freeze it or fill with CO2 when you first get it (this will kill any bugs that may be present) QUOTE]
i'm confused on the "fill it with CO2.. what would you do fill the bag? How often are their bugs in this stuff.. is there a healthy way to sift through it..?
First, 50 pounds is less than 5 batches so you could just get a couple more buckets for primaries and go at it over the next few weeks
. Ok, on a more serious note, here's what I would do (er, make that AM doing as I've bought a couple hundred pounds of various grains in the last month).
Get yourself some FOOD GRADE buckets or alternatively 5 gallon mylar bags. The Home Depot Orange buckets are NOT food grade and you really don't want to store your grains directly in there. (I know that people do, but hey it's your life do what you want.) One possible source is Walmart,
here's a thread discussing them. Alternatively, it doesn't matter much about the bucket if the grains are stored in a bag that is food safe and then put in the bucket. There are a few options. One way is to use a vacuum sealer
like this Seal a Meal or a Food Saver. I happened to get this model at newegg on a sale for $25 shipped. Then, you can split up your supply into smaller quantities and seal them...they should be good that way for quite a few months as the majority of the oxygen is removed. For even longer term storage, I would recommend mylar bags and oxygen absorbers. For instance, I've used
this dealer via Amazon and they were good to deal with. With these bags, you put the grains in, put in the appropriate amount of oxygen absorbers, then seal the bag with an iron. Using this you can save dried foods for YEARS. In reality, the 5 gallon bags are probably too big (2 or 3 would hold the entire 50 pounds), so you might opt for smaller (e.g. gallon size) which would be somewhat closer to a batch size. The bags are somewhat reusable in that when you cut them open, you can trim the bag down a bit and seal again with the smaller bag.
One last thing. I use
gamma seal lids like these. While they are expensive, they are food grade and more importantly provide easy access to your stuff stored in a 5 or 6 gallon container as the lid spins on and off.
Hope this helps!
