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Input requested: Grain mill recommendations We're seriously looking into purchasing a grain mill. Since a grain mill is a significant purchase, I've been waiting to make sure I really want one badly enough. (I hesitate to call a grain mill a "need" since we currently live without one!) I'd love some advice on grain mills! Please share your experience and recommendations! Things like brand comparisons, how fine the flour is, how long it takes to grind enough flour for a couple of loaves of bread (6-8 cups), how noisy/dusty your mill is, and how much of a taste difference you notice between freshly-milled flour and flour that's been sitting around for a while -- I want to hear it!! :) I can't tell you anything helpful, but I will be watching the comments, as I am in the market for one, too! My husband was the first to realize how much better fresh ground flour was. He tasted it and said it actually tasted good! Have you ever tasted flour out of the bag from the store? It already tastes stale. I have a nutrimil and I absolutely love it. There are lots of settings for type of grind as well as for waht speed to feed it, which allows grinding flour from rice to corn. It also will do a lot at once. It probably takes less than 5 minutes for enough for one loaf of bread. I usually grind around 5lbs of wheat berries at a time and store the flour in the freezer. Then I have enough flour for a couple of weeks worth of bread. My only complaint is that it is really loud. But I think they all are. I don't own my own grain mill. But the lady who writes on of the websites/blogs I read grinds all her own grains. She has talked a lot about her grain mills. Her website is: Her blog is: I hope you can find some information on there that will help you. I have an old magic mill that's needing a little work but nothing major. (Needs a new seal-starting to blow out some dust.) The mill has been a blessing, but I would love to have a newbie some day- this one sounds like an airplane! But, what I wanted to share was that I grind flour every 3 or 4 days and freeze what I don't use right then. Over the next couple of days, I don't have to drag out the mill and fool with all the clean-up and noise. I also make several recipes with 4 loaves of bread, they're on my site BTW;-). ......I have yet to see a mill that I wouldn't care to drag out every day. But I hope that you do! I would also look into getting one that would grind all sorts of things. You might would want to use bean flour, like soy flour one day. Mine is not supposed to do that. Best wishes in your search! Yes, I too have a Nutrimill & love it!! When I am making bread, it will grind enough grain for 6 loaves (I put 7 cups of grain through at a time, for a total of 14 cups of grain). It does produce some dust, but not a huge amount. The health benefits of grinding your own grain are significantly higher than buying "commercial" flour. It's a big investment that really pays off - and it's so healthy for you too!! Hi Tammy! Hello Tammy, I own a Nutrimill and absolutely love it. The flour tastes so much better, or should I say the things made from the flour do. It is very versatile and grinds flour from fine to coarse. The amount of dust is very minimal. I found mine at The Country Baker (www.countrybaker.com). My husband blessed me with the purchase of a Bosch Universal Mixer and a Nutrimill. WOW!!! The owner of The Country Baker (Denise Fiddler) mentions grinding popcorn kernels to make corn bread. I did that a few times and it turned out absolutely delicious. The cornbread is much different this way compared to making it with store bought cornmeal. I especially appreciate the warranty and service that comes with the Nutrimill as I messed up and broke it. I was grinding popcorn (lots of it at one time to have cornmeal for future use) and had put too much of it in the hopper unaware that I was only suppossed to grind small amounts at a time. The mill started to smoke and locked up tight. I called and was told that all I needed to do was send the milling head in. They would fix it and mail it back to me which they did. I was soooo impressed that they would do this without even charging me a dime. If this one ever gives out I would certainly buy another one just like it. We have a Nutrimill and LOVE it! It's quick and pretty quiet. We got it as a gift over a year ago and I haven't had any problems with it. We use it for our wheat, corn and mesquite beans and it works perfectly! Hugs & Blessings! I have the grain mill attachment to the Kitchen-aid and I have been extremely pleased with it. I have had my Kitchen-aid for over 20 years and the grain mill for about 15 and both have worked perfectly and I have NEVER had a problem. It takes just a few minutes to grind up enough for a couple of loaves of bread and I have been doing that every 2 to 3 days for 15+ years. :~) No dust to speak of! Taste?? The best!!!! That is what my parents do, but unfortunately they've burned out the motor on the Kitchenaid mixer at least once and had to have it repaired. Their mixer is, like yours, an older model--25-30 years old. I have the K-Tech and have loved it but had to quit grinding wheat because of my daughter's celiac disease. I used it to grind rice for rice flour and beans and corn, but I have found that the commercial makers of those flours (for gluten free baking) treat the grains differently. Just grinding that stuff straight has been bitter. So, long story short I am going to sell mine on ebay I think. I also have hundreds of pounds of wheat sealed in #10 cans but that's a whole nother story! Sounds like the nutrimill is the favorite of your readers. I have noticed quite a bit of dust when I do my grinding, but I would grind about a month's worth and then store the mill away, and freeze the flour to stay fresh. By the way, this is Western Warmth, http://westernwarmth.blogspot.com I have the Bosch grain mill and love it. It's slightly noisy but I'm sure they all are to an extent. It does grind quickly and it's not dusty or messy at all. I can grind enough for four loaves of whole wheat bread at one time. I then grind another four loaves worth and store it in the freezer until I need it for pizza, bread or whatever. Someone blessed me with a K-tech mill they did not want anymore. So, I cannot really complain. However, it is loud. But it does a 6-8c of flour in under 5min. We just take the thing out to the garage so we don't torture everyone. So, that is all I really know...the flour is fabulous...I was using the dry blade in my vita-mix, but that took a lot of time because you can only do 1 cup at a time. So this works for me. But, by the looks of these comments, I would go with the nutrimill if I were you. Cammie We have the WhisperMill by Nutrimill. I love it. It makes quite a bit of flour (never really measured) in a relatively short time. While I wouldn't call it a "whisper" it is quieter than most mills. The company says it is comparable to a vacuum cleaner...and I suppose it is. It does a great job of containing the dust too. And is super easy to clean. I don't leave my grinder out like some do (lack of counter space) so I grind a lot at one time. We freeze it in gallon sized bags, and truthfully we never have noticed a difference. Hope that helps! My family also has the Kitchen-aid grain mill attachment. It can be adjusted for how fine you want the flour (and the fine is fine!). All together, it's a great mill! :) My 2 cents... Wow, it sounds like the Nutrimill wins hands down with the people that commented so far. I kind of happened upon a mill when I bought a Vita-Mix about 7-8 years ago. I didn't look much into the grain mills on the market at the time. I actually had heard about the Vita-Mix for it's powerful blending action. The dry container to mill grains and beans was a nice side benefit to getting one. I like having something that does more than one thing, so that's how I happen to use it to grind my grains. It's noisey at first but then gets a little quieter. Corn is the loudest grain I've done, but it sure makes good cormeal. You can grind 2 cups at a time (but I've done about 3 2-cup batches, that is 6 cups in a sitting) and because the Vita-Mix grinds by the speed of the steel blades, you need to use frozen grain. That's not usually a problem for me since I store it in the freezer anyway. It does heat it a bit, by default, so although you can get a finer grind by leaving it grind longer, it will be warmer the longer you do it. When I do 2 cups (enough for one "run" to grind), it takes at most about 1 1/2 minutes. So multiply that by 3 would be under 5 minutes running time total, with it being warm towards the end. Total time might be around 10 minutes to get everything out and done unless you keep it on your counter. And yes, I brought it to Ghana...How do you think I make my tropical fruit smoothies? =) Hi Tammy, http://agardenofblessings.blogspot.com/2008/04/my-grain-mill.html I think it a great investment. Vita-Mix brand of blenders are strong enough to effectively grind flour. The drawback is you can't make as much flour at one time as you can with a grain mill. The plus is that if you are limited on space, you can get rid of your regular blender and replace it with the Vita-Mix. You won't be increasing the number of appliances in your house. From my research and experience, the Nutrimill is one of the best out