Grain Storage - Food-Safe Buckets

[Teromous]

At the suggestion of other forum members I've started to buy bulk grain so that I could save some money on my beers and make a few less trips to the LHBS and a few less orders online. I read in another thread that people were using Lowes and Home Depot buckets so I went out and bought these:

Encore Plastics 5-Gallon Food Grade Plastic Bucket: $3.97

Encore Plastics 5-Gallon Plastic Bucket Lid: $7.25

I had a 55 pound sack and two of these buckets weren't enough to hold all of the grain. I got roughly 45 pounds of grain in the buckets and could probably finagle a few more in if I tried.

Just some advice for putting it together. The lids come in two parts, a collar and a screw-off center. Unscrew the collar from the center piece and put the collar on the bucket by itself. It will be a tight fit, but you can flip the bucket over and sit on it to help pop it in place. After that you just screw the lid on. It might sound ridiculous but nobody told me how annoying it would be to put these lids on haha. Hopefully this extra info helps somebody out who's looking for grain storage too.

 

[benm1024]

I got one of these from target and it fit my 55# sack perfectly. http://www.target.com/p/sterilite-5...#prodSlot=medium_1_2&term=sterilite+air+tight

 

[Teromous]

Did you pour it all in or do you just leave the sack inside? That is a good alternative to buckets but I wanted something smaller I could just carry by the handle and dump into my grain crusher. It would be awesome if the buckets had a spout on the lid or something I could pour from.

 

[TallDan]

I had a 55 pound sack and two of these buckets weren't enough to hold all of the grain. I got roughly 45 pounds of grain in the buckets and could probably finagle a few more in if I tried.

I have four of these buckets and have been keeping bulk 2row and Marris Otter. I wait to open the sack until I need some grain out of it for brewing a batch. That way, what I didn't use fits in two buckets. Of course, If i happen to only need a pound out of a bag that might not work, but that hasn't happened yet.

 

[Teromous]

Ah that is good advice. I got a bit ahead of myself and poured it into my buckets early (tendency with new things) but fortunately I have a brew day coming up tomorrow.

 

[TallDan]

Ah that is good advice. I got a bit ahead of myself and poured it into my buckets early (tendency with new things) but fortunately I have a brew day coming up tomorrow.

I did the same thing when I got my first two sacks of grain. So, i had some 2row sitting in a plastic bag for a few days and the MO sat for about a month before i brewed with it.

 

[slacker1]

I store my grains in a 5 gallon plastic pail which I recycle from wine making. I get fresh juice for my wines and after transferring to my fermenter, rinse the pail thoroughly, recover and store until needed. Each pail holds half a bag of malt. No problems at all yet as the lids have a proper rubber seal. Best of all they're free.

 

[tuxnerd]

I use these food safe air tight stackable containers made for pet food. Pretty affordable, fit a whole 55# bag of grains, and stack.



http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0002H3S5U/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

 

[sandyeggoxj]

I just have a living room full of sacks of grain... I am down to 7 sacks? That would be way too many buckets! I do keep my specialty grains in the 2 gallong buckets from walmart. They are white and food grade and the lids have gaskets. They hold around 8-10# of grain which is perfect for specialty stuff.

 

[chewse]

Are the buckets truly air tight? Are you able to smell the barley (without being enclosed withing the sack) with the lid on? I use a few so called air tight tubs. I generally keep the grains in their sacks within the tubs. A few days before brew day, I pour the grains into the "staging" tub (mixed grains - getting ready to mill) from the sacks and snap on the lid. Even when the mixed grains in the tub do not include any type of smoked barley, I can still smell the grains so I'm guessing the tubs I have are not really air tight.