Excess of crystal malt - need ideas

Without going into details, I find myself with an excess of milled crystal malt on hand. At first I wasn't worried, but then read milled malts are only good for a couple weeks, so I need some ideas to use the malt.

I do steeped grain and partial mashes in my brewing - AG is not an option at this point. I have 4 fermenters (2@5gal and 2@6 gal) but only room for 3 in my cooler. Here's what I have on hand:

10# 60L Crystal
5# 120L Crystal
3# 150L Crystal
15# 2-row malt
5# Vienna malt
50# Light DME
Various hops

The 2 row and Vienna shouldn't be a problem as I can use them up pretty quickly. Some of 120L and 150L I can use for Brandon O's graff, but that still leaves me with a lot of (mostly) 60L crystal. I need some ideas for crystal heavy recipes I can brew to use up my grain before it goes stale.

Can I extend the shelf life of milled grains by vacuum packing and freezing?

If you vacuum seal them, and keep them cool, they should last for much longer.

With crystal 60L and plenty of base malt, you could make a very nice amber. I like to have some lower lovibond crystal malt, but you could get by with using 2 pounds Vienna, 2 pounds crystal 60L, and DME to get you to 1.055. Bitter to 45 IBUs, and use centennial/cascade for flavor and aroma.

You could do an Arrogant Bastard clone, with 1.5 pounds crystal 120L, some two-row, and enough DME to get you to 1.070. That would use 3-4 ounces of chinook.

Do you have any idea how long they'd keep vacuum sealed and frozen? If they'd keep for a couple months I should be good to go. I'll burn up about half in the next week or two, and freeze the rest.

I should have also mentioned that the grains I listed were only the ones I have in excess. I can get whatever else I need from th LHBS to round out recipes.

Thanks for the recipes Yooper, I think I may try both of those.

I've kept crushed malts refrigerated in oxygen-barrier containers for a year and they still tasted good enough to brew with, but I think 6 months is probably the longest I'd want to keep crushed malts, especially lighter-coloured ones. In my experience, darker and especially roasted malts will last much longer and still taste fresh.

Well I got everything vacuum packed but there's no way even a fraction of that is going to fit in my freezer (don't know what I was thinking). I guess I'll just try to fill the pipeline with recipes like the ones Yooper posted.

Bosium, when you say "oxygen barrier containers", what are you talking about? Mylar bags or something else?

StuporMan said:

Well I got everything vacuum packed but there's no way even a fraction of that is going to fit in my freezer (don't know what I was thinking). I guess I'll just try to fill the pipeline with recipes like the ones Yooper posted.

Bosium, when you say "oxygen barrier containers", what are you talking about? Mylar bags or something else?

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He means gas impermeable, which vacuum sealer bags are (otherwise they would not work).

I think that vacuum sealed they should easily last a couple of months. Colder is better. Get what you can in the freezer, what you can in the fridge and put the rest in a cool dark place. Freeze what you think you will use last.

StuporMan said:

Bosium, when you say "oxygen barrier containers", what are you talking about? Mylar bags or something else?

Click to expand...

I actually use clip-lock food containers - kinda like tupperware but with locking lids with gaskets that keep air out, hence keeping the malt fresh. Also, if you can keep your malt refridgerated, so much the better.