Longevity of Crushed Grain

[matt]

In my giddy, school girl like rush to do my first all grain batch I made a stupid mistake. I waltzed into my local home brew supply shop and started placing my grain order to be ground. I strutt around the store while the grain is being ground, feeling confident that this was it, I was about to finally make that leap. 10 minutes later, there the grain sat on the counter along side my hop pellets. I then ask for two tubes of Irish Ale yeast only to have my dreams crushed. THEY HAD NONE IN STOCK!!! The only liquid yeast they had left were a trappist, an Edinburgh and a some lager strain.

So here I sit with 20 pounds of crushed grain. How long will the crushed grain keep in a cool dry place? Have I hosed myself?

I was wanting to make my first all grain batch, a Samuel Smith's Taddy Porter clone. It will be another week before I can get my hands on some Irish Ale yeast. Should I just say eff it and buy the Edinburgh? I know it wouldn't be a Taddy Porter clone at that point. I guess it would be a Highland Porter? I don't even know if that is a real style. Part of me says go for it, it's my first batch. I'm also worried the grain won't keep after its been crushed.

I beseech you, keepers of all grain brewing knowledge. What the hell do I do?

[Lars]

Keep it in a cool dry place (not your fridge though) and as long as it is air tight it should last for a month or so. Or just go with the edinburgh. I like that yeast!

[SunkenBier]

Yea I agreee, experiment with the new yeast. I have been splitting my batches with yeasts I know I like and then in a second fermentor I try something new. I was impressed with an IPA using the Burton yeast from white labs.

[Hugh Jasper]

Just get brewing and ferment with the Edinburgh yeast. If this is your first AG batch, other things will come up. Although I personally have no experience, I have heard that any of the following could distress duing an AG brew:

-poor cracked grain = low extract
-inability to hold mast temp
-insufficient sparge water
-boil over
-slow wort chill
-dropped carboy while areating
-heat wave and high ferment temp

Anyway, good luck and post what you decided to do.

[matt]

Great advice guys. I decided to go for it Friday night, with the Edinburgh. Luckily, things went pretty well considering it was my first go at all grain. Out of all the things on Hugh's list, here are the two that reared their head.

-poor cracked grain = low extract
-slow wort chil

The first, I'm not sure if it was poorly cracked grain or if it was my sparge. I bought an old Phil's sparge arm for my Mash/Lauter tun. I found out 5 minutes in that it had enough calcium in the holes to keep Paul Harvey marching into the year 2050. So I ended up just batch sparging the rest of the way. I had a good 60 minute or so sparge, but I either:

Didn't get a good enough rinse, rinsed too quickly
Didn't get a good conversion due to the grain itself
or
Didn't mash long enough

My strike water was around 175 and I let it cool for 5 minutes to 152 before putting the lid on the cooler. I mashed for a little over an hour and a half. To my disbelief I actually held 152 through the whole process, both mashing and sparging. So I don't think that was the problem.

My O.G. was 1.042 and it should have been at least 1.046. Is there anyway to up the gravity while it's in the fermenter? The beer fell within the style guide everywhere else but the O.G, so I would like to get that up. I was thinking corn sugar might do the trick, but there surely has to be a better way, if what I'm asking is even possible.

On the issue of getting the wort down fast enough, it took over an hour. It was 4 in the morning, in the garage and pouring down rain. Hopefully I avoided any infection. The tap water wasn't cool enough going into the wort chiller. So I've already coiled up a garden hose in a cooler that I will fill with ice, salt and water for the next time.

If I get time this evening I will post some pics from Friday night.

[SunkenBier]

missing the OG by .004 on your first batch is impressive, job well done. I would go with it as is rather than trying to bump it up more. Since this is your first all grain batch I would not recommend throwing any extra variables in.

[beer_bear]

In my giddy, school girl like rush to do my first all grain batch I made a stupid mistake. I waltzed into my local home brew supply shop and started placing my grain order to be ground. I strutt around the store while the grain is being ground.
.... I'm also worried the grain won't keep after its been crushed.

I did something like this too. I bought and crushed my grain for a partial mash a bit too early. I thought that I would be brewing sooner than life was going to let me. I had to put it in a tupperware type container. I thought ( thoughI don't know why) that it would be a good idea to put it in the freezer. I had no idea just how long it would be before I could brew. Now about a week later ( only 4 days in the freezer) I'm ready to brew. I plan on raising the temp of the grains by letting them sit in the closed container at room temp until they are warm.
Am I hose, or just scared. BTW, i don't think I'll do that again. next time I will just keep it in the container in the pantry.

[bub]

IT WILL BE FINE
BUB