Cedar Rapids Brewing Society

... so that we can keep the thread un-cluttered. I figure that anyone who wanted to split a sack could post here too.

So people offered up several crushers as needed if I don't buy one immediately, and some good ideas for storage in the other thread.

I found that Sam's club sells a 10-pack of 6gal. food-grade buckets WITH gamma seal lids, for $122 shipped, which looks like the best deal I've seen on buckets so far. From what people are saying, the 5gal buckets just barely don't fit half of a grain sack, so 6gal would be better.

The large dog-food storage bins look handy, but seem like they would be harder to store overall, because they don't stack. Anyone have a comment on that?

With proper sealed storage and temperature, grain is supposed to last 2 years reasonably? I'm thinking of ordering:
2 bags light 2-row
1 bag pilsen
1 bag Marris or equivalent
1 bag Munich
Which would be all the base malt i would use in over a year, and give a pretty good variety

5 gallon works for a half sack. Done that for 2 years and simply store it in my basement. I have a cellar I will be using from now on for the cooler temps and less humidity.

Unsure I will split any at this point and have been talking to Brian already of I do. Planning on 4 sacks as of now

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I find I have another 6 lb or so extra from 2 - 5 gallon pails... but you'll use that in a batch though

Oh. I still have grains from 2013 order we completed... I'm still using them.

Dan is probably correct. I don't open my bags until I'm going to use them so a solid 10# never makes it into the buckets.


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czubak wrote:Dan is probably correct. I don't open my bags until I'm going to use them so a solid 10# never makes it into the buckets.

Do the bags come sealed?

whitedj wrote:Oh. I still have grains from 2013 order we completed... I'm still using them.

Same here and folks seem to still enjoy my beer. I always chew a little grain before use to make sure it still tastes right.

andrewmaixner wrote:

czubak wrote:Dan is probably correct. I don't open my bags until I'm going to use them so a solid 10# never makes it into the buckets.

Do the bags come sealed?

Depends on the manufacturer. Some are double lined thick paper and some are some sort of polyester/plastic. Similar to how dog food is sold for lack of a better analogy

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I get the lids from Hy vee bakery. They all have a rubber airtight seal and are like a buck fitty each.

Rahr 2-row/6-row is in a Tyvek bag.. Others come in paper, as discussed... If you use 5 gal buckets... 2 will fit a 50# bag (The Rahr bag was up the the brim on both, but fit).. and any more -- use within a few weeks or Ziploc, Tupperware or vacuum seal in a bag.... the difference will be a small bag on a 50# bag or about 5-6# on a "metric" 55# bag...

But yeah.. I'm in for a couple of more bags too. I broke into the 50# Rahr 2-row that a buddy of mine brought back from Beer Crazy and I being the nut that I am roasted some 10L in the oven (dry) and also did some approx 40L and 80L Crystal/Caramel. The latter is a lot of work by the way and not really worth it but to do once. My understanding of malting and the flavor transitions as the stuff darkened up was well worth doing it once. But you can make specialty malts from base. Doing roasted dry malts is no work at all.

You can consider that in the purchase as well.

I know many people like the dog food buckets. I prefer the 5# buckets with the gamma lids because I stack them up under a table in a cold dark corner of the basement.

You can buy the Orange lids from Home Depot with the same gasketed seal but they are hard to pry off. One option is to do 1/2 of your bucket lids Gamma seal (they are gasketed as well) and the rest the orange gasketed HD lids. Locally, Wal-Mart has the cheapest buckets, but they are not marked food grade $3 (but are). Menards at $1 more has sightly thicker "food grade". But both places normal lids suck. Menards has the cheapest gamma lids, get them during a 11% off sale. The only "standard" lid with the gaskets are either at BIY or the Orange lid at Home Depot.. the HD lid is a tank. It's about $2.50 IIRC...

So you can always use the HD lid on your second bucket and then you only have to pull it off once... then empty the bucket into the gamma seal bucket...

Fred

Or getting buckets from the HyVee Bakery. Do they have any 6.5 or 7.9 gallon buckets?

Is there an difference in quality between say, Rahr Pale Ale at $0.63, versus the european pale ale varieties at ~$0.75? (Beside terroir)

The Rahr is good quality American 2-row. Biggest difference to me is the barley is different. The flavor differences between different base malts was eye-opening from the Tech session Lee did not too long ago.

Yeah.. it's subtle differences. Honestly.. it is.. But those can make a large difference in finished products..

One of my reasons for getting Maris Otter is that it's more "biscuity" than Minnesota 2-row (it's a slightly different variety grown in warmer conditions in Europe)... but the mix of the two is supposedly very good for a malt backbone in IPA's (and if not it'll be fine anyway, so it is low risk).. and in the winter any Scottish/Irish or English style I will brew, I'll do with MO. Though to be technically correct, the Scottish should be done with Golden Promise!

But this is an EXCELLENT opportunity to experiment with other base grains at probably <50% of the small batch price.. Seriously any base malt will make good beer and you are looking at at most $0.80/lb for something that would be >$1.60 lb at BIY. I wish I could brew more and even get a third style like Castle Pils 2RS (for Saisons).. but at three bags (I just got a Rahr 2 row brewers bag).. some of it for me might just end up getting fed to the Chickens (and not mashed either...) as it is... next time...

And again.. I probably will also make specialty malts out of the MO and maybe even the Belgian malt.. I am weird that way because it's a lot of work.. but so is homebrewing versus buying craft beer, isn't it?

But the Belgian pale base? Just because it's interesting and will probably force me to try making some Belgian style Ales...

Fred Spinner

There is a difference, but you really need to try each to develop a sense of the differences. It's rarely as simple as "XYZ Pale Ale Malt" is better than "ABC Pale Ale Malt". Barley variety and maltster make as big a difference as the regional origin. A simple way to assess the differences is to just chew on a small handful of each. Briess Pils & Weyermann Pils taste very different in the glass and it's obvious if you chew the grain. One of these days I'll get around to crunching the numbers from the Base Malt Tech Meeting, which should give some additional guidance.