Weevil in grain - Dump or brew?

[ktm250]

I don't want spent grain near my house as compost - so what do you do with spent grains?

I feed them to my chickens. They love spent grain.

 

[Jayjay1976]

I've learned my lesson for future storage...

You sure learned it the hard way! That was a couple hundred bucks worth of grain you wasted and it could have been avoided for $50 worth of gamma lids and buckets. I use the 40lb vittles vaults that feature airtight gamma lids built-in, and unlike buckets your grain can be accessed while stacked. Chewy.com had the best price when I bought mine and the shipping was free.

Jeez man, what part of storing your precious brewing grain like bags of potting soil seemed like a good idea???

 

[Rockn_M]

I've dumped spent grains near my house several times - its awful. Each time i do it I say "never again", then what happens after a long brew day - on side of the house it goes. The smell lingers for what seems ages and people start to notice, and then things start to die.

Rats, and such love spent grains; a while back I had a mouse problem because of it. I was actually going to start another thread about asking people what they actually do with spent grains. I know people say things like.."dog biscuits..bread...compost.."...however, in practice i don't think the average brewer has time/want to make bread from spent grains. And from my experience (and the post about the compost gone awry), I don't want spent grain near my house as compost - so what do you do with spent grains?

I use to give my spent grains to friends that have chickens and pigs but it's kind of a pain, I never have enough to make all the chickens and pigs happy. I started letting the grain cool a bit and dump them in my side yard. I had a problem with the sour smell but when I started to rake the grains to spread them out and the sour smell seems to have gone away. I guess it has time to dry enough before the smell starts.

 

[tat2Pompadore]

This happened to me just shortly ago. There was only one batch worth affected. I had plans to do a double brew weekend when I found the little bastards coming out of my IPA grain bill. After some serious thought and a ton of cursing. I decided to wait to see what happens. I got lucky, the temps dropped here in Texas and they started leaving the grain and looking for warmth. I kept a bottle of windex handy and would go to the bucket every 4 to 6 hrs, I’d go spray a paper towel and wipe them from the edge of the bucket. After a few extra days, I didn’t see any more. I’m sure I didn’t get them all. But after grinding and dumping the the grains in the hot water of the mash tun, my IPA came out great. Not one bug floating in it.

 

[day_trippr]

I avoided this thread just because...but, bored with the NFL tonite, I opened it.
Aaaaand I just threw up in my mouth a little

 

[tat2Pompadore]

I avoided this thread just because...but, bored with the NFL tonite, I opened it.
Aaaaand I just threw up in my mouth a little

Hahahahahaha!

 

[YeastHerder]

Had the little buggers twice. First time was many years ago, possibly my fault. Second time was about 6 months after that -- I saw them crawling inside the still sealed plastic bag from the LHBS, so not my fault. Since then, I ask my LHBS if they freeze store on their side before I buy. I've been bug free for a few years now. *fingers crossed*

Most of my spent grain goes into a compost bin -- keys for no heinous smell are 1) a lid, and 2) mix the spent grain down 50/50 into some much lower nitrogen stuff, like dry leaves or dirt so you can't see the freshly added grain on top anymore -- effectively burying it. Doesn't have to be fancy -- my compost bin is an old trash can with some holes in the bottom so excess moisture can drain. Reason I don't do an open pile is to keep the mice and bigger critters out. I've never seen weevils in my compost pile though, just gobs of soldier fly larvae. If no room in my compost bin, then my spent grain just goes in the trash - also a lid is key for no smell.

I tried baking bread with spent barley, and even unspent barley.. nope. There is a reason most bread is 100% wheat. Barley husks are just nasty.

 

[z-bob]

I just threw out a pound of flaked barley that had bugs in it -- not nearly as bad as the picture at the top of the thread, and these were smaller too. It was an unopened sealed bag, but about a year old. The interesting thing is none of the open bags of malt in the same box had anything nasty in them, just the unmalted barley. So I assumed malt didn't have enough moisture for them to survive, but maybe I just got lucky.

 

[SEndorf]

 

[Kirkwooder]

Chickens love grain, spent or otherwise, and weevils. Sounds like a batch of chicken food to me.

I feed them to my chickens. They love spent grain.

 

[shortyz]

that is gross. but im sure u could market a weevil piss IPA.

 

[jdauria]

Was at my LHBS a week ago, went to grab their plastic bin of Carafa Special II and noticed about 10 weevils on the cover. Looked like most of them were dead, but a few were alive and kicking. Makes me think all the grain there may have them!

 

[don_bran321]

If the grain smells.. No wayyy. You never know what's in it at that point. Flys carry all kinds of Nasty stuff with them

 

[Jayjay1976]

Was at my LHBS a week ago, went to grab their plastic bin of Carafa Special II and noticed about 10 weevils on the cover. Looked like most of them were dead, but a few were alive and kicking. Makes me think all the grain there may have them!

If a brew shop has bins I won't buy grains there. They either have weevils in the grain or use enough pesticide to prevent infestation; in either case I'd rather buy from a shop that sells grain in sealed bags.

 

[soccerdad]

Meh if you can't handle being on a farm .. with bugs and rodents and all that goes with grain .. then you should rethink all grain brewing. It has ALL had something in it at one time or another. Or assume that anyway. The boil will kill it. You freezer will knock the buggers out. I'm not saying "buy infested grain,' but I am saying 'don't be surprised if something got in the grain at some point,'

 

[Gravity]

Meh if you can't handle being on a farm .. with bugs and rodents and all that goes with grain .. then you should rethink all grain brewing. It has ALL had something in it at one time or another. Or assume that anyway. The boil will kill it. You freezer will knock the buggers out. I'm not saying "buy infested grain,' but I am saying 'don't be surprised if something got in the grain at some point,'

Agreed
I was brewing a beer with a ton of wheat and rye so I needed rice hulls - long story short, you don't want to know where rice hulls have been

 

[soccerdad]

I agree that the infestation in the OP is extreme. Lesson for all of us .. inspect your grain at purchase or on arrival and then store in a cool, dry, dark place. Also, brew often so that you can inspect your stored grain often.

 

[markcurry]

If a brew shop has bins I won't buy grains there. They either have weevils in the grain or use enough pesticide to prevent infestation; in either case I'd rather buy from a shop that sells grain in sealed bags.

One of the things I really like about the MoreBeer LHBS in Los Altos, is that all the grain is stored in bins. I scoop, measure and mill everything myself. (They got a great big bertha type mill that doesn't blink when I mill 20 lbs batches twice...)

They do enough inventory that there's never much that's been sitting out long. Maybe it helps that we're not in a humid environment, or the store's in the middle of a large retail area. But I've never seen a bug in my grains. I don't kid myself, I know there's some in EVERY batch of grain, no matter where you get it. But nothing I've ever visibly seen.

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

Anyone know what the Diastatic power of a weevil is?

 

[soccerdad]

Yooper will know

 

[passedpawn]

Anyone know what the Diastatic power of a weevil is?

Most insects do have amylase (alpha) in their saliva, and also in their stomach. So yes, there is some "diastatic power" available. The insects need it for the same reason we do, to reduce starch to maltose (which is further reduced to glucose by maltase and other enzymes).

 

[soccerdad]

I was told there would be no science in the bug thread..

 

[Robert64]

Personally I would never use grains with all those insects, I would just throw them away! As for the storage of malt, I keep it in boxes tightly closed and I have never had problems.

 

[MyQuL]

I had weevils in some flaked barley last summer. I only had it in the flaked barley which was stored in zip lock bags with other grains in zip lock bags. As I read they wouldnt effect a brew I just put the bags of FB in the freezer for a few days to kill the weevils and brewed the the FB in a few subsequent brews.

 

[z-bob]

I had weevils in some flaked barley last summer. I only had it in the flaked barley which was stored in zip lock bags with other grains in zip lock bags. As I read they wouldnt effect a brew I just put the bags of FB in the freezer for a few days to kill the weevils and brewed the the FB in a few subsequent brews.

I started to do that with mine, but I decided if I hadn't even opened the flaked barley in a year I probably wasn't going to use it anyway. (I bought it to use in place of Carapils in recipes that call for that, but I don't seem to ever brew those)

If I ever buy flaked grains again I will store them in the freezer.

 

[MyQuL]

I started to do that with mine, but I decided if I hadn't even opened the flaked barley in a year I probably wasn't going to use it anyway. (I bought it to use in place of Carapils in recipes that call for that, but I don't seem to ever brew those)

If I ever buy flaked grains again I will store them in the freezer.

I've never had weevils before but we had a particularly hot summer last year in the UK and I think this prompted the weevil eggs to hatch

 

[darinkleen]

I've dumped spent grains near my house several times - its awful. Each time i do it I say "never again", then what happens after a long brew day - on side of the house it goes. The smell lingers for what seems ages and people start to notice, and then things start to die.

Rats, and such love spent grains; a while back I had a mouse problem because of it. I was actually going to start another thread about asking people what they actually do with spent grains. I know people say things like.."dog biscuits..bread...compost.."...however, in practice i don't think the average brewer has time/want to make bread from spent grains. And from my experience (and the post about the compost gone awry), I don't want spent grain near my house as compost - so what do you do with spent grains?