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Bulk Grain Storage Containers

Pirate Point Brewer

Grandmaster Brewer
Master Brewer
Joined
Dec 17, 2008
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Location
Luna Pier, Michigan AKA - Pirate Point
Well ……… I used to hate to see the Summer Sailing & Drinking Season come to an end. I hated Winter.  Now it’s our Burning Firewood & Brewing so we can drink it next Sailing & Drinking Season … Season!! ::)
  Ok .. we do drink a few of them while we are burning and brewing. ;D We are going to buy bulk this year for both grains & hops. Questions about grain storage keep creeping in. What do you guys use to store your bulk grains in?

Preston
 
My grain remains in the original bags, in a cool dry room (closed tightly after opening).  Hops.... Well I keep so many (homegrown and commercially produced) that I had to buy a small freezer for them.

But I can usually go out and brew on a whim.... which is nice because the nearest supply house for me is hours away! In fact I usually buy online (other than my grains)
 
I generally use those big resealable plastic totes and put the original bags in.

However, if I was one of you lucky guys who has a permanent brew-space and storage area all-in-one, I would go to the restaurant supply.  They have bins that are on casters with see-through lids that will hold fifty-pound bags of anything. Very nifty. Just park 'em side by side under a worktop or counter.

...and like he said, can't beat a freezer for hops.  Then again, I've never had so many hops at one time that I had to go and buy a separate freezer for them. LOL Now that's the mother load!
 
Storage bins (big ones) with the grain in original bags.  Just keep in cool(ish) dry place.
 
I've never had so many hops at one time that I had to go and buy a separate freezer for them. LOL Now that's the mother load!

Well that's not all that much when you consider I use an average of 10-12oz per 5gal batch.
Try this one. Maybe my best to date. A little more malt and I feel it could go gold.

BTW the Caramel in this one is my own roast ..... dry pale malt for 3 hrs at 275*
 

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88Q has gotta be the king of hopheads! That WFO recipe looks like there is more hops than grain! LOL (I'm exaggerating)
 
88Q has gotta be the king of hopheads!

Hophead.... definitely. But if you noticed, all my hop additions were LATE KETTLE (20, 15, and less) not to mention the dry hopping and randall addition (not mentioned in the notes).

So the end result is a very "in your face" hop flavour and aroma, and little bitterness. It was an experiment to try a brew with NO 60 MINUTE hops, and I am quite pleased. Next time I brew this one, it will incorporate one  1/2 oz Chinook for 60 min and a little more grain,..... maybe 14lbs.

 
So you're keeping the bitterness to a reasonable level and maximizing aroma and hop taste?  Does it ever get out of balance?
 
This one time it was slightly drier than I would have wanted, but all in all still a fantastic beer. That's why I stated that I will try a few #s more malt plus some more of the roasted barley to balance it out a little better.

It's going fast!
 
88Q said:
My grain remains in the original bags, in a cool dry room (closed tightly after opening). 

How long can I expect grains stored this way to keep? I would like to get a 50lb bag of two row but am concerned about how long it will keep since I am moving to doing smaller batches. I expect it would need to keep at least 6-9 months.

I also found myself sitting on some crushed specialty grains (Munich and crystal) a lot longer then expected (will be 2 months). I put them in plastic bags and keep them in a dry basement (mid 60s this fall). Need I be concerned about how they will keep?

Thanks,

Chris
 
I typically see 8-12 months storage and have never seen any problems. I did not mention tho that the bags are lined with a plastic material, so tied back up and kept cool & dry seems to do just fine.

my $.02
 
The tote, origional bags & I go the extra step of inxpensive resealable bags you can hook a vacuum to and vacuum seal.  I found them at wally world.  If I keep stored for longer time I usually just add extra grains to the recipe.
 
Sorry .... I thought we were talking 50+ lbs. Indeed if I was storing smaller quantities for any length of time - I'd probably vacu-seal as well (as long as they were definitely dry)
 
I was asking about both.

Sounds like I should be AOK, thanks!

Chris
 
Yes, I was talking abut the fifty + pound bags also.  The vacu seal bags I bought at wally world came in a variety pack and one was big enough to put the big sack in.
 
A friend just put a 55# sack into two five-gal buckets with lids.
 
ChrisNH said:
I expect it would need to keep at least 6-9 months.

How long does  malted grain stay usable? Isn't there a shelf life after which too many of the  flavor compounds will have either reacted and changes or just drifted away into the air?

 
Bootlegbrewer said:
have stored grains for over a year without any noticeable differences.

In another forum I was  trying to have a dialog on  whether to get grain crushing capacity  and think about it's  putative value  when all the rigmarole was contemplated: the motor, the conversion, the cost of the mill, the space it all consumes, the dust - yadda yadda.
There were a couple  of guys who got themselves all exercised over the notion that I would ever buy crushed because according to them they only buy the freshest of grains and anything else was friggin stupid (translate: I was stupid for buying crushed grains).

They were not able to address the  time that  grains spend between the harvest and  the  local storage, the bulk storage, the shippers, the malters storage, and finally the various facilities and handlers that  transition the grains to the pifling small  small quantities (50 pound bags)  that they buy and finally the storage that they incur. 

I've always wondered what  the shelf life of grains might be.


 
I store my bulk grain in the original bag, sealed as best as I can and put that in one of those galvanized metal garbage cans - just in case rodents find their way inside.

cheers,

dg
 
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