DERIVATIVE INSTRUMENTS - Assets And Liabilities (Details)	12 Months Ended
Oct. 31, 2017 USD ($) MMBTU bu gal	Oct. 31, 2016 USD ($) bu
Derivatives, Fair Value [Line Items]
Cash collateral (restricted cash)	$ 75,189
Derivative assets	244,294	$ 1,228,926
Derivative liabilities	$ 40,379
Granite Falls Energy, LLC Excluding Heron Lake BioEnergy, LLC \| Corn Contracts
Derivatives, Fair Value [Line Items]
Total nonmonetary notional amount outstanding \| bu	1,495,000	5,220,000
Granite Falls Energy, LLC Excluding Heron Lake BioEnergy, LLC \| Ethanol Contracts
Derivatives, Fair Value [Line Items]
Total nonmonetary notional amount outstanding \| gal	420,000
Granite Falls Energy, LLC Excluding Heron Lake BioEnergy, LLC \| Derivatives held by a broker
Derivatives, Fair Value [Line Items]
Cash collateral (restricted cash)	$ 75,000
Derivative liabilities	$ 12,000
Granite Falls Energy, LLC Excluding Heron Lake BioEnergy, LLC \| Long/Purchase position \| Corn Contracts
Derivatives, Fair Value [Line Items]
Total nonmonetary notional amount outstanding \| bu	200,000	3,300,000
Granite Falls Energy, LLC Excluding Heron Lake BioEnergy, LLC \| Short/Sale position \| Corn Contracts
Derivatives, Fair Value [Line Items]
Total nonmonetary notional amount outstanding \| bu	1,295,000	1,920,000
Heron Lake BioEnergy, LLC \| Corn Contracts
Derivatives, Fair Value [Line Items]
Total nonmonetary notional amount outstanding \| bu	1,120,000	4,285,000
Heron Lake BioEnergy, LLC \| Ethanol Contracts
Derivatives, Fair Value [Line Items]
Total nonmonetary notional amount outstanding \| gal	420,000
Heron Lake BioEnergy, LLC \| Natural Gas Contracts
Derivatives, Fair Value [Line Items]
Total gas derivative nonmonetary notional amount outstanding \| MMBTU	120,000
Heron Lake BioEnergy, LLC \| Derivatives held by a broker
Derivatives, Fair Value [Line Items]
Derivative liabilities	$ 12,000
Heron Lake BioEnergy, LLC \| Long/Purchase position \| Corn Contracts
Derivatives, Fair Value [Line Items]
Total nonmonetary notional amount outstanding \| bu	215,000	3,100,000
Heron Lake BioEnergy, LLC \| Short/Sale position \| Corn Contracts
Derivatives, Fair Value [Line Items]
Total nonmonetary notional amount outstanding \| bu	905,000	1,185,000
Not Designated as Hedging Instruments
Derivatives, Fair Value [Line Items]
Derivative assets	$ 244,294	$ 1,228,926
Derivative liabilities	$ 40,379
Not Designated as Hedging Instruments \| Commodity Contract [Member]
Derivatives, Fair Value [Line Items]
Maximum term of corn, ethanol and natural gas derivatives entered to protect cash flows (in months)	24 months
Not Designated as Hedging Instruments \| Granite Falls Energy, LLC Excluding Heron Lake BioEnergy, LLC \| Corn Contracts
Derivatives, Fair Value [Line Items]
Derivative assets	$ 102,650	63,050
Not Designated as Hedging Instruments \| Granite Falls Energy, LLC Excluding Heron Lake BioEnergy, LLC \| Ethanol Contracts
Derivatives, Fair Value [Line Items]
Derivative assets		503,538
Derivative liabilities	12,749
Not Designated as Hedging Instruments \| Heron Lake BioEnergy, LLC \| Corn Contracts
Derivatives, Fair Value [Line Items]
Derivative assets	141,644	388,525
Not Designated as Hedging Instruments \| Heron Lake BioEnergy, LLC \| Ethanol Contracts
Derivatives, Fair Value [Line Items]
Derivative assets		$ 273,813
Derivative liabilities	12,249
Not Designated as Hedging Instruments \| Heron Lake BioEnergy, LLC \| Natural Gas Contracts
Derivatives, Fair Value [Line Items]
Derivative liabilities	$ 15,381

Fair value, after the effects of master netting arrangements, of a financial asset or other contract with one or more underlyings, notional amount or payment provision or both, and the contract can be net settled by means outside the contract or delivery of an asset, expected to be settled within one year or normal operating cycle, if longer. Includes assets not subject to a master netting arrangement and not elected to be offset.

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Nominal energy measure used to calculate payments on a derivative instrument.

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Nominal volume used to calculate payments on a derivative instrument.

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Line items represent financial concepts included in a table. These concepts are used to disclose reportable information associated with domain members defined in one or many axes to the table.

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Maximum length of time over which the entity is hedging its exposure to the variability in future cash flows for forecasted transactions, excluding those forecasted transactions related to the payment of variable interest on existing financial instruments, in 'PnYnMnDTnHnMnS' format, for example, 'P1Y5M13D' represents the reported fact of one year, five months, and thirteen days.

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Amount of cash and cash equivalents restricted as to withdrawal or usage. Cash includes, but is not limited to, currency on hand, demand deposits with banks or financial institutions, and other accounts with general characteristics of demand deposits. Cash equivalents include, but are not limited to, short-term, highly liquid investments that are both readily convertible to known amounts of cash and so near their maturity that they present insignificant risk of changes in value because of changes in interest rates.

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