MaltZilla with Integrated 24v Motor – The Diamond Grain Mill – Premium Diamond Rollers

MaltZilla with Integrated 24v Motor – The Diamond Grain Mill – Premium Diamond Rollers

The long awaited MaltZilla is finally here. A large amount of research and development has gone into designing, manufacturing and testing the MaltZilla Diamond Mill.
With an integrated 24v Motor powerful enough to chew through popping corn kernels with ease. The mill works on voltages from 12-30V DC.  The higher the voltage the faster the mill will spin.  We ideally recommend 24v for optium speed and grist results. All you will need is to choose a power supply, whether it be the simple Alligator Clips to attach to a car battery. Or go for the preferred 24v Slimline Power Supply (AU Plug).

Historically other mill manufacturers have made grain mills from steel.  In some other good quality mills they use harden the steel so that the knurling stays sharp for longer and continues to draw grain.  With that said the knurling even on hardened steel will soon go blunt and this reduces the mills ability to draw grain well.  Some other manufacturers attempt to solve this problem by using geared rollers so the rollers grab the grain slightly better or using 3 rollers whereby the first two rollers with a larger gap force the grain into the third roller.  These options in our opinion do not solve the real issue which is that all of these steel rollers go blunt especially if hard grains are used like wheat or corn.

In a commercial setting it’s not uncommon to send the rollers off to a metalworking factory to re-sharpen and re-knurl however this is often uneconomical and a hassle to do.  For smaller homebrew customers they might just end up throwing the mill away and purchasing a new one.

The MaltZilla Diamond Mill is quite a different mill design and it’s the first in the world to use diamonds impregnated into the surface of the roller.  These diamonds even after many tons of grain are processed through the mill will stay just as sharp as they were on day one.

The sharpness of the diamonds really draws grain exceptionally well and even when hard products are used such as corn the diamond rollers simply smash it to pieces.

Grain Hopper
This unit does not come with a grain hopper as standard. Your choices are the Aluminium Hopper KL16377 (not available yet) or a simple cost-effective alternative is using the 12L Aqua To Go Cooler Bottle that is available at Officeworks here in Australia.

Large 70mm Diameter
The MaltZilla has 70mm large diameter rollers are double the diameter of many other mills.  The large diameter significantly improve the crush and assist in drawing the grain in better.

Sheer not Chop
Most mills require aggressive knurling to push into the grain and “chop” the grain as it passes through a tight gap.  This often means your grains are chopped in half.  The MaltZilla works on a different principle and gap setting is not as critical.  The MaltZilla uses impregnated diamonds to grip the surface of the kernel and the friction of pulling the grain through the gap causes a sheering action.  When set up correctly this can leave the entire husk intact reducing the chance of stuck sparge, improving efficiency while still opening the husk efficiently enough that the entire contents of the kernel is available to the mashing process.

Integrated Motor
You generally would not purchase a car without an engine or a blender without a motor.  So why would you purchase a grain mill without one.  Milling grain has an optimum RPM.  Too slow and it will take you a long time and too fast and you will end up with excessive powder.  The hand crank is really a pain in the backside and using a drill simply doesn’t give you the speed control that you require and often results in burning out your drill.  The MaltZilla has an integrated motor.  The motor has a very constant RPM putting out optimum RPM with an integrated gearbox.  The high torque and sealed construction make it ideal for a brewing environment.  The motor is well sealed from moisture and grain dust.

The motor is seamlessly integrated into the side body of the mill.

Being DC the motor is safer than higher voltage AC especially in an environment where washing down the area with a hose is likely to happen.

The DC motor is also reversible so the direction of spin can be changed based on the polarity.  This is particularly useful for over-mount and under-mount installation.

Over-Mount and Under-Mount Installation
Traditionally most other mills just sit on a board where they are moved from one bucket to another.  The Maltzilla has multiple different mounting configurations.  It can be over-mounted to a board like most mills are however if you want a seamless finish to your garage/brewing area you can mount the mill under your counter where it’s concealed and out of the way.  Simply lift up a small opening in the top of your benchtop, drop in the hopper and then pour the grain into the hopper.  When you are done remove the hopper and replace the lid.

The Sheer difference – 2% Hydration Mill Testing

We have lots of photos showing various different test results. It’s difficult to draw a direct comparison between one mill and another as if you set the gap distance on one mill this doesn’t necessarily give the best results in another mill. So the optimal gap will vary depending on the mill design and roller surface. With that said these test were done with a similar gap setting.

When we varied the gap setting we got similar relative results to each other.

1. If you look at the glass on the left this is unmilled grain to show the difference between the two milling types.
2. The middle glass is grain that has gone through a 3 Roller Grain Mill.
3. The glass on the right is the grain that has gone through the MaltZilla mill
This particular test we were measuring the volumetric difference in the grist. So more volume is generally considered to be better and this is probably due to the fact that the husks were more intact.

In terms of the amount of powder that was generated it was maybe slightly less in the MaltZilla but not a very big difference. All grains in both instances were fully cracked open. The 3 Roller Mill had many more of the grains and husk were fully chopped in half whereby the grist from the MaltZilla had the husk intact but the contents had been ejected from the husk.

If you look at the results above in the bags we did further testing with moisture added. We added 2% moisture (by weight) and in our testing this gave the best results in both instances and I would definitely recommend this practice for anyone milling their own grain. Adding moisture was done with a misting device while stirring the grain. Then we left the grain for about 6 hrs for the moisture to become even throughout the grist.

When wet milling and adding moisture I should say that most mills are also not particularly suited to this as the majority of rollers out there are made from steel and if you regularly add moisture to your grains then it’s likely that steel rollers will develop rust on them unless you clean and oil them after each use but this is quite tedious. Both the Standard MaltZilla and Premium MaltZilla made from Diamond coated stainless for this reason.

As you can see from the results below we had the grist on the left with more favorable results whereby the husk was more intact and had not been “chopped” up as much by the knurling.

From out testing surface friction on a roller surface is far more effective at drawing grain and producing a good grist rather than aggressive knurling and also the diamonds have far longer-lasting friction than the knurling that goes blunt over time.

Knurling for a long time has been the standard probably because knurling is a less expensive process and is quite easy to do and probably because we didn’t know any better. For decades we have just made similar knurled rollers probably just because the first guy did it and nobody has thought to experiment with alternatives. It’s definitely been enjoyable working on this project and challenging this long-standing tradition of mill manufacture.

The long-lasting surface friction developed by diamond coating is sufficient to eliminate the need for 3 roller mills and geared rollers.