" price). So now that it's in the same price range, and it's already motorized so there's no extra cost for that, I'm wondering if it is suitable for this type of use.

I don't want to be the test subject either, but if anyone has experience with this equipment I'd like to hear about it.

[sullydavid]

Here is the little information I have on these.

The Kitchen Aid system is in general great. My mom was a earthy hippie chick (more of a living off the earth than tree hugging) that used this thing all the time. She used the mill all the time to make flour, so I do know that if can turn things into a fine powder. Unfortunately at the time I was not into brewing so I did not pay enough attention to see if you could adjust this attachment to be "course" enough for what we wanted.

Probably not the info that you were looking for, but I can tell you that it has the power to munch through grain all day long. Just a question as to the adjustment of it now.

Dave

[sweetwater]

I have the Kitchenaide and the Corona, they both produce equal results. Loosen the plates to the grind you desire and go. So far I have used both and only these and I always brew all grain recipes.
Personally, I don't like either for brewing, they don't crack the grain consistantly enough, more of a mix of grains and fines. Rollers are much better that they split the grain open rather than crushing it.

[bierboy]

No, it is not meant for that purpose. You are better off buying something else for the money.

[Teej]

Originally posted by Beerconnoisseur

To make a long story short, purchasing a grain mill is useful if you are very anal retentive about the crush of your grain...... but at $80-200 per mill (and these are not even the 4-roller mills commercial brewers use!), you have to brew a TON of beer for it to be cost effective.


Once again I raise an old thread due to some searching I was doing.

I don't think the above is a true statement.

Sure, it only costs you $.10 "more" per pound to have a supplier crush your grains for you, but that's not the point.

If you have a mill, you can order a 55 pound bag for under 30 bucks. So your grain costs you about $.60/pound instead of ~ $1.10-1.30 (for base grain)....my LHBS has a deal right now on 2 50-55 pound bags for $55.

$7-8 a batch saved in grain pays for a mill fairly quickly....

Teej

[BeerHauser]

I have the two roller version that's not adjustable...If you're going to buy one of the Schmidling mills, buy either the one roller version or the two roller version that's adjustable. The non adjustable two roller uses a rubber O ring to get the second roller to rotate. Mine's messed up after just two batches (a total of MAYBE 6 lbs of grain). The adjustable two roller uses a gear system to move the second roller.....for the extra 20 bucks it's worth it.


Oops, sorry, the gear drive option is $50 bucks.....

[Teej]

Originally posted by BeerHauser
I have the two roller version that's not adjustable...If you're going to buy one of the Schmidling mills, buy either the one roller version or the two roller version that's adjustable. The non adjustable two roller uses a rubber O ring to get the second roller to rotate. Mine's messed up after just two

I got the non adjustable one.

As I hear tell, the o-ring is only there because of "complaints" that the 2nd roller didn't turn. The o-ring was added after the fact.

When you're milling, the 2nd roller will generally be driven by the grain. What matters most is squeezing the grain through the right sized opening. Unless you're running your drill on warp speed and shredding the grain, only having 1 driven roller is no big deal.

My LHBS has been running the nonadjustable in the shop for many years. My grain for my first few AG batches looked just fine. (shrug)

[BeerHauser]

Well, I can tell you from experience, the milling of the grain DOES NOT drive the roller.....and the O ring is about as useless as, well, let's just say useless. The fact that it was added after the fact tells you right there that there's a design flaw.

You're right that having one driven roller isn't a big deal....but that's not what I paid for. Maybe this is a defective unit from the get go, but the attitude of Mr. Schmidling hasn't been all that helpful in rectifying the situation.

Oh, and I'm not using a drill, I'm using the hand crank.

[Teej]

Well, I can understand your position if you're not happy with it...I wouldn't have bought it, however, if I didn't have several friends who quite happily used the same unit...as well as getting nicely crushed grain from what is obviously a well-used copy of the same mill at my LHBS.

Frankly, I HAVE heard that it works much better with a drill driving it than the hand crank. I never intended to even mount the hand crank to mine. (shrug).

[BeerHauser]

That's the sad thing about it...I bought it based on the many good reviews of it....

[HogieWan]

I was actually looking at that model. I've heard of people having problems with adjustable mills needing a readjustment every few times they are used, so I was looking at the non adjustable version, but I may cange my mind after all.

[gallowd7]

I've seen people using pasta rollers as their grain mills. All you need to do is rig up some sort of feeding device and power it with a drill. We have one for pasta, but haven't yet tried for grain. The best prices are in art supply catalogs which sell them as clay rollers, ~ $25.

[Mad Scientist]

Originally posted by Teej
Once again I raise an old thread due to some searching I was doing.

I don't think the above is a true statement.

Sure, it only costs you $.10 "more" per pound to have a supplier crush your grains for you, but that's not the point.

If you have a mill, you can order a 55 pound bag for under 30 bucks. So your grain costs you about $.60/pound instead of ~ $1.10-1.30 (for base grain)....my LHBS has a deal right now on 2 50-55 pound bags for $55.

$7-8 a batch saved in grain pays for a mill fairly quickly....

Teej

Austin Homebrew mills for free

[Teej]

Originally posted by Boerne Brew
Austin Homebrew mills for free


Having my own grinder, my base 2-row grain is ~ $.58 a pound or less.

[HogieWan]

Originally posted by Boerne Brew
Austin Homebrew mills for free

That's why I get my grain from austinhomebrew, but as mentioned, if my grain could be cheaper by the pound and I could get it from my LHBS and keep him happy, I'd much rather have my own mill.