How long will crushed grain keep?

[scbruinsfan]

Before my wife gifted me with a barley crusher for Christmas (bless her!) I kept my crushed grain in the freezer portion of my keggerator.

I like this idea!

 

[eadavis80]

I've got a kit that'll be at least 4 more months old with crushed grain. Maybe I'll just add in another pound or two of fresh grain from the LHBS in hopes it masks any stale flavor that might be there. Nothing to lose at this point...

 

[dwhite60]

Noobish move on my part...got my AG equipment together in a rush and completely forgot that I needed to get my keggle cut & cleaned. The LHBS already crushed the grains (nice folk that they are), and they're currently in a heavy-duty paper grain bag that's taped closed.

Seeing as I may not be able to get the keggle thing figured out for another week or so, how long should most grain stay fresh in 65-70, low humidity?

Just last Sunday I brewed an American Wheat using some pale malt over two years old and white wheat pushing a year. Kept in a sealed plastic bucket at room temp. These had not been crushed until I used them. I had 80% efficiency on a biab mash.

Hops I used have been in my freezer going on two years. Centennial I had bought a pound of. They have been in a freezer bag with the air sucked out then wrapped in foil. I have made a few small batches with these over two years so they had been opened. Probably half a pound left.

Hops smelled and tasted fine, malt did too. I will keep you posted on the final product.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[dwhite60]

I bottled this today and it came out REALLY nice, at this point. Does not taste "stale" in any way. Bitterness is where I expected it to be.

Bottled with "Domino Dots" sugar cubes. Be interesting to see where this is in three weeks.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[Knkbrand]

surely it is best to use it fresh, but brulosophy did an experiment on this very subject
http://brulosophy.com/2018/10/29/the-impact-of-age-on-crushed-malt-exbeeriment-results/
RDWHAHB

 

[Vale71]

Am I the only one who is not surprised at the fact that Brulosophy's tasting panel was not able to detect any staleness in a beer that was conditioned for one whole week before being tested?
That beer was not even halfway to being ready to be served and not even a fourth of the way to being properly conditioned. I would love to see the same experiment done with a properly fermented and lagered Helles. These Brulosophy experiments are nothing but bad jokes...

 

[Anyhowe]

If will be fine. People buy old ground coffee all the time and love it. A local coffee store here puts their whole bean coffee on 1/2 off beyond 2 weeks of roasting. Each to our own.

I prefer fresh but would never toss what you have. The starch is what you’re really after and that should be fine for quite some time if it stays dry. Brew and enjoy.

 

[eadavis80]

I'll take my first gravity reading today from a NB Ace of Spades all-grain kit I brewed up a couple weeks ago. The grain from the kit was crushed in mid-November. I added another couple of pounds of pale ale malt which was fresh in hopes it might lessen the "staleness" (if any). We'll see how it tastes.

 

[odie]

My crushed grain lasts about 30 minutes. It’s nice to have ur own mill...lol

 

[catdaddy66]

I just made a pale ale and used 1# of crushed crystal 60 from my brother. I didn't even think about it but he hasn't brewed in about a year. It actually smelled kinda raisin-y, more like 120, but my color came out as expected with C60.

We shall see how it turns out. I will bottle in another week.

 

[MaaZeus]

I'm not sure there is any set timeline how long precrushed grains last. I mean they are more suspectible to the enviroment when open, but it is still a dry product so mold and such have a hard time growing on it. If stored in dry, dark and critter free place will it become unusable in any sane period of time? I don't think so. Will it slowly lose flavor over time? Most likely yes and posts here indicate that too. But if you have bought your crushed grains but find yourself unable to brew in next couple of months, I personally would not worry about that too much.

 

[eadavis80]

My old grain only got down to 1.022 with an OG of 1.082. It very well could because of mash temp or other factors, but I used 2 packets of rehydrated 05 so I thought I'd get my bipa to 1.015 or less (that was my goal). Not sure if that's due to old grain or not, but anyway - it's pretty sweet for an IPA, but whatever - it's dry hopping, I'll bottle it and I'll drink it.