Sat. I picked up ingredents for an Irish Red Ale. How long can I keep the crushed grains before I brew? What temp? It will be a partial extract brew. Extract is in the vegie bin in the fridg.
Oh yeah, I think you can definitely get quite a while (sounds like at least months) out of crushed grains, the time frame I mentioned earlier was just from my own experience since I was never able to let them sit around longer without brewing with them . I've actually never heard of anyone having trouble with crushed grains going bad, so I'm not sure if its something we worry too much about, or we're just generally pretty good at storing our grains.
I think the trouble with crushing over uncrushed is you're opening up the malt grain shell, which is normally a pretty good protector. Once you've gone and crushed it, you're exposing the interior - good for mashing, bad for staling. Cardboard was probably a bad description anyways since that is the typical beer off-flavor. If you've ever had olive oil go bad on you, I imagine its kinda like that (again, just guessing). Oxidized olive oil gets a stale flavor, drys out the back of your mouth kind of a feeling.
But like others have mentioned, I think we do pretty good about storing our grain (stick it in a bag, tie it up, and toss it somewhere relatively cool) and probably don't have much to worry about. Although, when I crush this weekend, maybe I'll set aside 0.5 lb and leave it sitting out on the counter. Come by every few days and taste a little, see if I can ever tell a difference!
I had a similar issue...
i picked up some grains and had them crushed for the cookie dough beer but because of work issues, i didn't brew on the day i wanted to. as per my LHBS in brooklyn...sealed (not vacuumed), they recommended a week to 10 days. i ended up using them about 2 weeks later and so far, there seems to be no issue with flavors in the brew but I won't really know till the end. its good to hear others have had luck keeping them longer and no off flavors.
i guess the answer here is to buy my own grain mill. i tell you, home brewing is tough in a small nyc apartment.
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