If you want to start milling your own flour for the health benefits and versatility but are on a tight budget, you should consider NutriMill’s Impact Grain Mill. This compact, high-speed grain mill is easy to store and available at an affordable price point. Keep reading for my review of the NutriMill Impact Grain Mill.
This post contains affiliate links, and I may earn a commission if you choose to order through the links below at no additional cost to you. Thank you for supporting my small business!
What is a Grain Mill?
A grain mill is a device used to grind grains, seeds, or other types of food into flour, meal, or other powdered forms. Grain mills can be manual or electric and are used for a variety of purposes, such as making bread, grinding unique flours, or preparing animal feed.
Types of Grain Mills:
- Manual Grain Mills: These traditional mills are ideal for small-scale use and are operated by hand. They are portable and do not require electricity.
- Electric Grain Mills: Powered by electricity, these are faster and more efficient. These mills are suitable for larger quantities of grain or frequent use.
- Stone Mills: These mills use stones to grind the grain, preserving nutrients and creating a coarser texture. This is the type of mill that the Harvest Grain Mill is.
- Steel Burr Mills: These mills use steel grinding plates for finer flour, ideal for commercial or home baking.
- Impact Mills: These mills use high-speed blades to crush the grains into very fine flour, often used for producing superfine flour. This is the type of mill that the NutriMill Impact Grain Mill is.
About the NutriMill Impact Grain Mill
The Impact Grain Mill is a high-speed mill that uses motors to crush grains into a fine flour. It is compact for a grain mill in terms of size, and it is much more affordable than other models on the market.
At the time I am writing this, the grain mill is available for $199. Use my code THEMILLERACRES to save an additional $20!
Benefits of the NutriMill Impact Grain Mill
Milling your own flour offers a range of benefits such as helping you connect with how your food is made to preserving nutrients in your food.
Health Benefits
One of the most significant advantages is the nutritional value of freshly-milled flour. Unlike store-bought options, which often lose vitamins and minerals over time, fresh flour retains its full complement of nutrients, including B vitamins, fiber, and antioxidants.
Additionally, the process allows you to include the whole grain—bran, germ, and all—offering maximum health benefits. The flavor of freshly milled flour is another compelling reason to try it. The natural oils in the grain contribute to a nutty, complex taste that is unlike store-bought flour.
Plus, milling your own flour helps you avoid the preservatives, additives, and bleaching agents commonly found in commercial flours.
Versatility
Milling flour at home also gives you control over your ingredients. You can customize the texture of your flour, from coarse meal to ultra-fine, and create unique blends of grains by putting different ingredients into the mill at once.
Cost Savings
Over time, milling your own flour can even save money, as whole grains are often cheaper to buy in bulk and last longer than milled flour. Pre-milled speciality flours are not cheap, but milling your own can help you save over time! Home-milled flour is a great option for people with special dietary needs.
Sustainability
Beyond the practical benefits, milling your own flour is a sustainable and eco-friendly approach to baking. It reduces packaging waste and supports local or organic grain sourcing, which can lower your environmental impact.
What Can You Mill in the Impact Grain Mill?
This Impact Grain Mill can mill far beyond turning wheat to flour! According to NutriMill, you can mill any dry, non-oily whole grains, legumes, or seeds. Some of these include:
- Hard white wheat berries
- Hard red wheat berries
- Soft white wheat berries
- Spelt
- Mung bean
- Quinoa
- Red lentils
- Millet
- Black rice
- White rice
- Brown rice
- Rye
- Black beans
- White beans
- Corn
- Barley
- Kamut
- Einkorn
- Amaranth
- Chickpeas
- Peas
- And more!
You can also blend multiple ingredients at the same time to create your own unique flour blend!
Instead of buying speciality flours, you can buy the dry ingredients and mill your own! This is much more affordable and preserves more nutrients as mentioned above.
What Should You Not Mill?
The following foods should not be milled in this grain mill. Trust me, I milled flax in my Harvest Grain Mill once without knowing and nearly ruined it!
