50 lb grain storage

[quote=“johnplctech”]If you have one weevil egg in your grain it might take up to 3 months to see a weevil and another 3 months to see hundreds and another 3 months to see thousands… so if you use your grain and don’t let it sit for a year like I did you may never see a weevil even though you may have a few per sack. Cooler temperatures slow the life cycle down so yea sealed up tight to keep from letting the little buggers from getting in and out and cool temperatures to slow the life cycle down and you may never ever have a problem. It doesn’t seem to be associated with the quantity you purchase but rather how quickly you use it up and if your unlucky to have one weevil egg in the sack.

John[/quote]
hip hip hooray!!! insert clinking glasses
and it was a bag of Maris otter the was spoiled sniff sniff

AHAHAHA Shadetree is gnar. I’f for it. Just brew with the weevil malt and tell everyone that that nutty je ne sais quoi is rye. So do I crush and mash the weevils or pick them out and do them as a 15 minute addition?

I use dogfood storage containers. They’re airtight rubbermaid things that have a round sealing lid at an angle, and they stack well. No issues.

http://www.amazon.com/Vittles-Vault-Sta ... B0002ZS3XY

I got several of them at costco for 28.99 apiece. 60 pounds fits an uncrushed 55lb sack.

If I do go with zip bags these are much cheaper than any on amazon (as I first listed)

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Hefty-Onezip- ... t/11027203

with tax and free shipping they are 26 cents a bag
as to ordering $45 of home free stuff - piece of cake
there are lots of home free products I have already been buying at the local walmart

[quote=“spykeratchet”]AHAHAHA Shadetree is gnar. I’f for it. Just brew with the weevil malt and tell everyone that that nutty je ne sais quoi is rye. So do I crush and mash the weevils or pick them out and do them as a 15 minute addition?

I use dogfood storage containers. They’re airtight rubbermaid things that have a round sealing lid at an angle, and they stack well. No issues.

http://www.amazon.com/Vittles-Vault-Sta ... B0002ZS3XY

I got several of them at costco for 28.99 apiece. 60 pounds fits an uncrushed 55lb sack.[/quote]
This is the one I plan to get.

http://www.amazon.com/Vittles-Vault-50- ... QFLKD24LR8

[quote=“tknice”]I use gamma seals. Wierd name, good product.

They are a little expensive but should last for a very long time and fit any 12" bucket.

I have about 6 or 7 buckets filled with base grains (one currently with munich). They are air and water tight, keep weevils and other nasties out, and make a cool sound while closing.
[/quote]

Those Gamma Seal lids are not as air and water tight as they would lead you to believe. A regular bucket lid with a seal works just as well or better. The Gamma Seal lid needs to seal around the bucket top, and then you have another seal on the spin-on lid that may or may not seal. I have a number of them and I would not spend the money again. When people find them they buy into the idea and spend the money, only to get inconsistent sealing. A paint bucket lid with the regular o-ring seal in it works best and can actually be easier to open.

The Vittles Vaults with these lids are even worse.

[quote=“Dean Palmer”][quote=“tknice”]I use gamma seals. Wierd name, good product.

They are a little expensive but should last for a very long time and fit any 12" bucket.

I have about 6 or 7 buckets filled with base grains (one currently with munich). They are air and water tight, keep weevils and other nasties out, and make a cool sound while closing.
[/quote]

Those Gamma Seal lids are not as air and water tight as they would lead you to believe. A regular bucket lid with a seal works just as well or better. The Gamma Seal lid needs to seal around the bucket top, and then you have another seal on the spin-on lid that may or may not seal. I have a number of them and I would not spend the money again. When people find them they buy into the idea and spend the money, only to get inconsistent sealing. A paint bucket lid with the regular o-ring seal in it works best and can actually be easier to open.

The Vittles Vaults with these lids are even worse.[/quote]
Bummer, so the Vittles Vaults aren’t as awesome as people make it seem? Hmmmmm…This throws my entire perception of reality into question! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcGx0oLXZZE

[quote=“Beersk”]
Bummer, so the Vittles Vaults aren’t as awesome as people make it seem? Hmmmmm…This throws my entire perception of reality into question! [/quote]

We all love a techie solution to a problem, but only if they actually improve the solution!

The Vittles Vaults had a lot of inconsistent molding along the top rim of the container, which just happens to be the same surface that the seal in the adapter ring for the Gamma Seal lid must seal to. A lot of them don’t really seal, and in many cases with paint buckets and Vittles Vaults air can pass freely through one or both of the seals. If you try and screw down that silly lid enough to seal, the lid becomes a real issue to remove without tools. I have a lot of experience with these things and the best result was always 50/50, but never a problem getting a regular paint bucket seal to work. With the results me and a number of friends have had already over a number of years I don’t recommend them for any true airtight storage. I have used them for storage and fermenting both, and fermenting becomes a real disaster as you need to remove and sanitize a lot of parts with crevices and they don’t come back off the buckets or the vaults easily and usually need to have cuts made to facilitate the removal for cleaning.

nuff’ said :slight_smile:

Well, that’s one experience. I have had 8 of them for years and have never had an issue. I wouldn’t consider fermenting in them and the grain is all preboil so I don’t ever see the need to sanitize either. Not only have I never had a bug in there but have even used them to hold cereal, which did not go stale.

Interesting… the gamma seals have always been great for me. I really haven’t kept grain around for more than six months because it gets used up pretty quickly but I definitely know stale grain when I taste it and these keep it quite fresh. The lids always spin right on with no problems and maybe that’s the buckets I bought, I don’t know.

Sorry to hear you had trouble… I still recommend them highly.

I hate you all. Now I have to go downstairs and check my grain bin for weevles!!! I bought my first sack a couple months ago and now im paranoid after reading this.

I use this to store my grain. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00186 … 00_details

The green ones make the weevils sick and they leave…

John

Damn!!! I got the blue one!!!

If I can play devil’s advocate, I don’t think six months is long enough to draw conclusions. I routinely store grain in the (opened) malsters’ sacks for longer than that without any evidence of staling.

I’m sure that’s highly dependent on heat and humidity, though, and I have little of either.

Last time it took me almost 2 years to get through a sack of munich. I didn’t see any negative effects in the finished beer, and even chewed on a couple grains that were still hard and crunchy. I keep them in the sack with a heavy twist tie to keep it closed. Most imported malt sacks have a plastic liner, so that helps keep some humidity out. I’m going to switch to homer buckets soon just for ease of moving around/pouring.