barefoot_trashko
Well-Known Member
If I grind my grain a couple days early can it just be stored in a bag/container as long as the temperature remains fairly cool?
when to grind
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barefoot_trashko said:
Yep, no problem. Same storage requirements as unground, basically.
ultravista
Well-Known Member
Is it best to refrigerate or freeze grains for long term storage? Does it matter if milled or whole?
Gameface
Well-Known Member
Is there anything wrong with vacuum sealing small amounts of crushed grain?
Milled grains will get old faster, though there is some debate about how much quicker. Some people say they can detect staling in milled grains in as little as a week, but in a recent interview one of the head techies for Briess said that ground grains lose only about 10-20% of their shelf-life. If stored properly, whole grains are good for months or more, and I've stored milled grains for similarly long times without a loss in crispness or flavor.
How you store is important though. Cool, dry, and sealed. I am not aware of any real tests on grain freezing, but my intuition is that it isn't a great idea. With roasted coffee, certainly, you wouldn't want to freeze the beans unless you were planning on storing them for a year or more. I suspect that this applies similarly to grains, though I can't be sure.
Other than the work and the plastic, no down sides I can think of.
samc
Well-Known Member
The grain has a built in protector which shields it from Oxygen/moisture/heat/light, etc. Once you mill it that is gone and anything you can do to continue that protection is for the better. Unless you had a blast freezer and a way to properly defrost I'd skip the freezing. If you freeze something slowly it can form ice crystals which is bad, I'm sure you've tasted it in ice cream - yuck.
+1 Vacuum seal would be a good way to store it.
+1 Vacuum seal would be a good way to store it.
I usually try to grind my grain the night before. One less thing to deal with on brew day. I try, but it rarely seems to happen, though.
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