GRAIN MILL BUYING GUIDE

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WHICH GRAIN MILL IS BEST?

The quality mills we offer at Pleasant Hill Grain have a wide range of abilities and use a variety of unique designs. This grain mill overview page addresses common grain milling questions, like: How to make flour? How finely should a mill grind? How important is milling speed? What difference does burr type make? With different mills offering very different degrees of versatility, choosing one can seem overwhelming at first—but understanding a few grain mill fundamentals will help you narrow your search down to a grain mill that’s ideal for your needs. 

The single most sought-after function in a grain mill is the ability to make fine flour from whole grains, including gluten-containing grains like hard wheat, spelt or rye, as well as gluten-free (GF) choices like rice, oats and quinoa. For most users, this fine flour ability is a non-negotiable, “must have” feature. How fine is fine enough? Most home grain mill users are mainly interested in making whole grain bread with excellent rise and texture, and every one of our grain mills will produce an ideal grind for bread flour from a wide variety of grains. 

If you’re interested in making pastries, you’ll want a mill that can grind to an ultra-fine texture. The finest grinding ability is also required to make fine flour from white rice, a staple grain for many who follow a gluten-free diet. In a moment we’ll discuss what grain mill characteristics to look for if ultra-fine grinding is among your goals. 

Certain design and performance factors are important to understand as you begin the process of selecting a grain mill. The overview below will provide helpful perspective on different mill designs and their suitability to achieve your aims. Our product pages provide the most detailed information on individual mills, but it’s helpful to understand the forest a bit before you start studying the trees. 

How to Make Flour

TYPE OF MILLING MECHANISM

The heart of a grain mill is its grinding burrs, and three basic types of burrs are used in home grain mills: Stone burr, impact and steel burr. The type of burrs that a mill uses dictates many of the key characteristics and abilities of the mill. 

STONE BURR GRAIN MILLS

Quality stone burr mills are made in every size from small to very large, with output speeds to match. They’re quieter than impact mills. Every stone burr mill we offer has the widest possible texture range; they can produce ultra fine or very fine flour, coarser flour, meal texture, cereal grind, and even cracked grain. The stone burrs in most modern small mills have a synthetic engineered composition for precision, uniformity, efficient grinding, and long burr life. Quality modern mill stones are long lasting, cool-grinding, and never contribute grit to your flour. 

Stone burr mills grind all dry grains and beans and some can be used for small quantities of fibrous materials like dried spices. They aren’t suitable for wet or oily materials. A combination of timeless design and modern technology, these mills are heir to a tradition that spans millennia. Both electric and hand crank stone burr mills are available. Austrian-made  KoMo grain mills combine the most advanced ceramic-corundum burr design with German-manufactured motors and handsome hardwood cabinetry.  KoMo’s exciting new Mio line offers the same internal milling design and your choice of colorful trim options, with some components made of revolutionary new Arboblend biopolymer.  Mockmill grain mills also offer ceramic-corundum burrs, and feature cabinets made entirely of Arboblend. 

IMPACT GRAIN MILLS

Impact mills produce flour only, typically in a range adjustable from coarser flour to very fine flour; they cannot grind a cereal texture, or coarser cracked grain. They’re suitable for dry grains and beans, and cannot grind oily, wet or fibrous materials. Impact mills (pictured left) have become very popular since their introduction about thirty years ago. The market leaders in this category are the  NutriMill Classic and the  WonderMill. While impact mills technically have steel burrs, generally they aren’t known as “steel burr mills”, a name that refers to slower-turning mills that crush grain between rotating steel plates or cones (described below.)

STEEL BURR GRAIN MILLS

The Family Grain Mill is a modular system that allows quick-change choices of motor or hand drive units, and processing heads that include a flour mill, grain flaker, meat grinder and food processor. Made in Germany to exacting fit and finish tolerances, the Family Grain Mill offers exceptional versatility.  

Because their grinding surfaces are nonporous, steel burr mills can grind some materials that are wet, oily or fibrous.  

All of the steel burr grain mills in this section feature long life, replaceable grinding burrs for years and years of peak performance.

ELECTRIC, HAND CRANK, OR BOTH

A hand crank mill will let you make flour without electricity, whether the power goes out unexpectedly or you’re at a site that never has power. And to give you the plug-in alternative, motor drives are available for all of our hand crank grain grinders. There are a number of poorly-designed mills on the market that require such a high turning effort that they really aren’t of any practical use. You don’t have to worry about that problem with a mill from Pleasant Hill Grain because we don’t sell mills like that. Nevertheless, grinding hard grain into fine flour takes a fair amount of power, and many of our customers like to have a motorizing option for their hand crank mill, both for ease of use and for the higher output speed that a motor provides. Some start out with the whole setup, and others begin with the manual mill and add the motor later.