I am looking to invest some money in homebrewing having tried it once using a kit, but I am concerned about the freshness of the malt. I roast my own coffee, and I know that roasted coffee beans are fresh for only about a week. Light roasted coffee holds up better than dark. Coffee bought in supermarkets are weeks to months old. Is it the same thing with malt? How long after kilning/roasting does it make its way to us? Are we putting up with stale malt?
the comparison to coffee is not particularly relevant here. malt, of all varieties, will be fine if you are buying it from a supplier who has even a modest amount of business. it is generally accepted that grain will keep for 6 months or a year before crushed. after it is crushed it should be used in a few weeks. and to be honest it is mostly just hearsay. not a lot of people are having trouble with the freshness of their grain. nobody is putting up stale grain or if they do they do not complain about it here very often. remember too that unlike coffee, grain is not harvested throughout the year in the western hemisphere. it's not produce that is continually grown in California and Florida and trucked in weekly. Cheers
I bought a bag of Weyermann Pils that had a best by date about 14.months from purchase. Add in the time in shipping and customs,.I would say 18 months from malting.
Off the cuff ... coffee has 'volatile' oils; whereas ... malted grains do not. As long as the grains (milled or not) are keep is a cool (not refrigerated) dark (not dank) place ... they'll last long enough to make tasty home brewed beer.
Rex, The ideal storage for malt is cool and dry (less than 75F and less than 50% RH, more ideally 50F and 25% RH) Malt will stale over time, but the rate depends on storage. If you keep the bag in a room temp closet for instance I would give it 3 months. If you keep it in a fridge you are safe for 6-12 months. In a freezer potentially 18 months. Specialty malts will stale sooner than base malts and lose some of their aroma and flavor potency. Cheers, Brandon
I would treat grains as you would cereal. If you keep it in a sealed bag, in cooler temps, it will stay fresh for a long time.
I mean "malts that have undergone a higher level of kilning/roasting". I can't imagine any kind of foodstuff having the same shelf life in a 'cooked' state.
Got it. These malts have little if any residual moisture (it's basically flavored charcoal) so there's much less chance of staling; however ... chances are you won't need to have pounds of these extreme SRM malts on hand.
I've never seen any uncrushed malt in these parts , even the breweries seem to take ready crushed.I used to buy 55kg sacks direct from the local maltsters *(unfortunately now a housing estate) which we used to joke about being "still warm" but to be truthful it didn't seem better than it was some months later as I worked through it.In fact I found some which was over a year old and it brewed perfectly.It was of course kept cool and dry. * Happy days! The price was ridiculous compared with a LHBS and once the guy said "take it away, I can't be bothered to make out an invoice for it".......floor malted Maris Otter was the mainstay but the occasional amber malt was bought too.
Anyone buying 50# bags of Blackprinz or Black Patent is operating a big ass brewhouse, not a home system.
That's true. But I buy Black Patent a pound at a time and use very small amounts (less than an ounce at a time) of it in brown ales. So for me, age is something I'm aware of.
