Grain Life Span

How long would uncracked grain last in a room that holds a temp of about 65 degrees? I am looking into bulk grain purchase, although I do realize that my base grain would have to be the same for quite a few batches.

Dan

Months and months. I've recently brewed with four-year old grain (I took a break) and other than a modest reduction in efficiency there were no discernable effects. And, I'm in the middle of a keg of stout that has four-year-old roasted barley in it right now.

I wouldn't recommmend leaving it around that long.... but a few months in the kind of storage you mention should do no harm (I realize there are purists out there who will think I'm crazy).

Buy whole. Buy in bulk. Save money. Make more beer.

jp

Malted grains, like barley and wheat, if stored cool and dry and 65 F is cool, will last for at least a year if there is no rodent or insect damage. I store my grains in my garage (45 - 70 F depending on the season) in plastic trash cans with lids for about a year and have had no problems. I use in up in about a year. Malted grains stored for extended times (more than a year) can become slightly oixdized in flavor and slowly lose enzymatic activity. However, depending on the condition of the grain, grain variety, degree of skinning (lack of husk coverage), etc, this can take a few years to occur. I would say the safe figure is a year to 11/2 years and keep it cool, dry and away from insects and rodents.

Dr Malt

Thanks! This puts me one step closer to bulk grain and a mill.

beerfan said:

Thanks! This puts me one step closer to bulk grain and a mill.

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Take that step!! I just purchased a Barley Crusher and 55lbs of 2 row. My first 2 brews had efficiency above 80%!! And there is nothing like using 10lbs of grain for a brew, and staring at the bag, realizing you still have 45lbs left!!!

Also, when SWMBO sees you hand cranking the mill, and possibly breaking a sweat, she has no choice but to believe you when you say "It's saving us lots of money."

Rhino

What Rhino said exactly!
SWMBO and I aleady brewed 5 times this month and will probly do 3 or 4 more.Started out with 80# 2-row,20# crystal40,40#wheat and 5# black malt.What to brew?That's the question!
Cheers

Onescalerguy said:

What to brew?That's the question!

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Barley Wine is always fun!

Remember, from the end of the harvest (say for American grains in this example). After it gets malted, somebody has to store it! There won't be any more until the next harvest. Basically if you give it the proper conditions (as mentioned) there should be no difference than if you ordered it on a monthly basis, that is until the next harvest....which may not get sold until stock is used up.

Great point Zoebisch01 !!!!

I rember reading about storing grains for food.

Use a 5 gallon bucket put some dry ice in it put the lid on when the ice melts it leaves CO2 behind to kill off the pests.

If you had a couple of buckets it might be worth doing in the bucket that is going to be used last.

There you go. Run the CO2 through a blowoff tube into a tub of water with a lid on it. Then run the CO2 out of your blowoff container into your grain bucket to evacuate the oxygen. Recycling the CO2.

To my suprise, the US comes in 9th place in barley production.
The Russian Republics come in 1st place with over 17,000,000 metric tons, Canada 2nd place with over 13,000,000 tons. Germany 3rd with nearly 13,000,000 tons, Ukraine 4th with 11,000,000 tons, followed by France, Spain, Turkey and Austrailia. (with between 6,000,000 and 9,000,000 tons each.)

And with just a couple hundred tones more production the UK barley production would exceed that of the US. My guess is that most other EU countries are importing their barley from Russia, Ukraine, and Turkey. Only Germany and the UK are both high producers of both barley and beer in the EU. But Belgium, Denmark, the Netherlands and many more are well known for their beer. And perhaps having a somewhat low barley crop explains why BMC all dump in all that rice in the US.

I just found 6 lbs of Crystal 60 and 8 lbs of Carastan, all packaged in various amounts (.5lbs - 2 lbs) in FoodSaver (vacuum still tight) bags. Original purchase date was March of '03. Since oxidation should not be a problem, and the grain was stored in a cool basement, I should be ok with using it, correct?

Bigfoot99 said:

I just found 6 lbs of Crystal 60 and 8 lbs of Carastan, all packaged in various amounts (.5lbs - 2 lbs) in FoodSaver (vacuum still tight) bags. Original purchase date was March of '03. Since oxidation should not be a problem, and the grain was stored in a cool basement, I should be ok with using it, correct?

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Most likely, yes. But I'd open a bag and smell it right away as soon as the thing first opens. You should still have some aroma left. Then just chew on some grains. You'll know right away if you'll want to brew with it. If it is stale, don't bother.

The wife suggested our foodsaver as well. Certainly could not hurt. Please keep us posted on that really old stuff.:rockin: