Unexpected Unpleasant Surprise

[Slim M]

I’ve only got 1 lhbs within about 60 miles of me that I buy my base malts from in 50-55 lbs sacks. I made a trip this weekend to get a 50 lbs sack of malt and a few small items.

When I get back home with base malts I divide the 50 lbs sacks into 2 gallon freezer bags at 10 lbs each. When I busted this bag of Briess Brewers Malt open it had some stowaways inside. Weevils crawling around in my new sack of grain

I’ve only slightly dealt with this once in many years of this hobby and it’s was from a smaller bag of prepackaged Viking malt I got from mail order. I brewed with it and it was fine. This is different this is more grain that may take months to use up. Not sure what to do freeze the grains, raise heck with lhbs, or don’t worry?

 

[Broken Crow]

Yeah..freeze them, but pack them in a dry room to reduce any frost. Many others on here have had the same issue and brewed anyway...dunno if you get more protien-haze or not.
If you wanna reduce the population before doing so; Are the weevils bigger or smaller than the grain?..you could try shaking a small quantity at a time in a colander or sieve to get rid of some, but still freeze it anyway.
Just my 2-cents.

 

[Slim M]

Yeah..freeze them, but pack them in a dry room to reduce any frost. Many others on here have had the same issue and brewed anyway...dunno if you get more protien-haze or not.
If you wanna reduce the population before doing so; Are the weevils bigger or smaller than the grain?..you could try shaking a small quantity at a time in a colander or sieve to get rid of some, but still freeze it anyway.
Just my 2-cents.

They are packed in freezer bags so my plan is to freeze for 48 hours and then remove. Should I do anything special to defrost like crack open the bag or defrost as is?

 

[Snuffy]

Yikes. I'd have to take it back. 60 miles or no. And then open the replacement sack in the store. Even if you pick them out, the larva are hidden inside the grain kernels.

 

[Broken Crow]

I honestly don't know..the only time I had to deal with it I was still doing extract with steeping grains and after reading this site and shaking off the worry and just freezing them, I left left them sealed in the bag in the freezer until the morning of brew-day.
I don't know if frost is an issue, I only know that if there is frost present I'd not want to leave them sealed and wet. I should probably mention here, that I live just north of Detroit and the humidity can get nasty sometimes... Maybe as you're in Texas it isn't such a big deal.

EDIT: Sorry..my brain-damage is showing, but this is trivial: I'm actually south of Detroit in the lowest city in Canada, but hey Detroit gets humid too!

 

[Broken Crow]

And actually; @Snuffy just came in with my first thought as I was typing... All I know for certain is that you kill the critters by freezing but you don't want to store wet grain. Any chance you can just leave them in the freezer till needed?

 

[Snuffy]

And actually; @Snuffy just came in with my first thought as I was typing... All I know for certain is that you kill the critters by freezing but you don't want to store wet grain. Any chance you can just leave them in the freezer till needed?

I'm sure we've all brewed a weevil or 2 and they probably won't hurt anything, live or dead. It's the principle of the thing tho. I'd call and then text them a pic or 2 and see what they propose to do about it. They may need to know it before selling more of that to someone else. Least they could do is a store credit for the sack. I'd probably brew with it anyway if I could pick out the adults and then don't see any larva in the crush. I'd go all Sherlock on it with a magnifying glass.

 

[Hoochin'Fool]

When I get back home with base malts I divide the 50 lbs sacks into 2 gallon freezer bags at 10 lbs each. When I busted this bag of Briess Brewers Malt open it had some stowaways inside. Weevils crawling around in my new sack of grain

Yuck! I'm still on only my 4th full sack of briess brewer's malt, but have never seen any kinds of bugs! Was it stored outdoors, in a shed or something? Definitely give the store a call...

 

[Agent]

Ouch! I don't know ow if "raise heck" is the right stance to start with, but I'd certainly get in touch with the LHBS. Either A) Briess shipped a contaminated sack of grain, or B) The LHBS has an apparently serious infestation if they are sneaking into un-opened sacks!

One of our LHBS originally allowed outside grains to be brought in for milling, but that was nixed when someone brought in some sus stuff that ended contaminating their whole stock.

 

[Closet Fermenter]

My LHBS puts out a periodic email. Once, they addressed the weevil issue. Said their grain arrives in sacks on pallets. Sometimes, they find the weevil’s already crawling around on the pallets when they get the shipment in. If I recall, they take ALL their grain directly to the freezer for a period of time before moving it into the sales stock. I just picked up 85# of various grains there yesterday ranging from 1# bags I measured out to a 55#sack. I kept my eyes open for bugs there, and when I got home, I vacuum sealed all quantities 10# and under in glass jars; bugs need air.
I put the larger quantities in gamma sealed buckets, but I am always a bit worried about it. I keep saying that I should just clean up some of my spare kegs and use them for grain storage. Since the lids are not designed to hold a vacuum, I could just pressurize with co2, or nitrogen.

 

[bwible]

Yeah - at the very least I would call and let them know. How many sacks of that do they have, and who else is going to get one? Probably not the store’s fault, especially if they have other grain that is ok and its only that. Who knows what warehouse grain sits in, where, or for how long before its shipped? The store can probably go back to whoever they got it from, and its possible THEY have more thats contaminated.