Grain Storage and Cleaning

[dustybarn]

Can anyone help me determine how long I can store milled grain (corn and rye) without significantly affecting conversion/flavor?

Also, I've read differing views on grain cleaning; who cleans grain and who doesn't, and why?

[Stumpy's]

Can anyone help me determine how long I can store milled grain (corn and rye) without significantly affecting conversion/flavor?

Also, I've read differing views on grain cleaning; who cleans grain and who doesn't, and why?

We are not up and running yet but we are currently refinishing a seed cleaner that will do about 150 bushel/hr for super clean grain. We decided to make the investment because we are using grain from our family farm and the cleaner at the distillery is the first time the grain will ever see a cleaner.

If you use a cleaner, you will likely be able to get away with a little longer storage time because the screen cleaning process w/ a fan should get rid of most bugs. If you are going to buy your grain from a local mill, you will likely get a medium-cleaned grain as most mills' cleaners are set up to clean for bulk sale or feed. Those are typically faster cleaning rates so you will see a little more chaff, bugs, etc.

Kind of vague but I hope that helps! As soon as we get up and running I'll let you know what we learn.

Adam

[dustybarn]

Adam,

Same boat here with the family farm grain.

Thanks

[PeteB]

Grain cleaning.

It will depend on what the non-grain component is.

If it is just chaff and grain husks and it does not block your mill then in my experience it doesn't matter.

I harvest my own rye and barley and don't re-clean. It contains a lot of short straw, grain husks, small thistle heads and grasshoppers.

If you are lautering the extra chaff could be an advantage.

A few dead insects won't cause any problem.

If you are doing your own malting most of the chaff, husks and insects will float up in the steep water and can be scooped off, if you want everything to look clean.

Milled grain will deteriorate much faster than unmilled, but can't help you with times. Lower temperature and low humidity would be better

[dustybarn]

We are not using any malts, just enzymes and corn/rye harvested by contracted farmers.

Our hope was that we might only have to fire up our hammermill once per month, and at worst once per week. I presume I'll need to examine the grain before milling to determine if each batch has too much foreign matter. I think we have grain stored in multiple bins, so there could be a variety of degrees of cleanliness.

I just wanted some direct experience, since I've seen references to "chalking it up to character" regarding non-grain matter in the mash.

For the time being, it is actually possible we could refrigerate the milled grain.

Thanks

[Skaalvenn]

Can your supplier clean the grain?

We found a local farmer who cleans the grain and sends it to his neighbor for milling & bagging at a price where buying a mill won't be cost effective for quite a long time. It also saves quite a bit on labor since all we have to do is carry the bags to the mash tun and cut them open.

[PeteB]

Storing milled grain should be fine for many months as long as you don't have very high humidity.

The wholemeal flour you buy for home use has quite a long "use by" date. Almost the same thing.