Two bulk grain questions

[McCall St. Brewer]

Santa forgot to bring me a grain mill yesterday, but I may get one with money that he brought me. Thinking about this has caused me to have a couple of questions.

The first involves stocking up on some bulk grains. What do most people do about buying specialty grains? Obviously it makes sense to buy a big sack of base malt, but does it also make sense to buy other grains in bulk when they will not be used up nearly so fast?

Second, are there any major storage issues I need to be aware of? Can I just keep the grain in the sack it came in, or should I be thinking of some other type of container? Does the container need to be "food grade," or would pretty much anything be okay? (For example, SWMBO has some big plastic storage bins in the attic that are pretty much just sitting there right now).

 

[jdoiv]

A lot of my recipes call for Crystal 60, so I bought a big bag of that. It will probably last me a year. I may sell some of it off to other brewers in the are though if they need it. I bagged it up and vacuum sealed it in 5 pound bags, so it will keep for a long time. Other than that, I'll order my specialty malts for a couple of brews and keep a small stash of them on hand.

As far as storing, it will really depend on how fast you use it. I keep all of my grains in the bag until I open the bag. Once opened, I put it into a plastic storage container. An air tight one would be ideal, but mine aren't. I do keep them in s separate closet though and figure they stay pretty fresh. They don't need to be "food grade" so long as they didn't hold any kind of chemical in a previous use or have any strong smells associated with them. Just so long as they are clean and can keep critters out of them, you'll be fine.

 

[Chad]

Second, are there any major storage issues I need to be aware of? Can I just keep the grain in the sack it came in, or should I be thinking of some other type of container? Does the container need to be "food grade," or would pretty much anything be okay? (For example, SWMBO has some big plastic storage bins in the attic that are pretty much just sitting there right now).

When I started buying bulk grain last month I bought these Vittles Vault storage bins. They're airtight, varmint-tight and stackable. You can get them at PetSmart or just about any other large pet store. I was worried about keeping sacks of grain in the garage. That is a surefire way to attract mice. The sacks are also ungainly and hard to work with. The storage bins are designed for dog food or bird seed and are perfect for grain storage. You just reach in and scoop out what you need. Restaurant supply houses also have inexpensive food-grade buckets with airtight lids, but it's rare to find anything over five gallons, so you have to split a 55lb sack among containers.

Chad

 

[Iordz]

I store my grains in 3 gal ziplock bags, no pests live in the shed so I'm not worried. As far as the speciality grains are concerned, I don't buy any in bulk, I stop by the LHBS to get them "fresh."

 

[Chad]

Oh, yeah. For specialty grains I bought one or two 1lb bags of Crystal 40, Crystal 60, Crystal 80 and Crystal 120 -- along with a pound each of Biscuit Malt and Vienna -- and keep them in the spare fridge along with a couple of pounds of DME and some dry yeast. That covers just about anything I want to brew. For anything else I hit the LHBS (where I bought all of this stuff anyway).

Chad

 

[CBBaron]

I just seal up the bag that I purchased the grain in for storage. If you have problems with varmints it would be a good idea to have something to protect the bag from mice and such. Same if you have a problem with moisture.
As for specialty grains, my HBS thegrape.net has a discount for 5# bags of grain so I usually buy in those quantities. It gives me a store of grains so I can brew when the mood hits and it is slightly cheaper than buying 1# bags. I think you want to plan on using any grains within a year of purchase. It will probably last longer but 1 year is a good estimate of how long you can store.

Craig

 

[bradsul]

I keep my base malts in a couple large rubbermaid garbage cans (plastic). The first couple times I used them I dumped the sacks right into the can but that creates a heck of a mess. Now I just drop the whole sack in. My specialty malts I buy 2-3KG at a time and I keep them sealed up in large ziptop bags that are then sealed in wine juice buckets.