- Oatmeal
- Rolled Oats
- Dried Fruit
- Dried Vegetables
- Sprouted Grains or Beans (unless thoroughly dried)
- Sesame Seeds
- Flax Seeds
- Sunflower Seeds
- Coffee Beans
- Chia Seeds
- Spices
- Nuts
- Gofi Beans
- Herbs
- Hemp
- Sugar
- Tapioca
- Chocolate
Setting Up the Impact Grain Mill
The instructions make set up of this grain mill really easy! Simply attach the lid to the canister, lock it into the mill, and then add the grain hopper on top of the mill!
Cleaning the Impact Grain Mill
This Impact Grain Mill includes the mill, a canister, and a hopper (this is a cup that holds the grain before it is milled).
The hopper, canister, canister lid, cyclo cup, and filter holder are all dishwasher safe; however, I recommend hand-washing for longevity. I don’t hand wash my mill every time, but I do recommend wiping it down with a clean cloth between uses.
You must hand wash or replace the filter when it needs cleaned, and it needs to be dry before using it again. You can only spot clean the motor base, DO NOT immerse it in water. To clean the milling heads, you can mill two cups of white rice at the fastest speed.
Pros
- Compact
- Affordable
- Effective
- Fine grain
- Perfect for bread making
- Can mill large amounts of grain at once
- Includes a canister to hold the flour
As mentioned above, The NutriMill Impact Grain Mill has a lot of pros! It has a compact design that has parts that nest inside of each other to save space when storing. The mill is powerful and ground the wheat almost as fine as store-bought flour!
This mill is way more affordable than other grain mills and gets the job done! It is priced at $199 at the time I am writing this. In comparison, NutriMill’s Classic Grain Mill is priced at $299, and their Harvest Grain Mill is priced at $429.
This mill can hold up to 12 cups of flour at a time, so it is ideal for bread bakers who like to bake in bulk! (The grain hopper can hold 8 cups of grain, which translates to roughly 12 cups of flour.
I also like that the mill includes a canister to catch and hold the flour. Many other grain mills require a separate bowl, and this mill has everything you need all in one place!
Although I love my Harvest Grain Mill, I actually prefer how fine the Impact Mill is able to get the grain for bread baking. If you’re on a budget and want to start milling your own grains, the Impact is the way to go!
Cons
- Not aesthetic
- Loud
- Multiple parts
- Doesn’t preserve as many nutrients
Even though I think this is an incredible mill, there are a few cons. It is not the most aesthetic design, unlike the Harvest which looks beautiful sitting out on the counter.
This mill is also really loud. It mills quickly, but it sure isn’t quiet! It also has multiple parts instead of being an all-in-one.
Additionally, stone mills like the Harvest usually preserve more nutrients than impact mills because they grind the grain at a lower temperature. They are also more gentle which keep more of the bran and germ in the final flour. These components have the most nutrients.
Impact grain mills do preserve more nutrients than store-bought flours, but the harsher process can damage some of the final nutrient-contents according to my research.
Compare to Harvest Grain Mill
- Finer flour
- Louder
- Not as beautiful
- Multiple parts
- Storage tub, no separate bowl required
- Much more affordable
- Durability
As I touched on above, the Impact Grain Mill produces a finer flour than the Harvest. It also has an adjustable knob with numbers on it so that you can get the same consistency every time! The Harvest also has a knob, but it doesn’t have numbers so it’s more difficult to know where to turn it to adjust.
The Impact does have multiple parts, which could be either a pro or con! It doesn’t require a separate bowl for the flour; however, it is more parts to store.
It doesn’t feel quite as durable as the Harvest because it is made of plastic. However, it is much more affordable than the Harvest.
The Harvest most likely preserves more nutrients due to its stone-mill design.
Read this post for my full review of the Harvest Grain Mill.
Which Mill Should I Buy?
If you are on a tight budget, I highly recommend the Impact Grain Mill. If you want a beautiful, aesthetic mill and have more to spend, I recommend the Harvest Grain Mill.
The Harvest Grain Mill uses stones to grind the wheat while the Impact Grain Mill uses a motor. In my experience, the impact mill gets a much finer flour. If you prefer a nuttier, more textured flour, the Harvest is a great choice. If you want a fine flour more similar to traditional, store-bought flour, I recommend the Impact.
