# 'freshening Up' Grain In The Oven?



## waggastew (9/11/11)

I often order pre-cracked from CB for a couple of brews. It comes in a vac bag but will not obviously be at its best after a few months of storage time. Has anyone tried putting the grain in a low oven for 20 minutes to liven it up a bit? Was thinking along the lines of roasting spices before using in a curry.

Of course I could stop being a cheap bastard and buy a grain mill but..........I'm a cheap bastard.

Stew


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## warra48 (9/11/11)

Stew,

I've never tried to freshen up pre-cracked grain, but you are always welcome to crush your grains through my mill at any time if you buy them unmilled. I'll even adjust the gap to your liking!

Rob


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## browndog (9/11/11)

waggastew said:


> I often order pre-cracked from CB for a couple of brews. It comes in a vac bag but will not obviously be at its best after a few months of storage time. Has anyone tried putting the grain in a low oven for 20 minutes to liven it up a bit? Was thinking along the lines of roasting spices before using in a curry.
> 
> Of course I could stop being a cheap bastard and buy a grain mill but..........I'm a cheap bastard.
> 
> Stew




I don't think roasting spices to release flavours and aromas relates to mashing grain to convert starch to sugars via enzymes.

-BD


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## [email protected] (10/11/11)

I've used bags from CB that were a bit over 3 months. I bought a few at once and did not get around to brewing them all.

The only thing that happened was my mash efficiency dropped by about 10%. Beer turned out good.

I would say putting your grain in the oven, would do more harm than good.

cheers


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## stux (10/11/11)

Beer4U said:


> I've used bags from CB that were a bit over 3 months. I bought a few at once and did not get around to brewing them all.
> 
> The only thing that happened was my mash efficiency dropped by about 10%. Beer turned out good.
> 
> ...



Did you weigh out the grains before using them? If so they might have had 10% more moisture, hence 10% less sugar, by weight, hence less efficiency. 

If you had weighed them out before the absorbed more moisture then there wouldn't have been an efficiency loss


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## katzke (10/11/11)

Once grain is cracked it starts to stale or go rancid. I do not think you can reverse the process by heating it up. Malted grain stales faster then unmalted grain.


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