Pre milled grains

Coronajax

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I was checking out a local supplier for grains etc and they offer whole grains or crushed grains, so my question is what kind of time frame is there for crushed grains to lose some of their "freshness", I assume over a period of time the quality deteriorates to some extent? delivery would most likely be less than 5 days.
 
I would recommend using them within a day or two at the most. Keep them sealed to keep them from drying out.
 
If they're sealed up tight and kept in a cool dry place, they'll be good for a few weeks. But it is better to them sooner than later.
 
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I've had crushed grains for close to a year and used them and not noticed anything...course I may have poor tastes. In decent containers you should be good for 2-3 months very easily. I keep mine in the freezer.
 
I know it's not directly related to this post, but I do love having my own grain mill. Fresh milled grain every batch. Lots of good mills out there at decent prices.
 
They'll take on a "stale bread" flavor and aroma after a couple of months, even if they're sealed. It they're vacuum sealed, and in the freezer they might last considerably longer. Stocking up on malts means having your own mill. Unmilled malt keeps very well but once the husk is broken and starches are exposed, oxidation sets in eventually.
 
I think the disparity in the answers here has to do with how fresh the grains were when the people responding received them. I've experienced both the good and bad end of that. The first LHBS I dealt with had big tubs of milled grains sitting around for who knows how long. The same was true with plastic jars of LME they filled in house. When I learned to chew a few kernels as a freshness check I quit buying from them.
I switched to ordering from MoreBeer. My beers were transformed. The difference was amazing. I ordered for several batches at a time and often had milled specialty grains and sealed Mylar bags of LME sitting around for 2 to 3 months without a problem. The LME was refrigerated and the grains stored in their original packaging. Partial bags were just taped shut and stored at room temperature. The shelf life was amazingly different in comparison.
 
The Brulosophy guy does a lot of good research. A lot of groundbreaking knowledge was borrowed from commercial breweries and just doesn't apply at a small scale. Other information comes from tribal knowledge, information that gets passed around, some of which may be true.

I've been brewing for almost 30 years and have used a lot of his research to streamline my brew day. I'm down to about 2 hours for an all-grain brew day and my beer keeps getting better.

And we are all pursuing good beer.
 
Yup, people talk about how long you can keep unmilled grain and a lot of the responses are silly. Grain will keep for years in a grainery and god only knows how old it was when they got to malting it.
 
I guess it's kind of like coffee. Nothing like fresh ground coffee, but it keeps for a long time ground if you store it properly.
I had heard/read that a week or so after crush is okay, but fear oxidizing for much beyond that. Unground, they last a year or so, or even more. I have my lhbs grind mine on Friday for a Sunday brewday. And when I have ordered a kit, it’s prolly a week or so before it’s brewed. In my opinion, it’s more of a common sense thing rather than scientific. As someone mentioned earlier, several variables come into play rather than a short answer.
 
Thanks for all the input folks, I should have added that I would more than likely use them in less than a week after getting them and would be working with 5 gallon batches at a time not storing them for lengthy timeframes
 

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