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How long before crushed grains go bad?

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mforsman

Well-Known Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2011
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Location
Astoria
Hey everyone,

A friend of mine ordered a kit from austin homebrew and had them crush the grains for him. He isn't planning on brewing till Thursday but I recommend he did it as soon as possible since I know as soon as they are crushed they start losing their flavor.

Which got me thinking, how long do they last? I try and brew the same day they arrive, but sometimes it's just not possible.

Thanks everyone,
MDF
 
I've seen HBT folks say that crushed grains will keep for a couple weeks, as long as they're kept in an airtight container. Folks at my LHBS say a week or so. Either way, Thursday will be fine.
 
Life got in the way on the brown ale I'm drinking on right now. The grains sat in a garbage bag for a month in the laundry room. I don't have anything to compare it to as it was my first time brewing this beer but it turned out ok. Only thing noted was that it turned out a lot lighter color wise than I thought it would. Whether it was due to the month waiting I have no idea.
 
According to North Country Malt, who sells crushed grains in bulk, 3 months max, kept cool and dry.


_
 
Life got in the way of brewing and I ended up sitting on a batch of crushed grain for about 5-6 weeks. The resulting beverage tastes great.
 
I came across a free 50 lb sack of milled chocolate malt two years ago... and I'm still using it. It still tastes fine to me, but I'm sure it lost some of it's potential about 16 months ago.

It's kept in a (near) airtight container in a cold, dark spot in my basement.

There's no way I'd use two year old milled base malt in my beer, though.

TB
 
I've got milled base malt in air tight containers that are a year old. I am still getting the same flavor and the same efficiency out of them. Handled correctly the can last much longer than many people think.
 
Ive had no issues with crushed grain sitting around for over a month. I keep them tied tightly in the plastic bags, stored either in my mash tun cooler or fridge if there is room. I also take the hops packets out and store them in the freezer, and store the yeast in the fridge.
 
I only had problems once: witbier recipe with half the grain bill unmalted. Milling the grains starts to degrade the conversion enzymes so with those kind of recipes where you have to rely on precious enzymes to convert the unmalted portion, you might want to use it quickly or have trouble with your mash like I did (low starch conversion = miss OG by 10 points). 100% malted grains and self-converted, you should be fine up to 1 month at least in my experience...
 
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