If you’re looking to take the plunge into the world of fresh milled flour and trying to decide which grain mill is best suited to your needs, then this post is for you. Here, I discuss what factors to consider when looking at grain mills and guide you through what to look for and how to make the best decision without regrets.
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Consistency Of Use – How Often Will I Use My Grain Mill?
The first thing you should consider when purchasing a grain mill is how often you plan on milling your own grains. If you’re anything like I am and love to bake and cook from scratch, you’ll be milling every day.
Side note: While you can certainly mill your grains in bulk and store them in the fridge or freezer, I prefer to mill right before use. This way, I ensure that my flour contains all the nutrients are fresh and bio available. Read more about that and other information here.
If this describes you, you may want to invest in something with durability and with a larger capacity hopper.
However, if you’re the type of person who likes to bake and cook with flour every so often, but isn’t invested into it or if you have a smaller family, you may want to purchase something cheaper and with a lower capacity. We are feeding a family of six for reference!
Manual, Electric, Or Convertible?
Manual Grain Mills
The next thing to consider is are you wanting to have something that will work for you even if the power goes out? Or, maybe you’re living off-grid with no electricity. In these cases, you will want either a strictly manual mill or a convertible one.
Manual mills are not always cheaper and can venture into over a thousand dollar range so if you’re looking to save money on a mill, this is perhaps not the method.
Grinding your own grain into flour sounds like a fun activity even if just for the thrill of novelty, however it is a time-consuming and somewhat arduous process that will likely wear one down after a short time. It may even go against the initial purposes you had in mind when starting on your fresh milled journey.
But, if this is something you are looking for and it fits your needs, a manual mill may be right for you. However, if you’re looking for a convertible one that does the job with or without electricity, there are options out there.
Convertible Grain Mills
While manual mils are typically comprised of a hand crank mechanism, convertible mills are designed for both hand use or with electricity. You have the option to purchase a mill that is made primarily for manual use with the option to plug into a power source if desired or, vice versa, a mill that is made to be plugged in, but has the ability to be powered manually.
You may even find a manual mill that has the ability to function by attaching a drill, motor or belt/pulley powered by an exercise bicycle or the like.
Whatever your choice, I encourage you to read reviews and make sure your mill works adequately via the method or methods that are most important to you.
If your goal is to supply your family with a consistent supply of fresh flour, you will most likely want to purchase an electric mill.
Mechanisms Of The Grain Mill
When choosing the right grain mill for your family, you may want to consider the two different types of grinding mechanisms that are utilized in grinding your wheat berries into flour: burr or impact.
Burrs can be either stone or metal and they consist of two plates, one that is stationary and the other that rotates as it shreds or crushes the wheat berry that is placed in the gap between these two burrs.
While stone burrs consist of natural or artificial stone pieces compressed together and placed into cement, impact (or micronizing) milling heads are comprised of stainless steel disks whose teeth mesh and turn at high speeds to mill flour.
The main things to take away from determining the advantages and disadvantages of burr mills versus impact mills are speed and output: while electric burr mills are easier and quicker to operate than of course, a manual burr mill, a micronized high impact mill will give you the biggest bang for your buck with its large output of flour in the shortest amount of time.
Note that you may need to calibrate the stones in your burr mill to adjust the fineness of the flour you are wanting.
What Am I Grinding?
An important factor to take into consideration when purchasing a grain mill for you and your family is what you plan on grinding. Will it just be wheat berries to grind into flour? Or, do you plan on grinding oily seeds, nuts and coffee beans?
If the latter is so, you will want to invest in a a burr mill. Though it will take longer to grind, you will be able to take advantage of its versatility in what you can grind.
Impact mills can only grind dry grains and beans into flour, whether coarse or fine. You will not be able to grind coarse enough to make cereals and cracked grains, but you will be able to grind all the flour you need for your everyday purposes.
I’d like to note that if you are using a burr mill to grind a larger grain like corn, you will need to run it through the mill twice: once on a coarse setting and then again on a fine setting.
