First looks: Brewferm mills from HomeBrewWest

[admin]

I just received one of these from Brian for the NHC. Thanks very much Brian, appreciated.

I won't be brewing for a while so I don't know when exactly I'll get a chance to try it fully, but I'm bringing it to the Liffey Brewers meet on Thursday to show it around if anyone wants to see it or take it away with them.

Initial impressions are very good. It takes about 10 minutes to assemble as the hopper has to be put together and screwed to the mill. The mill is screwed to the base and the handle then attached to the mill.

I put a handful of grain through it and there was no problems using the handle, but I would say anyone using this long term would use a drill.

The mill itself does not have rollers of the same thickness as a Crankenstein 2S, which is not really an issue. It does have easy gap adjustments though, unlike the 2S. This is where it would really win over the 2S as it can be adjusted in seconds, and then locked into place. The rollers are stainless steel and have what appears to be the same pattern as a 2S pressed into them.

The board that it sits on is 20mm MDF and is very sturdy. Nicely it has a been routered with a groove that perfectly matches the brewferm bucket, which looks like a 30L bucket.

The hopper is not as big as my home made one, but at a guess I'd say it's 3 kg of barley malt capacity. Again I'll measure it when I do a brew.

If anyone is interested in taking this on loan let me know.

[CARA]

What's the retail on one of those?

[alealex]

I'm familiar with it. I think it's very same stuff as on MyBeer&Wine.
Tube, would you attach drill and give it a spin on low revs, please. Even with no grain, and tell us what is like - I'd love to know.
Cheers.

[Greg2013]

Hmmm looks interesting

[nigel_c]

Nice looking mill. Nice clean setup with the hopper and board.

[Garry]

I've bought one. I don't have anything to compare it to but it seems like a good quality unit. The bearings are very free, I assume they are ball bearings, I can't see any brass bearings anyway. I tried it with my cordless drill to see if it fits the chuck and it does. I'd say the shaft is about 10mm so it will fit most drills. I didn't mill any grain with the drill but I can't see why it wouldn't work. I only milled about 2kg with the crank handle and it seemed quick, but again, I don't have anything to compare it to.

[alealex]

Did you get it of HBW or MBAW?

[Garry]

Did you get it of HBW or MBAW?

I got it from HBW. I just had a look at the one on MBAW, it looks the same alright but the description says stainless hopper. But it looks like aluminium to me. The one I got is aluminium.

[Bubbles]

I've been looking at the Brewferm mills myself lately, and I can't figure out why there's such a price difference between them and this model, for example:

http://www.homebrewwest.ie/maltmill-2-sides-adjustable-aa-2689-p.asp

They've both got a hopper, two rollers, drill-powered option. Why the huge difference in price, anyone know?

[Garry]

From what I can see, the more expensive mill has longer rollers at 250mm, the new brewferm mill rollers are 150mm. Although the hopper on the more expensive mill appears to be pyramid shaped on the inside meaning that all of the roller is not being used? Other than that it makes the brewferm mill look like great value?

[Bubbles]

Cheers. It does look like good value. It's a pity I'm looking at the cheaper option and thinking "what's wrong with it?".

[HomeBrewWest]

If I may make a guess on the price difference . . . 

Brouwland supply only whole grains to all of continental Europe, you can't buy crushed grain from homebrew shops there afaik.

But, until now, there was only a choice between a real cheap mill and very expensive mills. So they really needed a good quality affordable mill to promote their grain sales.

It looks like they have put a lot of work into finding it since the new mill is engineered to fit their buckets. BTW, after looking at the posts on this thread, we have decided to include the Brewferm bucket with the mill. It just makes thinks simpler and ensures hombrewers get the full benefits of Brouwlands efforts.

[Greg2013]

Let me be the first to say thanks for that Homebrewwest, good on ya

[Bubbles]

Thanks for the comments Tube and Brian, very useful info.

I've just this minute bought a mill from HBW anyway. I'll report back when I get around to using it.