Mice in grain

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Newts

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Hey all,

Recently went and brought a bunch of grain so I could have a crack at all grain. Checked my bag of grain this morning and the bloody mice got into it. Went and bought a few fermenter containers from bunnings to store grain in. Just wanted to know if this grain affect my beer or will it be okay to use?

Cheers

Newts
 
Mice tend to piss on everything as they go.

Your grain will be unusable. You dont want to take chances. Sorry but its now chook food
 
HOw badly did they get into it? If they've chewed the corner and just eaten the grain as its come out its probably fine. If they've actually been running around in it its probably wrecked.
 
I'm with Stu. If they've actually been IN the bag then it's as good as gone.
Very relevant post. Recently found mice nibbled out the corner of a pre-milled recipe, maybe lost 50g. Caught the buggers with a 'humane' mouse trap, then disregarded the advice on the product label and promptly fed each mouse to the dog.
 
My two cats are humane mouse traps.

Have had grain bag corners nibbled with no issue in resulting beers brewed. If mice have pissed in it, you should be able to smell it. Will remind you of Victoria bitter.

Why not do a minimash or something? If it's rubbish, chuck the rest.

And get those bloody mice into something that involves separating their heads from their bodies.
 
I'm sure there have never been rats or mice in the farms, silos or malting facilities... ;)

If it doesn't stink like mouse piss I'd use it.
 
Rudi 101 said:
I'm sure there have never been rats or mice in the farms, silos or malting facilities... ;)

If it doesn't stink like mouse piss I'd use it.
I bet a mouse or two have scampered over your grain from time to time. City people seem to find it hard to believe mice tend to hang out in grain fields, grain silos and spreading grain all around for malting, well that sounds a bit like a mousie meal.

Still I would rather they did not get into my grain bags. :blink:
 
Cheers for the replies. Was expecting a "use the search button" reply but I couldn't find anything.

They only chewed the corner of the bag and looks like they've eaten it as it's come out. I poured a bit out the little hole they made and all the grain in the bag seems to be intact. No strange smell or anything so guess ill use it and see how it goes.

I got the grain from the city 600km away so it's not like I can go get more anyway.

I was thinking that as well. Surely the grain facilities would have mice come through.

Have to figure out how to mouse proof all my grain and extract now. Hopefully these plastic containers and a higher spot do the trick.
 
Haha funny stuff , mice ass will probably help with your mash ph levels !
Unless you like the little blokes keep your grain in a mouse proof container like a plastic bucket with a lid . Easy peasy .
You mouse infected grain will be a ok to brew with so don't fret mate :)
I might join the queue at d stu's place for all his mouse tainted grains that he won't be using :p
 
Unless you have vicious rats! Mice won't be able to chew through plastic. I got a handy storage tub after a mouse attacked my sack of grain last time. They've never found it again. Fucker ate the malt and left the husks on the floor.
 
I've had bits of furry, dessicated bone turn up in sacks of grain before, so I've not only had mouse wee in my beer, I've had significant parts of actual mice/ mouses/meece in the brew. Not that I've told my vegan crusty punk mates about it.
I used to have a job that took me to many rural grain silos, and judging by the local population of very fat and happy felines at each one, I find it hard to believe that any grain product is entirely free of mouse urine.

You'll be fine unless you're passing the meece through the mill.
 
Then they go away, die horribly and stink the place out two weeks later while you try and find where they are. Once you find them, you have to scrape them off the floor.

Traps are way better.
 
I've had rats and I tried the less toxic solution, maybe they're smarter than mice, because I never caught one. With rat sack I caught every single one of them.
 
I'm the opposite although it was a mouse plague that we faced.

They took the ratsak but crawled away and died under things. Only way I found them was via smell. Set traps (I mean loads - up to 15 at once) as we lived in a large warehouse. I think 12-13 was our record in one night. Quick, clean kill, mice stayed exactly where I could find them the next day.
 
I don't have a big problem with either rats or mice, it's managable and my preference (my wife must take full credit for this), is to trap them alive and relocate them, but they're too cunning. They avoided every opportunity we gave them to get out alive. Then we tried neck breakers, with all sorts of treats to entice them, again no luck.

Rat sack, 100% strike rate...... I felt sorry for the bastards but they're too damned smart for their own good.
 
I'm a live/let live kind of guy -relocate spiders, etc (except whitetails & mosquitos) but this particular mouse takeover gave me the worst gastro I have ever encountered and we were overrun. Could hear the bastards pissing in the pantry and taunting me at 2am while I popped another panadeine forte. I felt like my insides had been taken out, washed, oven baked and dried on the line, then put back in in the wrong orientation.

No cats at that time. Took me weeks to get over the symptoms but on the upside, I did start making sculptures from mouse bones.
 
Monsanto Bayer DuPont , what rats ? There is a once in a millennium plague my whiskered scoundrels .
Fill their bellies and poison their kings until the war is won .
 
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