How Long Can You Store Uncrushed Grain

[jimjohson]

On the MrB site a guy said he has grains his father froze grains in an ammo can 5 to 30 years ago...I told him I don't think he'll be able to make ale with it.(I'm not sure he could even make bread with it) Would y'all trust this stuff?

[The_Professor]

This would scratch the subject in general.
...seeds are dried to a suitably low moisture content...The seeds then are stored at -18°C or below...
Seeds may be viable for hundreds and even thousands of years. The oldest carbon-14-dated seed that has grown into a viable plant was a Judean date palm seed about 2,000 years old, recovered from excavations at Herod the Great's palace in Israel.

I guess he could see what happens if he thawed, hydrated, and sprouted some.

[Gymrat]

I have kept unmilled grain for more than a year with no noticeable ill effects.

[Beer-lord]

I have some specialty malts that are about 4 months old but I keep them in Vittle, air tight containers. Even if they don't go bad, I'm not sure how much conversion you'll get when they get very old.


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[John Sand]

At the price of bulk grain vs my time brewing, I might chuck it. But then, I might be tempted to brew 1 gallon as a test instead.

[jimjohson]

This would scratch the subject in general.
...seeds are dried to a suitably low moisture content...The seeds then are stored at -18°C or below...
Seeds may be viable for hundreds and even thousands of years. The oldest carbon-14-dated seed that has grown into a viable plant was a Judean date palm seed about 2,000 years old, recovered from excavations at Herod the Great's palace in Israel.

I guess he could see what happens if he thawed, hydrated, and sprouted some.

assuming they been malted, will they still grow?

[The_Professor]

assuming they been malted, will they still grow?

No, they will not grow if the grain is malted. I assumed unmalted since you said grains.

[Ibasterd]

I'd be careful, it might make you go cray cray! Fungus on grain (rye) is called Ergot which can cause hallucinations, convulsions and gangrene. It has been linked to The plague of Holy Fire, the Bubonic Plague and some people speculate it had a hand in the mass hysteria surrounding the Salem Witch Trials.

http://www.botany.hawaii.edu/faculty/wo ... LECT12.HTM

[RickBeer]

The OP on the Mr. Beer forum described an "artillery shell" stored in a freezer with grains and hops. I cannot imagine there are enough grains to even warrant the discussion on either forum - I would toss them. As to the hops, he's gotten advise to see if they still have aroma and if so use them only for aroma hops.

[jimjohson]

assuming they been malted, will they still grow?

No, they will not grow if the grain is malted. I assumed unmalted since you said grains.

I was only asking, I said assuming b/c I don't think the OP actually specified malted or not. I assumed grain(s) was the correct term for un-crushed malted grain. Crushed I'd have called it grist. What should I have called it? (always up for learning new things)

[jimjohson]

The OP on the Mr. Beer forum described an "artillery shell" stored in a freezer with grains and hops. I cannot imagine there are enough grains to even warrant the discussion on either forum - I would toss them. As to the hops, he's gotten advise to see if they still have aroma and if so use them only for aroma hops.

He said: "old ammo canister" considering the possible age of it I figure it looks kind of like this;

ammo.jpg (34.96 KiB) Viewed 1683 times

they come in various sizes.

[RickBeer]

Gotchya. Still not much in there, at least grains.

[jimjohson]

That's the ammo can for M-16s (the smallest I personally saw), you ought to see the ones for the 20-MM in a Cobra

[Inkleg]

That ammo can in the picture is for an M14 or other weapon platform that fires a 308 round. Though you can get a M16 style weapon that is chambered for 308, our regular service weapon is chambered for the 5.56.

Sorry that's my inner military firearms geek coming out.

[mashani]

@Inkleg:

This might be too geeky, but I've always been under the impression that 7.62 and .308 not exactly the same, and I think in some guns trying to interchange the rounds can cause issues, in the case of a .308, it could mess up and jam and/or mess up a 7.62 chambered gun, as it exceeds the max pressure. At least that's what the jarheads at Camp Perry told me when I shot there.

In my case, my Remington is .223, but I'm fairly sure if I tried to fire a 5.56 in it, it would jam and/or mess up my gun due to the 5.56 having similar higher pressure specs/casing issues, except in reverse according to them.

Never thought to doubt the jarheads in such matters.

In any case, carry on... I have nothing to add about grain storage, never tried to keep it around long enough to worry about it.