Trapaddict

Recipes 

Is it ok to freeze your grains prior to cracking them? I am interested in purchasing my malt in bulk and portioning it off to the proper batch sizes then freezing them in vacuum packs until brewing day. Does anyone else do this and are there any detrimental effects on the malt? Flavor loss, etc. Thanks!

sonvolt

Recipes 

From my understanding of malted grain, there is not a need to do this. Your grain, stored in a dry location should last indefinitely until you crush it. Some brewers also claim that even crushed grain will last indefinitely until it is introduced to moisture.

david_42

Recipes 

Yes, freezing doesn't hurt the grain at all, provided you don't use a frost-free freezer. Frost-free systems can draw the moisture out of the grain, which can impact the flavor a bit. I freeze cracked grains as well.

But, you don't have to do anything other than keep whole grain dry, cool and free of bats, etc.

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Baron von BeeGee

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I would avoid freezing them because the fridge/freezer is notorious for imparting flavors from other foods. Storing them cool and dry is plenty adequate, especially if you can vacuum seal them (but even that is not essential). Dry is most important.

And grain will absolutely not last indefinitely, though it will last quite a long time. Grain has a small amount of oil in it that will eventually go rancid if left long enough. The figure I've seen most often quoted is ~1 year, but my grain never makes it that far so I don't have any empirical evidence to back that up with.