Shelf Life of Malt.

[Little Rock Brewing]

Hi all. As I move into the world of AG brewing I'm looking at getting a 25kg sack of crushed Maris Otter. Postage charges are a crippler to here but Amazon have it for £44.99. But it'll take me a while to use it all. Will it store for a year or so?

 

[Surfingobo]

I wouldn’t worry personally as long as you can keep it dry. Brulosophy did some experiments I think that came back as insignificant.

 

[Rodcx500z]

I a sealed dry tub yes, even better if you leave it uncrushed and mill it when you need it

 

[Redwulf]

I use a 60L Plastic Barrel Keg from Amazon for mine and get though a bag of Maris in about 5-6 months with no problems.

I keep adjuncts in screw top 2L pots and they can keep a bit longer.

 

[Hanglow]

I'd get a mill and crush your own, it keeps a lot better uncrushed.

Pre milled doesn't really go off but it does get stale

 

[Stevieboy]

I've just made a stout with some stuff that was in my shed for about 6 months - crushed Maris Otter in 1kg sealed bags, and some opened crushed chocolate malt in a sealed FV in a bag -and it was all still fine.

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

Thanks all. Makes sense that uncrushed is a better bet. I'll have a look. Cheers.

 

[Cwrw666]

Even with crushed malt, worse case scenario is that you'll need a bit more malt than the recipe states.
BTW - if you're doing 23L brews a 25Kg sack will disappear at an alarming rate.

 

[Sadfield]

I get muntons crushed from a local brewery and the sacks always have 12-18 months on the BBD printed on the label.

 

[Obadiah Boondoggle]

At our malt buying co-operative we find that typically Muntons crushed sacks have a 18 month best buy date on them and Crisp crushed can be two years. The key is to keep it dry, but not too warm and keep in sealed containers so that vermin can't get at them. If you brew regularly, 25kg won't last that long

 

[Obadiah Boondoggle]

Hi all. As I move into the world of AG brewing I'm looking at getting a 25kg sack of crushed Maris Otter. Postage charges are a crippler to here but Amazon have it for £44.99. But it'll take me a while to use it all. Will it store for a year or so?

Our co-operative can sell Crisp MO to you for £17.14

Maris Otter Ale Malt

if you could find postage cheaper than £27 that might be an option for you

 

[crescent city Mike]

I was digging around in my garage and found a sealed, 10# plastic tub of pils malt that had apparently been on the back of a shelf for a decade. It wasn't moldy or riddled with bugs so I used it in my next batch. It was fine.

 

[An Ankoù]

I was digging around in my garage and found a sealed, 10# plastic tub of pils malt that had apparently been on the back of a shelf for a decade. It wasn't moldy or riddled with bugs so I used it in my next batch. It was fine.

I've used malt nearly that old. I don't see a problem with conditioning the beer in advance of brewing it rather than after!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Hi all. As I move into the world of AG brewing I'm looking at getting a 25kg sack of crushed Maris Otter. Postage charges are a crippler to here but Amazon have it for £44.99. But it'll take me a while to use it all. Will it store for a year or so?

Yep, it'll be fine. Malt does stale over time, but it takes 2-3 years to be noticeable and then you have to look for it.

But I would ask any breweries in the CI if you can buy via them - Randalls maybe? Presumably shipping from Guernsey would be rather less?

 

[Little Rock Brewing]

Thanks for all the replies. Got the 25kg on order. Also just bought 10m of 10mm copper pipe to make my wort cooler.

 

[nibber]

Just used 2.6Kg of my Dingemans Belgian Pilsen Malt yesterday-the 25Kg sack is dated BBE 2019,nothing wrong with it at all.
Just moved over to uncrushed sacks and they have a 2 year expiry date on them,uncrushed lasts longer.
I vac seal smaller amounts of grain.

 

[Hanglow]

You can make beer in a shoe with ten year old malt if you want, but why would you? Penny pinching is fine to a point, but ground malt is very hygroscopic and even day old pre milled malt is obviously less fresh than malt you mill just before brewing.

Just like beer, a year long bbd (or two or three) does not mean it is in best condition. It is very odd to me that people have such low standards for an ingredient that is so cheap.

 

[Sadfield]

You can make beer in a shoe with ten year old malt if you want, but why would you? Penny pinching is fine to a point, but ground malt is very hygroscopic and even day old pre milled malt is obviously less fresh than malt you mill just before brewing.

Just like beer, a year long bbd (or two or three) does not mean it is in best condition. It is very odd to me that people have such low standards for an ingredient that is so cheap.

A) I suspect even the most experienced Cicerone would not notice the difference.

B) BB dates are an indication that the product is of stable quality for a determined period of time.

C) For the OP it isn't cheap as they clearly have cost and availability to factor in, for delivery to a small island in the Channel.

D) It must be an inconvenience to only brew with wet hops at harvest time.

 

[Richard_H]

Recently listened to a BeerSmith podcast that covered this subject (podcast 35). From memory the expert opinion was that your base malts if kept dry would last up to 2 years, and if my memory serves me correctly then certain grains such as roasted barley lasts even longer but you may experience trouble converting those sugars into alcohol.

They also talk about moisture, and that should be taken into account when you are weighing out your grains. Link below for anyone who is interested:

http://beersmith.com/blog/2012/03/3...-bob-hansen-from-briess-beersmith-podcast-35/

 

[Northern_Brewer]

A) I suspect even the most experienced Cicerone would not notice the difference.

The difference is noticeable, certainly side-by-side. I've brewed with grain that was 2.5y old and 6 months old, and the older one was certainly "duller" in comparison. You wouldn't want to use it for eg a tight competition, but at the same time it hadn't suddenly become disgusting.