Buying Pre Crushed Grain

Hi Guys,

I have my all grain set up ready to go (minus a grain mill), and now its time to buy the ingredients. Does anyone know a good online store where I can buy pre-ground malted barley in bulk?

ChimayLover said:

Hi Guys,

I have my all grain set up ready to go (minus a grain mill), and now its time to buy the ingredients. Does anyone know a good online store where I can buy pre-ground malted barley in bulk?

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Northern Brewers is well respected in the country: http://www.northernbrewer.com/

There are several good online HBS stores. Depending on you geographic area, some may offer better shipping prices than others. But I'd suggest getting a mill - you'll be able to benefit from bulk grain purchases and be able to optimize your crush.

There is also the basic problem that crushed grains can't be stored as long as uncrushed grains.

Go to some local brewpubs/micros and see if you can get in with their orders. That's what I do and its the cheapest route...

These folks are nice. I din't ask for my grains crushed, but they did. Unfortunately they crushed a little finer than I would have liked.

http://www.mountainhomebrew.com/

Seems I get a different answer every time I ask this, but how long do crushed grains keep?

Benny Blanco said:

Seems I get a different answer every time I ask this, but how long do crushed grains keep?

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Ideally they should be crushed soon before brewing and shouldn't sit around too long, but I've seen posts here that said people had no problems letting pre-crushed grains sit for a few weeks. You could always vacuum seal them if you needed an extended time.

I understand you just got set up for all grain. Your initial post led me to believe anyway.

I know that some places will charge you for milling your grain. At some point, it will pay for itself to invest in a mill. Buy in bulk and freshly milled is probably where most of want to get to.

I've used crushed grain that was a little over a month old, and it made great beer.

That being said, my advise is, if you want to keep grain in bulk, don't use pre-crushed. I usually just bit the bullet and go to my LHBS and get some fresh crushed grain a day or two before brewday.

delarob said:

These folks are nice. I din't ask for my grains crushed, but they did. Unfortunately they crushed a little finer than I would have liked.

http://www.mountainhomebrew.com/

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These guys are great, so far I've bought all my supplies through them and they've been very helpful. I don't think their mill has a lot of variation on the size of crush so you might ask them to hold off next time. They crushed my last grain order and it's turned out well so far.