Both are excellent, high-quality mills, they just have different strengths and price points!
Where to Buy Fresh Grains to Mill
I buy all of my grains and beans from Azure Standard. Azure Standard is a bulk food co-op that offers organic, non-GMO foods at an affordable price.
While you can have Azure products shipped directly to your home, it is much more affordable to pick them up at a local drop site once a month (depending on where you are located).
Click here to read more about Azure Standard.
Here are some of my favorite products to order from Azure, all of which can be milled!
- Hard White Wheat Berries (for whole wheat baking)
- Soft White Wheat Berries (for pancakes, sandwich bread, pastries, etc.)
- Dried Black Beans
- Dried Great Northern Beans
- Rice
- Popcorn
How to Store the Dried Ingredients
I share much more in-depth on how I store my dried ingredients from Azure Standard in this blog post. But, here is a quick overview:
Since I buy in bulk, I store them in 5-gallon, food-grade buckets in our cellar. I store them in Mylar bags to preserve their freshness, add an oxygen absorber, and heat seal it with a heat sealer like this or a hair straightener. Then, I put them in the buckets as mentioned above.
In my working pantry in my kitchen (which is really a simple open shelf), I store them in these 1-gallon glass jars with a lid. I don’t add oxygen absorbers because I am constantly using and refilling these jars!
How to Store Fresh Milled Flour
I prefer to store the whole grains and just mill before use! However, if you do need to store fresh-milled flour, here are some tips:
To store it for short-term use, transfer the flour to an airtight container and refrigerate it for 7-10 days.
To freeze the flour, place it in a freezer-safe, airtight container for up to six months. Always allow frozen flour to return to room temperature before using it for baking.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the Impact Grain Mill thoroughly impressed me! If you want to start milling your own flour on a budget, the Impact Grain Mill will not disappoint!
Use my code THEMILLERACRES to save $20 on the NutriMill Impact Grain Mill!
Thanks for the post! You shared that “the harsher process can damage some of the final nutrient-contents according to my research.” I was wondering if you would be able to share what that research was. I’m very interested in the Impact, but if it’s not going to be as effective as I’d like I’ll go a different route. Thank you!
Thanks so much for taking the time to read! I read on a few websites that stone mills do not heat up as much as impact mills. Higher heat can impact nutrient retention, but I also read that most modern mills have heat controls or don’t get extremely hot.
Here’s a few websites that discuss this:
https://www.farm2flour.com/blogs/news/why-stone-milled-flour-reigns-supreme-a-look-at-4-milling-methods#:~:text=Nutrient%20Preservation:%20Stone%2Dmilling%20operates%20at%20a%20slower,a%20wholesome%20ingredient%20for%20your%20baking%20needs.
“Nutrient Preservation: Stone-milling operates at a slower speed and lower temperature compared to other milling styles. This helps retain the essential nutrients and enzymes present in the wheat. Vitamins, minerals, and fiber are preserved, ensuring that our flour remains a wholesome ingredient for your baking needs.”
This website also discusses the higher heat: https://www.keepingitholistic.com/home-grain-milling-101/
“Impact mills, like the Wondermill and Nutrimill, contain a ring of steel fins on the inside of the mill. When the grain hits these fins, it explodes. This creates a louder sound than other types of mills. The flour produced by these mills is warmer than other types of mills, which can impact the amount of nutrients in the flour.”
However, this article talks about how most modern impact mills do not heat above 120 degrees and that the nutrient loss is minimal: https://soulyrested.com/impact-vs-stone-mill/#:~:text=Don't%20let%20the%20marketing,flour%20from%20a%20stone%20mill.
I was unable to find info on if the Nutrimill Impact has a heat control setting, but I’d be happy to reach out to them to find out if you’d like!
I was just wondering… now that you’ve had the Nutrimill Impact for awhile, would you still recommend it? Have you noticed any issues? Do you use it regularly, or do you opt for the Harvest more often? Thanks!
I personally use my Harvest more but mostly because it is sitting out on my counter. I haven’t had issues with he Impact and it is great for a finer flour and a less expensive mill, I just reach for the Harvest more simply because of convenience!