Hey folks, I have been buying my grains as I need them. Luckily I work 3/4 mile from a beer supply store (or unlucky) so I go there for quick hits. How do you folks deal with your grain? What do you store it in? The space in my basement allotted for "beer stuff" is quickly declining.
I have shelving in my garage, I use Rubbermaid totes for bulk grain and then whatever I can scavenge for smaller amounts.
I use a 5 gallon bucket with a sealed lid. They had about 25 pounds each and can be stacked. I vacuum seal specialty grains in bags in varying weights and store them in the freezer. Sometimes they set around over a year before I use them.
the moisture level is the key people don't realize it needs at least 4 to 6%, I'm lucky in that sense I live in a highly humid area
Plastic water drums here for bulk and then in little plastic tubs like Hawkbox has up there. Actually now I just took a photo I realize I'm being a bit sloppy in there That pils bag is unopened and that's just the leftover ale malt that wouldn't fit in that blue drum. Man gotta get brewing!
I would recommend the 55lb storage bins on casters from Iris USA. They fit a US or European sized sack of grain nicely with room to spare so you don’t have to run out before you reorder. They cost about $20 are food safe and translucent so you can quickly check levels on all your base grains.
I store base malts in 5 gallon buckets with standard lids Specialty grains and adjuncts stay in the bags they come in. If I use part of a bag of specialty malt, I just push most of the air out and reseal with packing tape. These bags are also stored in buckets with lids. I generally order grains for 4 or 5 batches at a time, so nothing sits around more than 3 months. I mill my own just before use, so the stored grains are always stored uncrushed.
I have a lot of specialty grains I really shouldn't because I bought them thinking "ALL THE GRAINS!" when I was getting started, now I'm trying to figure out how to use kilograms of Black Patent, Midnight wheat, etc... since I need maybe 10% of any of them to blacken a beer.
