Northern Brewer - Hullwrecker 2-Roller Grain Mill with Metal Base and Handle

I ordered and assembled this for a big brewing weekend - tired of going to my local brew store and not getting the grind I really wanted. Assembly was smooth, everything fit really well, and assembly time was about 30 min. Directions are good, the mill 'feels' robust. Ground about 60 lbs of malt - both barely and wheat. Used an old Milwaukee drill motor for power.This mill was a pleasure. Really did its job. Was really easy to adjust for different grains. Getting the best brewhouse efficiency I've ever had. Great product.

Works great. Super easy to use and grinds perfectly every time.

This crusher works great. However assembly isn't so easy. You must have very nimble fingers and it may require someone to help you assemble it. I have used this a few times and note that it is much quicker than using my Green Mill on my KitchenAid mixer. There's no need to use the drill to crush your wheat it comes with a hand crank and it works just fine. Again, I would have given it a higher rating if it was easier to assemble or if it came assembled from the factory.

I liked that it came with everything needed to crush some grain after a quick assembly. The hopper is a little small but I plan on upgrading that later. I was worried that it might not crush fine enough but my first time using it at the smallest gap it was too fine. Got 90 % efficiency but pretty mush a stuck mash. Next time I'll open the gap just a little bit more. Seems pretty solid. Easily powered by my cordless drill. Looking forward to dialing it in. Bought because I was sick of dealing with the inconsistency of the mill at my lhbs.

The hullwrecker was easy to assemble and very sturdy. Adjusting the roller gap is simple and quick. If you really want to be sure of your gap use a set of feeler gauges to get it exactly where you want it. It sits securely on top of a standard 5gal bucket. I attached my cordless drill on low to the input shaft and it just munched right through the grains with no problems. I'm not sure I would want to crank it by hand, it would take forever. I would highly recommend this grain mill!

Installation is horribly difficult with super small hardware. Instructions with poor descriptions and bad pictures. Hardware not properly selected and in bad need of washers. Hopper is made of the flimsiest aluminum - appears to be unalloyed and unstrengthened grade and temper. Finally get this assembled and pour grain in. Large amount of grain immediately spills into the bucket since the hopper doesn’t seal gaps next to the roller. Begin to grind anyway to see how it works. The mill begins wobbling back and forth because the base is worthless. Hopper immediately breaks, probably because there is a tiny contact area holding the world’s weakest metal onto the grinding base. I just can’t believe how poorly engineered this is.

Grinds like a champ using my Dewalt drill.

First off, this product probably deserves 4 stars, but I’m admittedly giving 3 stars in hopes that the manufacturer may privide me some guidance if my main complaint is user error. If my complaint is in fact a defect, then so be it.So, I’m glad I have my own grain mill now. And this one does work fairly well. I keep the width at .375 and has a BIAB brewer, my mash efficiency is now consistently around 82%. (Up from 72-75%)There are a couple issues that keep this from being 5 stars. Least important, the black rubber/plastic cover that fits around the hopper rim comes off VERY easily. Every time I move the mill, the rubber piece pops loose. Perhaps I could glue it, but that doesn’t feel like it should be necessary.Biggest complaint: there are large gaps at the bottom of the grain hopper, on either side of the rollers. So while filling the grain hopper, an annoyingly large quantity of grain falls into my bucket unmilled. Does this affect my overall mash numbers? No. Is it inefficient and wasteful? Yes! I’d like to think this is user assembly error, but I don’t really see how I might eliminate this gap based on how everything fits together.This would be less of an issue if the hopper held more than 7lbs of grain. Because once the grain settles, it plugs those gaps and prevents more grain from falling through. (As long as you don’t bump or jostle anything). However, most of my grain bills fall in the 9-12lbs range. So I typically have to mill the first bit of grain and then reload the hopper, resulting in further losses. For base grain this is likely a non issue. For losses of specialty grain this could conceivably affect the recipe.Overall I’m happy with my purchase. I just think everyone should be aware of these issues.