Grain Bill question

[tolip_ck1]

I just bought my own mill, and I will be buying grain in Bulk? What does everyone do about volume? The base malt will be fine for me to by a 50#+bag but if I need specialty grain of only a pound or two it would take me a long time to burn through that. I am worried about keeping it fresh etc. Can you buy smaller amounts online? Or will I have to step up my brewing to match the volume of grain I'll have to buy?

Thoughts? Suggestions?

Thanx!

 

[jbrookeiv]

You can buy small amounts of specialty grain from most, if not all, online homebrew shops. I would go ahead and figure out what your next 4-5 recipes will be, since you probably will have enough base malt for that many brews, and then order the necessary specialty items all at once to save on multiple shipping charges. This includes specialty grains, hops, yeast, and priming sugar if bottling.

Unmilled grain will last a good while, but I'd plan on brewing all 4-5 recipes within ~6 months, both to keep your pipeline going and to ensure your grain is as fresh as possible.

 

[shutupjojo]

You could use a vacuum sealer to bag up and store the specialty grains. Works great.

 

[tolip_ck1]

OK, that is what I thought, I will use both ideas, I can vacuum seal jars, and bags, and order enough for a few batches.

Thanx

 

[BrewThruYou]

I usually go to my LHBS to buy speciality grains.

I use homer buckets to store my unmilled grain. For the speciality grains, I keep them in their bags and just seal them with the vacuum sealer once I use some (I don't put them in a vacuum bag) and throw them in a "speciality grain" homer bucket w/ lid.

I usually only keep enough speciality grain on hand for maybe 4 brews. If I had to order online, I'd probably buy further in advance.