there. Pleasant Hill Grain is a wonderful company to purchase it through. Mine broke shortly after purchasing (weird fluke), and they replaced it without a question. It works wonderfully. It isn't that loud, compared to my mom's old fashioned one that we would have to keep in the garage, and can grind up practically anything. Mine sits in the corner on my counter top, ready for every use! We also have the Nutrimill and have had it for a little over a year. It works great! Noisewise, it's comparable to a vacuum cleaner. It grinds quickly and takes just maybe 3 minutes or so for enough grain for 2 loaves of bread. (Haven't actually timed it, I'm guesstimating here.) So far we've only done hard and soft wheat berries and popcorn (for cornmeal) but are very pleased with the results. I've never used the finest setting but even 2/3 of the way there is quite fine. Catherine We received a used Magic Mill for Christmas last year. My aunt has had one for years and it works like a charm. It does any kind of wheat or grain (including dried corn), but not nuts or oily seeds (sesame, flax seed, etc). It grinds fine enough for pastry flour and coarse enough to do cornmeal. You can sometimes find a good deal for them on ebay. The one downfall is that it is LOUD, but it grinds quickly.  Thank you so much for all the input here!! We really appreciate it! :) Hearing all of the positive things about grain mills makes me even more excited. :) We have been accustomed to fairly fresh whole wheat flour. My mom has a grain mill of sorts (I'm not sure exactly what it is, but it grinds using stones. But it's not really an "appliance", more like a machine or something. Anyway...) and had been grinding flour for us, but it takes so long and is very loud. She said I could start coming over to grind my wheat, but there's just never a good time to go over for several hours to grind grain (especially since one of my brothers who lives there works nights and is trying to sleep all day!). It sounds like the NutriMill is much faster and would be very convenient and useful! :) That seems to be the most popular... Anyone know whether the Whisper mill/Wonder mill is worth the extra money compared to the NutriMill?? Tammy, Tammy - Here is a page that talks about both mills you mentioned- it looks as if the Whisper Mill is no longer being made? So there would be no service available even if you already had one..... http://www.pleasanthillgrain.com/index.aspx#Nutrimill It talks about the Nutrimill at the top, scroll down for the info on the Whispermill.... I have a Whisper Mill and I love it! I have ground wheat, oats, beans,and rice oh and spelt. I really like mine. It is noisy right before you put the grain in but after that it quiets down. Comparing it to others I can't I just know I love it and use it alot. And to me it was well worth the cost. I wanted something that can grind alot at a time and it does! I am very happy with our purchase. Erika I have a grain mill attachment that fits on my Bosch compact. It is very handy and was about $65.00. It doesn't grind quite as fine as the more expensive mills, but it is good enough for bread until I can afford a Cadillac model. E-bay is a good place to look, as well as refurbished models (not new, but have a new motor--which is the most expensive part anyway). We have a WonderMill and we love it! It very easy clean up and it's not as loud as some. I usually only have to do 4-6 cups at a time but I think it does more. I got mine brand new on Ebay (there's a store on there that sells them) for around $239, I think. I have a Retsel stone mill and love it. It's pretty bulky, but for some reason I just love the idea of stone ground wheat. You can adjust the coarseness--it can be very fine or very grainy, just depends on you. It's very quiet also. I love multi-taskers,so when I was looking for a grain mill, I decided to buy a Vita Mix instead. I grind mine for 3 minutes, and it is as fine as one ground by a NutriMill. It is loud, but I don't know that it's any louder than any other grain mill. I bought my Vita Mix off eBay and chose an older one with a stainless steel canister. If you buy a newer model, they have two different canisters--one for liquids and one for dry--so make sure you get one that has both. (Mine, being an older model, only has one canister). Post new comment |
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I own a NutriMill and absolutely love it. It holds a lot of grain--can't remember how many cups exactly--and does a good job of grinding finely or coarsely. I thought it sounded like a jet engine when I first got it; however, after listening to how loud some others are, I've realized it's not that bad.
I would highly recommend it.