Use by date for crushed grain?

[Benfleet Brewery]

In order to make best use of postage costs I'm looking to start ordering enough grain and hops for my next three brews every time I place an order. It means I need to know in advance what I want to make but that's fine. I'm just wondering about the ingredients deteriorating before I get to use them. I freeze the hops so that shouldn't be a problem but it does mean that the third batch I do will use grain that was crushed some 6 or 7 weeks ago. Do you think this will be ok?

 

[Gerryjo]

Your grain will be fine as long as you have it stored in an airtight container. I get mine crushed and buy a 25kg bag to save money on postage and don't have any issues..

 

[Drunkula]

Same. I've got 25kg sacks of grain in those under-bed suck out the air things and even after 9 months I can't tell any difference.

 

[HarryFlatters]

CML send them out in individual 5kg sacks so they're easy to store.

I've keep all my supplies in a freezer in the garage. They've been fine after a year stored that way.

 

[Benfleet Brewery]

Ah, thank you. Might try saving a few more bob and upping to 25kg sacks too then. Never thought of freezing it!

 

[Birkin]

I did an experiment a while ago with some grain that was well over a year out of date, i figured use cheap yeast and hops and all i'm losing if it goes wrong is a couple of quid. It turned out fantastic, I thoroughly enjoyed it!

I asked on here at the time, and i think the general rule is, if it still looks and smells like normal grain then it should be fine to use, regardless of how old it is..