How long will cracked grains stay good?

[StormBird]

Yesterday, I intended on brewing this weekend and I bought my grain and had it cracked. Stuff came up and I may not be able to brew untill next weekend.
The grains (10 lb of pilsner, 1 ln of crystal) are in a brown paper bag.

Will these keep until next weekend or should I just take the loss?

 

[masterosouffle]

They will be absolutely fine, in an 'ideal' world they would be fresh but here in the UK there is a lot less emphasis put on freshly milled grain, and very few mill themselves, so a week would be more than normal, and generally speaking our beer is certainly drinkable!

 

[poislb]

Yesterday, I intended on brewing this weekend and I bought my grain and had it cracked. Stuff came up and I may not be able to brew untill next weekend.
The grains (10 lb of pilsner, 1 ln of crystal) are in a brown paper bag.

Will these keep until next weekend or should I just take the loss?

Your good for about a week and a half, maybe 2...

 

[deepcdan99]

They will last weeks if kept cool and dry. keep mine in plastic though.

 

[integra93ls]

Will mine be ok?
I have them crushed already and in sealed bag they came in. But I have them in fridge. When I'm ready to brew what is best way to take them out and get them ready for brewing?

 

[Yooper]

Will mine be ok?
I have them crushed already and in sealed bag they came in. But I have them in fridge. When I'm ready to brew what is best way to take them out and get them ready for brewing?

You don't have to do anything. Just take them out of the fridge. Maybe have your steeping water a bit warmer so the cold grain doesn't drop the steeping temperature too much, but even that's not really anything to worry about.

 

[kingwood-kid]

Is there any reason crushed malt would go bad faster than flour? Does malting accelerate the spoiling?

 

[JLem]

I just brewed with grain I milled back in September. I had zero problems - hit my OG just fine. Grain looked, smelled, and tasted fine. Grain was kept in a large plastic bag in my cellar (ambient temp ~60F). Relatively dry down there too (not during the summer though)

 

[Calder]

Kept dry and cool, with no bugs, it will keep for ...... a long time. Compare to flour, they say it should be used within a couple of months, but will be fine after a year or more.

If kept dry, it will probably be fine to use after a year. I'm sure there will be some degradation, but I couldn't tell you how much.

 

[kappclark]

You don't have to do anything. Just take them out of the fridge. Maybe have your steeping water a bit warmer so the cold grain doesn't drop the steeping temperature too much, but even that's not really anything to worry about.

This is an "issue" I am always forgetting about - ie the grain temp...I mash in the basement, but I pre-heat the mash tun, but the crushed grain has been sitting in the cold basement, which sucks the heat out of the strike water more than I expect...I suppose I cld store upstaris overnight ..

So, does anyone pre-heat their grains, or simply use hotter strike water ?? Would like to dial in this process so I am closer to the mash temp I want ..

 

[pcollins]

For the last couple of years I have bought bags of grain in bulk pre-crushed. It takes me several months to go through the three bags that I buy but it's always been fine. Maybe there's a drop in efficiency but I'm not totally sure. My friend just a mill this weekend and I'll be brewing this week using fresh crushed grains so I'll be able to tell better then.

@kappclark: Yes, hotter strike water or preheating the mash tun would counter the colder grain temps. If you have brewing software you may be able to calculate everything in there by including the grain temp.

 

[StormBird]

I hadn't thought about flour.. I was thinking that milling the grains too soon might dry them out and reduce the enzymatic action during the mash.
It also gives them an opportunity to pick up stray flavors.

But it looks like they will be good, so long as I keep them tightly wrapped in the brown paper bag they came in from the local homebrew shop.
Thanks all.