Shelf life of ingredients

[Burtlake1985]

Hello All:

As I'm one week away from uncapping my first bottle from my first batch. I'm starting to look further down the road and I'd like to build my recipe. However I would like to start buying some ingredients in bulk to reduce future costs, but what is the shelf life of the typical ingredients like Hops and Barley?

For example can I stick ingredients in the freezer or fridge to preserve their life?

 

[sacrifice]

I used to live in Alaska, where the shipping prices were very high. I decided to buy in bulk and store the grains. I stored in double black garbage bags in a cool part of the garage, and have had absolutely no issues using one year old grains. I taste a grain or two prior to using to see how it tastes (and this is a great way to tell what the different grains taste like), and visually scan the grains to look for bugs, mold, or any other negative issue. As for hops, I will leave that one to others.

 

[b-boy]

I buy bulk. I store grain in my basement in airtight food-grade buckets. I'm using grain I bought last May without any issues.

I buy bulk hops and freeze them. I've used year-old frozen hops without a problem.

It's all about storage and keeping moisture at bay.

 

[Ramitt]

I buy hops by the pound. I store them in ball jars I vacuum seal with a foodsaver in the freezer and try to protect them from light by putting the jar in the bag the hops came in. They seem to keep well over a year.

 

[Burtlake1985]

Awesome, this is exactly what I was hoping for! Thank you for the replies

 

[Misplaced_Canuck]

I'll second air-tight buckets. This has worked very well for me. As cool as you can keep them, put prob not outside.

I would not recommend any type of bags, as they are easy to break into by bugs, varmint, pets, etc (been there done that).

For hops I store them in vacuum packed bags, in the freezer.



MC