Storage of grains

[kimosabby]

Quick question on storage on grains.

Was looking at getting a 25kg bag of Maris Otter Pale Malt crushed as its good value instead of multiple 1kg bags. Got the GF at Xmas and intention was to do 1 brew a month but its working out 1 every 2 months so a 25kg bag would last me a year. Will crushed malt last that long and what are the favourable storage conditions for crushed grains.

On another note Ive done some freezing of hops but never been that impressed months down the line.

 

[Clint]

For a bit extra you can get your grain bagged in 5kg and sealed. This will last a year. Some people use one of those blue screw top chutney barrels which are also worth a look. I keep mine in the bag in the box in the house. As for hops order from Cross my Loof as you need them...with free p&p.

 

[Slid]

I am not sure that brewing 5kg of grain every 2 months will be compatible with buying a crushed sack of 25kg of MOPM.
Also, the longer you keep hops, the less brilliant they will be, especially if the vacuum sealed bag has been opened.

May I suggest buying AG kits? If you get two at a time, it will cut down on the distribution costs and they will keep quite well, I would think.

 

[GerritT]

Corona mill will set you back some tens £, but there was a brulosophy experiment where half year old milled malt vs half year old unmilled malt didn't make a difference.

Tip: vacuum sealing.

 

[Slid]

For a bit extra you can get your grain bagged in 5kg and sealed. This will last a year. Some people use one of those blue screw top chutney barrels which are also worth a look. I keep mine in the bag in the box in the house. As for hops order from Cross my Loof as you need them...with free p&p.

Yeah, what Clint says is also a good approach. I have one of "those blue screw top chutney barrels", but would suggest that 9 warm-ish months is unlikely to be ideal.

 

[Slid]

Corona mill will set you back some tens £, but there was a brulosophy experiment where half year old milled malt vs half year old unmilled malt didn't make a difference.

Tip: vacuum sealing.

Read a lot of Brulosophy thingy's and essentially nothing makes any difference, if you brew light, fast, force carbonate and feed it to Coors Light drinkers. "Go Figure", as the younger people say.

 

[kimosabby]

cheers for all that; once open no matter where it is or its how stored its degrading.

Smaller bags or up my production...

 

[kimosabby]

Read a lot of Brulosophy thingy's and essentially nothing makes any difference, if you brew light, fast, force carbonate and feed it to Coors Light drinkers. "Go Figure", as the younger people say.

can I just check is brulosophy a member

 

[Drunkula]

I had a bag of crushed pale malt open for 8 months - no difference. Kept it in a fermenting bin in the spare room. I was going to make a grain mill but after that I'm leaving it as a pasta machine.
As long as it doesn't get damp you're fine.

 

[MyQul]

I keep my crushed base malt in large zip lock bags filled to the top to keep the air out, then stored in a 60l screw top barrel. The grain keeps for months and months

 

[Slid]

Hilarious thread!

brulosophy is not a member on the Forum, to the best of my knowledge, but the main "plus" you can get from their stuff is that if you clean and sanitise, you can not really cock it up much.

 

[Hoppyland]

Well here's a surprise - there's a lot of the above that I don't agree with!!
For me, malt does go off, especially if stored in warm conditions, and pre-crushed malt goes off even quicker. In my experience, it is not like an On/Off switch. Malt very gradually deteriorates. Yes, you can make very decent beer from old malt, but I doubt if it will be anywhere near as good as using fresh malt. To me, malt (especially if pre-crushed) is very prone to oxidation. Difficult to detect at first, but gradually the deterioration becomes very noticeable.
To me, the oxidation effect is a bit like buying cous-cous or bulghar wheat. 20 years ago we gave up - it all tasted awful. Now, cous-cous tends to be sold in sealed packets in a protective atmosphere and, wow! it is actually edible. It doesn't have that rather rancid, tin-of-paint like smell. Great! But, still, if you keep it opened in a warm kitchen you'll gradually get that horrible flavour creeping in.
I recently decided to try an unusual (for me) style of beer, and bought a Mangrove Jack kit from GetErBrewed. It was a kit with extract and steeped dark grains. Upon opening the bag of crushed grains I got the unmistakable smell of slight rancidification. So, the grains all went into the compost bin. I milled my own equivalent from stock whole grains (I'm usually an AG brewer, and I normally use whole grain malt). The result smelt sweet, not at all rancid, and the resultant beer was good.
This in no way a criticism of GetErBrewed, I just reckon that the kit had been shipped over from the US, probably stored in less than ideal conditions, and was therefore compromised.

 

[Cwrw666]

I always get about 10% better efficiency when I grind my own pale malt compared to buying crushed. Always. I thought it was the fine-ness of the grind but this last bag of malt the Homebrew Company sent me crushed by mistake so before each brew I passed it through the grinder (I thought there was a bit too much uncrushed grain in it as it came). Result - still getting 10% less efficiency.

 

[An Ankoù]

Crushed or not. Keep it very dry. I've got 4 25 kg bags on the go and a couple in reserve (worried about costs after Brexit until I discovered the Homebrew Company Eire) I use a good bit of thick cord to seriously tie off the opening after use and I keep them either in a 60 litre blue maceration barrels or small black, plastic dustbins. Try and turn it round in a year, if not it'll still keep good. BUT KEEP IT DRY.

 

[BarnBrian]

For a bit extra you can get your grain bagged in 5kg and sealed. This will last a year. Some people use one of those blue screw top chutney barrels which are also worth a look. I keep mine in the bag in the box in the house. As for hops order from Cross my Loof as you need them...with free p&p.

The 60 litre drums hold about 30 kgs of grain so are perfect for 25kg +

 

[foxbat]

Well here's a surprise - there's a lot of the above that I don't agree with!!
For me, malt does go off, especially if stored in warm conditions, and pre-crushed malt goes off even quicker. In my experience, it is not like an On/Off switch. Malt very gradually deteriorates. Yes, you can make very decent beer from old malt, but I doubt if it will be anywhere near as good as using fresh malt. To me, malt (especially if pre-crushed) is very prone to oxidation. Difficult to detect at first, but gradually the deterioration becomes very noticeable.

If you can smell it then I would guess that moisture has got in. Warmth doesn't help of course, organisms grow quicker when it's warm but without moisture they won't grow at all.

 

[britton]

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/332905269588

This is what I use

 

[An Ankoù]

https://rover.ebay.com/rover/0/0/0?mpre=https://www.ebay.co.uk/ulk/itm/332905269588

This is what I use

Me too.

 

[GerritT]

5 kgs mals come in foodgrade buckets already, no need for other storage.

 

[Old_P]

I purchase my base malts in 25kg bags and store the uncrushed grains in airtight containers that keeps them nice and fresh. Now, if I knew supplies would provide specialty malts in airtight containers I would definitely purchase larger quantities i.e. 5kg as shown above. But no supplier I know offers that, can anyone point me in the right direction?