How long can you store whole grains?

[Sephro]

I have looked around and getting mixed results.
if a friend and I were to buy some 50+# bags of grains how long would they stay good for?

 

[Brewsmith]

Quite a while if they are un-milled, and in a cool, dry place. Others with more experience than me please chime in.

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

Quite a while if they are un-milled, and in a cool, dry place.









I think if the above criteria are met, they can last easily over a year.

 

[Sephro]

when you say cool... how cool does it have to be? is 70 too warm?

 

[Chairman Cheyco]

Not exactly sure about that. My basement holds at around 60 and I haven't noticed any degradation in flavor of my malt. I think humidity is at least as important as temperature when stroing grain as well. If it's quite dry where you live I would think 70 should be fine.

 

[ajf]

My grain comes with the date of manufacture, and a use by date of manufacture + 12 months.

I have never tested the 12 month limit. Fore some strange reason, it always seems to disappear every three months or so.

-a.

 

[sonvolt]

I have stored milled grain for a long time in a cold, dry area of my house. I was very confident that this was an ok practice as I experienced no degradation of flavor, etc.

However, I have missed my target OG in my my last two batches. The grain has been stored for about 4 months. My last two batches were within the last 3 weeks.

I am thinking that the long storage of milled grain may have impact on my efficiency, but I cannot be sure. I have not changed any other aspects of my procedure. Tomorrow, I am picking up another 50lbs of milled grain, so if my efficiency is back where is was before, I will be sure it is the long term storage of the grain that effects efficiency. In this case, I will brew like hell to use it quickly and buy myself a mill.

My $.02

 

[Beer Snob]

I had some grains that I had bought a few months ago. It was in a paper bag in the rubermaid container I keep things in. One thing I noticed. It did not smell good. In using good I dont mean that it smelled bad... you know you just grind some grain and it smells incredible. I love the smell. Well that smell was completly gone. It was just two months. I have to think that that smell that was gone would have amounted to not just a smell, but quality.

 

[david_42]

Unmilled grain, at least a year if kept dry and below 60F. Milled grain starts getting strange after a month unless you freeze it.

 

[RichBrewer]

I put some specialty grains in the freezer over 3 years ago and then stopped brewing until January of this year. The grains that were sealed well were fine but I had some in sandwich bags that weren't so good. I used the grains that were still good in a couple of my brews and they turned out great.
I would say that if the grains are kept cool and well sealed (I roll the bag down as tight as it will go and clamp it closed) you should easily get a years storage and still be good. Most AG brewers will go through more that 1 bag of 2 row in a year.

 

[Mikey]

Unmilled grain, at least a year if kept dry and below 60F. Milled grain starts getting strange after a month unless you freeze it.

I've heard this time and time again, but it's always somebody quoting somebody else.

Do you have direct experience? What goes 'strange' after a month?

 

[johnoswald]

Oxidation is the problem with storage of grain (raw or malted) and a higher temperature greatly increases the rate of oxidation (degredation). It's the same thing that you want to avoid with your hot wort. Moisture (humidity) enhances the rate also, besides making it nice an comfy for the molds and natural fungi to take hold. Milled grain (and malt) has two additional factors aiding its degratation, increased surface area (greater contact with oxygen) and chrushing of the germ (exposure of the more sensitive flavor making components).
That's why white flour is made white - by removing the wheat germ it doesn't go rancid.
So what can you do? It has already been said....cool and dry and airtight and you'll be good for at least a year.
Pack your grains (milled or whole) in air tight containers (5 gal paint buckets w/ a good seal). If you really want to have long term storage (yrs), displace the oxygen from the bucket before you close it - who has a CO2 tank available? Nitrogen also will work. I have access to dry ice (CO2), so when I repack my grains I put a cup full of CO2 in the top and close 'er up. I actually started doing this when weavils got into my wheat and I was way too cheap to throw it out (college days).

 

[andre the giant]

I just brewed a couple batches. I had the pre-crushed grain stored in a rubbermaid container in our basement (58-68 degrees) and it had been there since probably November. The grain didn't smell as grainy.... until I started the mash. The mash smelled wonderful, just like when I use fresh grains. The yeild was a bit low, but not too bad. I tasted the beer when transfering to the secondary and didn't taste any funky flavors.... It tasted like beer... soon to be GREAT beer.

So to recap....

crushed grains
stored in a storage container at room temp
6-8 months old
smell not as strong as usual
yeild a bit lower than normal
flavor is fine

 

[boo boo]

Even though I really don't need to, I weigh out my grain into 2 pounds lots and vacuum seal it. I then store it in my basement @ aprox. 65 f. I have about 4 sacks total done this way.
The way I have been going through grain lately, it will be a while before I notice how long I keep any bag of grain and if it is going bad.
This topic has been asked before and it has been said that uncrushed grain can be left indefinatly as long as it don't get damp and too warm. I'll use my grain long before any expiry date.

 

[sonvolt]

I just brewed a couple batches. I had the pre-crushed grain stored in a rubbermaid container in our basement (58-68 degrees) and it had been there since probably November. The grain didn't smell as grainy.... until I started the mash. The mash smelled wonderful, just like when I use fresh grains. The yeild was a bit low, but not too bad. I tasted the beer when transfering to the secondary and didn't taste any funky flavors.... It tasted like beer... soon to be GREAT beer.

So to recap....

crushed grains
stored in a storage container at room temp
6-8 months old
smell not as strong as usual
yeild a bit lower than normal
flavor is fine

Q4T - Quoted for Truth.

This has been my experience as well. I agree. The only problem this offers is trying to hit Target Gravities when brewing with older grain. While I am not too upset having a beer that is a little less strong than I had anticipated, it is tough to anticipate efficiency in order to plan hopping rates to get the right ratio.

 

[perry]

I quit brewing for awhile, and had all this grain left... like, sixty pounds of it.
You're going to find this hard to believe (I'm surprised, anyway), but I've brewed three batches with this four-year-old pale malt and they turned out just fine. My starting gravity was a bit lower than I'm accustomed to, but the beer (I'm drinking one right now) is great (wait, let me check... yup, it's great).

Just to see if my lower sg was because of the old malt, I split a couple of batches (same recipes) half old and half new (I'm trying to use this stuff up) and got somewhat higher efficiency in my conversion. I thought I'd found an answer, but then I realized that, like the dumb-ass, non-scientist I am, I'd done a finer grind on these batches (thereby changing two variables), which is prob'ly the real reason for the better conversion... who knows.

The grain was stored in its original bags inside a cardboard box, in a dark closet. I live in the high-desert and our humidity here is probably ten to twenty percent, on average: really dry.

Any way, hope this info is useful. Cheers,


jp