Milling grain a month in advance

[Surly_goat]

Wondering if anyone has found issues with milling grain in advance. I'm gonna have a yeast ranch going and was gonna buy a pound of the hops i use most. I'm pretty space limited though and don't really want to have a 50lb bag of malt sitting around as well as a grain crusher. I could make it work if i have to. Not always easy to to find time to make it to the brew shop.

I just get 3 crushes of the same recipe made up and keep them in buckets in my closet will they still be as good as fresh crushed when i get to the last one 4 - 6 weeks later?

 

[Boomer]

Short answer - don’t do it. If you can vacuum pack the milled grain and freeze it, maybe. I’d just wait and mill it fresh for each brew day, though.

I’m sure others will be along shortly to get into the details of why it’s a bad idea.

 

[day_trippr]

Obviously, oxidation and staling are the issues once the grain is milled, and a month of exposure is a long time.
I mill brew day morning just to ensure the best start to each batch...

Cheers!

 

[Boomer]

Obviously, oxidation and staling are the issues once the grain is milled, and a month of exposure is a long time.
I mill brew day morning just to ensure the best start to each batch...

Cheers!

I don’t own a mill and so it isn’t always reasonable for me to mill on brew day. That said, I try not to brew any longer than a week after milling. I haven’t noticed much of a difference, although I’ve never done an expirement to compare freshly milled grains with week old.

 

[Steveruch]

If kept airtight milled grains will keep longer than most people think.

 

[Sbe2]

Wondering if anyone has found issues with milling grain in advance. I'm gonna have a yeast ranch going and was gonna buy a pound of the hops i use most. I'm pretty space limited though and don't really want to have a 50lb bag of malt sitting around as well as a grain crusher. I could make it work if i have to. Not always easy to to find time to make it to the brew shop.

I just get 3 crushes of the same recipe made up and keep them in buckets in my closet will they still be as good as fresh crushed when i get to the last one 4 - 6 weeks later?

Before I bought my grain mill I would buy 10 lbs of milled malt from morebeer and hold it for a couple months in the freezer. The bags are sealed and I didn’t have a problem with the malt being stale.

 

[NitrogenWidget]

If kept airtight milled grains will keep longer than most people think.

while I have little experience brewing compared to most on this site but I have this to say.

I picked up a chocolate stout 1 gal kit at a thrift store.
It was old when i got it then sat on it for almost a yr.
The grains were all ground up in a bag that wasn't vacuum sealed.
It was basically a BIAB kit.
Had no idea if it was still good or not but what the hell it cost $5.

the beer came out delicious.

I have a mill and a bag of base malt plus a homebrew shop near my ex-wife's house so i can hit it weekly no problem and grind while mash water is heating up.
I prefer it that way.
Seems cooler and more craftsmanshipy.

but I once ground my grains while mash water was heating and.......my dad needed me ASAP so I ended up waiting 2 weeks before I could brew and it turned out fine.

I really could not tell a difference between that beer and the previous beer I brewed.

 

[sikkingj]

It’s best if you can crush closer to the date, but if this is what circumstances permit - that is what you have to do. I’d suggest you store your crushed grains in a sealed 5 gallon bucket (using those spin lids).

It will keep a long time and taste better than extract.

 

[Iseneye]

Best practice would be to not have grains milled for that long. It will still make beer in the end so if that is your only choice then sure why not. If you have other options go with that.

 

[catdaddy66]

I agree it's not ideal to keep grains longterm once ground. That being said, I have done it a handful of times and never had a poor quality product. I brewed a brown ale in March that was ground in October. It was refrigerated the entire time but not vacuum sealed. It came out very well.

If your storage is closed and cool you should be good for a couple of months.

 

[estricklin]

I've kept milled grains for over a year before, and the brew won me some medals actually. I would say anything under a few months shouldn't be a problem especially. Is it a best case scenario? Probably not, but as I always say there are a million other things that will probably have a bigger impact on your final product.