[REVIEW] Brewferm Adjustable Roller Malt Mill

[Ozbrewer]

For those looking to start milling their own malt.

The packaging.





Everything is very neatly packaged.



It comes with a small hopper - I would estimate about 3kg of grain maximum. The hopper has a blue cling film on it to stop scratching. I remove this later.



The mill itself.



Instructions are fairly straight forward - just follow the diagrams.



The base for the mill is sturdy. The bevelling/routing line for the bucket is deep enough and fits on one of the white buckets (which comes with the mill) you can get from your LHBS.



The rollers look robust enough. No dirt or rust evident. Excellent condition.



There are gap markings on the side of the mill. You can adjust the mill from both sides of the roller. The rollers spin independently of each other. Only one roller is connected to the handle / drill attachment. More on this further down. However, the gap markings are faint, and should be made more clear IMHO. Default setting on the gap is at 0.050".







You need three tools to put this together successfully. Here are the main two. I will get to third tool further down, and it's essential.



The hopper was very easy to assemble - takes a couple of minutes.



The hopper insert into the mill and is held in place with these bolts.



It's a firm fit pushing it in. Again, very sturdy, no gaps at all when fully assembled.







A top down view into the hopper.



Turn it upside down and bolt on the base plate. Note that I have actually done this the wrong way around in this photo. The roller mill handle in this instance, when up the right way and on the bucket, would be in the middle of the bucket, and you can't attach the drill or handle then.







The third and most essential tool to ensure your malt mill works as intended are a set of feeler gauges. I picked this up in Halfords for 6 euro I think. You can buy different ones from handyhardware.ie or a specialist tool shop and shouldn't be much more than 10 euro. Just pull out 5 or 6 blades, add their thickness numbers together to get the gap size you want.



Once you have the gap size determined and you have the feeler gauges to match, just push them between the rollers to determine the actual gap.

So here's the thing with this: The mill was set at a default gap of 0.050" on both sides. When measuring with the feeler gauges, one side was accurate, the other was way out. Had I relied on the markings on the mill, I would have ended up with an uneven mill, which is not desirable on my setup. I went for a 0.050" gap which suits the blichmann false bottom and provides me the ability to recirculate at full open with the chugger pumps I have. I brewed on the weekend with 60% wheat malt and I had no stuck mash on full recirculation. I achieved a 90% efficiency.

Do not buy a malt mill without buying feeler gauges - IMO.

This is how far out one side of the roller was compared to the markings - according to my feeler gauge, this is now set at exactly 0.050" - same as the other side of the roller, where the marking is accurate.



This is it fully assembled.



This is the mill on the wheat malt.



This is the mill on the pilsner malt. Hardly any flour, lots of husk intact.



And this is a short video of the mill in action. I was using a standard cordless drill on the lowest speed setting. It's not the best video in parts but should give an idea of the performance of the mill.




Overall, I really like the mill. Besides the gap markings being out on one side of the mill, it really does the job. Easy to put together, very sturdy, well packaged, rollers do the job well and parts seem to be of good to high quality - especially the rollers. To be able to mill my own malt is very pleasing, means I can buy whole malt and store for longer periods of time. I can mill to suit my system as well. I won't be going back to buying pre-crushed grain, unless the specialty malts I want only come that way.

I would recommend buying this mill for sure.

[fishjam45 (Colin)]

Looks like a good mill for sure.
Nice tip about using the feeler gauges too.

[Covey]

Oz do you think the mill is the same as the ones from china

http://www.aliexpress.com/item/Brand-New-Homebrew-Equipment-Malt-Grain-Mill-2-Rollers-Barley-Crusher-With-Hopper-and-Crank-Handle/2045569784.html

[Ozbrewer]

@covey - hard to say without seeing some better photos. Looks similar enough though - placement of bolts and adjusters etc. I think the thing with any mill will come down to the gap adjustment and getting that set right for your system.

[Covey]

ya the feeler gauge is a handy tip