What Other Pros And Cons Are There?
Open Design Versus Closed Design
We’ve already discussed the idea of burr mills taking a bit longer than impact mills to grind, but another factor to take into consideration is design: while burr mills have an open design where flour is ground and then drops into a bowl placed below the mill, an impact mill is self containing, meaning flour is ground and falls into a closed container within the mill.
This is important to consider if you’re wanting to minimize mess in your kitchen. A burr mill, with its open design, will create a cloud of flour dust while an impact mill will not leave you with having to wipe down your kitchen after use.
The open design of the burr mill does have one advantage over an impact mill, though: if you find someone has a wheat allergy in your family, you will be able to take it apart and clean it after use.
However, you may find that you need to take apart your burr mill and clean it anyway. The reasoning behind this is that stone burrs accumulate residue from flour and oil after use and, if left unattended, this residue may attract bugs.
An impact mill, on the other hand, has milling heads that are self cleaning. Simply running the mill for a few seconds after your mill your grain will take care of any lingering residue leftover from flour.
Hopper Capacity
Another thing to consider is hopper capacity. While burr mills typically have a smaller capacity for your wheat berries, impact mills usually have a larger hopper. This is not too pressing of a matter, but if you’re wanting to mill several cups of flour at once, it is convenient to not have to re-fill your hopper.
One final thing to consider in terms of design is ease of use. With many burr mills, you have to wait until the mill is powered on before you can add your wheat berries, but with an impact mill you can add your berries at leisure, either before or after you power on your mill. If you add your wheat berries before you power on your burr mill, you may have to take it apart, clean it and start all over.
What About Price?
If you’re going to look at a manual mill, you can get away with spending around $50 on a hand crank. If you’re wanting a convertible mill, you’re looking at an average of $700.
You may even look at milling attachments for your stand mixer, like the one for KitchenAid. These can be a good alternative to a grain mill, however they may not have the same capabilities or durability as a typical grain mill.
The same goes for a blender, if you have one. Some people like to test out the advantages of making coarse grains at home by using a high powered blender to produce cracked grains and coarse cereal. However, it won’t be able to grind wheat into flour for baking.
When it comes to burr and impact mills, there are cheaper and more expensive ones on the market depending on the make and model of the mill. They can range from $300-800 or more. Many are quite comparable in price when considering design and features so determining what mill would best suit your needs would first be necessary.
What Else To Consider When Buying A Grain Mill
If looks are important to you and you want to prioritize aesthetics when choosing a grain mill, there are many pleasing options that incorporate bamboo, beechwood or walnut finishes. Even though it was tempting for us to buy one that would look cute sitting on the countertop, the ones that were offered didn’t align with our main priorities so we decided against these options.
Speaking of priorities and one final thing to consider when choosing the right grain mill is the idea that flour ground from stone burrs may cause abrasion and wear down your teeth over time, leading to cavities. This is controversial subject, but one that did slightly influence our family’s decision on which grain mill to buy.
Although no long-term scientific studies have been conducted on the topic (that I can find), my research has led me to discover scientific journals describing archaeological findings of Egyptians who used stone grinding mechanisms to grind their flour. The studies have shown that enamel on their teeth was noticeably worn down caused by attrition, but also by abrasion caused by the grits found in the flour after it was ground.
This doesn’t mean that today’s mechanisms on burr mills will do the same – they are made of different stone materials than the ancient Egyptians had access to but as for us, we decided to safely invest in a high impact mill with stainless steel milling heads.
Conclusion
After deciding on what your priorities are and, of course, what your budget is you may need to read reviews of what specific product you’re leaning towards. I know, for us, I was torn between the Wondermill and the Nutrimill Classic. We ultimately decided on the Nutrimill.
If you’re interested in reading my own comprehensive review of our Nutrimill Classic, head on over here (post soon to come!). If you’d like to save $20 off your order at Nutrimill use code RAW20 or click here to browse their website.
In the meanwhile, feel free to drop into the comments below and let me know what other questions you have or just to say hello!
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