Viability of malt as it ages

[John]

I have brewed beer using a full mash for a long time. I've been ill since Christmas and have a nearly full sack of grain bought before then. It has been stored in a dry environment. Does anyone know if it would still be ok to use now i,m better. This is my first post so I'm not sure if the etiquette yet.
Cheers
John

[steviebobs83]

Is it crushed or whole? It'll last longer whole.

Saying that, I'm pretty sure I've used crushed grain over 4 months old and it's been fine.

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[John]

Thanks a lot mate. I,'ll give it a go.
Cheers
John

[Cobnut]

I'm still using a sack of crushed extra pale MO I got in September and having no issues.

In fact, my brew last saturday exceeded target gravity by some margin...was it my fault? Or the malt?

I think the theory goes that older malt will lose some of its' "efficacy" as it ages - uncrushed lasts much better than crushed - but if it's kept cool and dry the ageing effects are reduced.

So I strongly suspect you'll be fine.

Chuck an extra 5-10% in and if you overshoot, you can always liquor back.

[John]

Thanks cobnut. I must say this site and you lads are really helpful.

[Mashman]

I've used crushed malt six months old with no problems. I think crushed grain from the Malt Miller has about a 12 month best before date.

[MarkA]

I brewed last month with crushed malt I bought from MM in June 2018, it was kept in the cool but had been opened and sealed again with a cable tie. It was absolutely fine, much to my dismay!

[Bad 'Ed]

I've been ill since Christmas and have a nearly full sack of grain bought before then. It has been stored in a dry environment. Does anyone know if it would still be ok to use now i,m better?

I recently used pre crushed malt that was 2.5 years old. Stored open to the elements in a dry garage, and I actually improved my efficiency.

I think the rumours of decreased efficiency are over subscribed. Obviously my error rate is a bigger problem....

[McMullan]

As long as the moisture content is kept low it should last at least a year or two. Uncrushed longer. It really depends how and for how long it's been stored before we get it. When it was produced. I got a sack of uncrushed Bohemian Pilsner malt the other day that has a BB date of 2025. The uncrushed MO I get has about 2 years shelf life, but should last longer if stored properly.

[MikeG]

I have reviewed my brewing log and I've found that out of the brews which I get from a 25kg sack the first gets me a higher OG than the last fairly consistently. There's not a lot of difference. From the last bag I got 1046 1048 1045 1046 1044 (I still have one more brew's worth in the bag) and, as the FG was always 1006, this gave me 5.3% 5.6% 5.2% 5.3% 5.0%. In previous bags I've had up to 5.8% near the start of a bag and never lower than 5.0% at the end.

The best-by-date on this bag is 13/12/22. So, if ageing isn't the problem maybe the settlement of husks is different to that of the flour giving more flour in the early brews than in the late brews.

I would be interested in people's views on this.

Mike.
P.S. This is all leading me to consider a mill.

[MashBag]

John. It will be fine.

[MashBag]

I have reviewed my brewing log and I've found that out of the brews which I get from a 25kg sack the first gets me a higher OG than the last fairly consistently. There's not a lot of difference. From the last bag I got 1046 1048 1045 1046 1044 (I still have one more brew's worth in the bag) and, as the FG was always 1006, this gave me 5.3% 5.6% 5.2% 5.3% 5.0%. In previous bags I've had up to 5.8% near the start of a bag and never lower than 5.0% at the end.

The best-by-date on this bag is 13/12/22. So, if ageing isn't the problem maybe the settlement of husks is different to that of the flour giving more flour in the early brews than in the late brews.

I would be interested in people's views on this.

Mike.
P.S. This is all leading me to consider a mill.

I found this, was told it was indeed settlement in the sack. Easily solved by dividing up the sack into 4kg storage tubs on receipt. Not had the problem since and has the benefit of each drum being airtight too.

[MikeG]

Thanks, MashBag. That's a good idea. I was getting a bit daunted by the mill idea. Ebay & Amazon have them ranging from £60ish to over £1000 - all looking much the same; and with hardly any reviews to go on. Hey-ho.

[Northern Brewer]

The best-by-date on this bag is 13/12/22. So, if ageing isn't the problem maybe the settlement of husks is different to that of the flour giving more flour in the early brews than in the late brews.

There's actually something called the "muesli effect" which says that the biggest particles in a mixture tend to rise to the top - you can think of it as the flour-sized particles falling through the gaps between the big particles. The posh name for it is granular convection :
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Granular_convection