Updated: February 13, 2025
This review is by Homebrew Finds Contributor Brad Probert. Brad is an engineer, expert homebrewer and experienced reviewer. Grab a link to Brad’s website at the end of this review.
Vittles Vault Storage Bins
Gamma2 as a company is 100% dedicated to their mission of designing and providing pet food containers to animal owners (technically they also care about your dog getting out of the pool, as they make a doggy pool exit ramp). But, that doesn’t mean these “pet food containers” can’t be co-opted for homebrewing. The same characteristics that make them ideal for pet food, also make them ideal for malt storage.
Vittles Vault 60-lb Container
I’ll go through a few storage basics for malt. First, you want to store it uncrushed, so that the husk helps keep the good stuff inside protected from the environment. Cracked grain kernels are more enticing to critters, and opens up the endosperm to fast staling. Beyond that, grain wants to be kept at cooler room temperatures (40 – 60F), dry, away from light, and in an airtight environment. Maltsters range in the max recommended storage time, with most in the 12-18 months range, and some up to 24 months. When you buy grains by the 55-lb sack, most will put a “best by” date on the label, since you don’t know how old it is before you get it. Although you can save money by buying grains in bulk, you need to make sure you have the right throughput to use it up before it stales.
Lid o-ring Out of Groove on Right Side
Gamma2 has a number of different types and sizes of storage containers. All are designed to be airtight, so they keep air from getting in and staling your grains when you’re not scooping it. (Which of course, the same thing can’t be said for that 55-lb sack of grain you’ve got in the corner, with a stretch of duct tape over the hole you cut into it…) The lid design is how they achieve this air-tightness. There’s a compliant o-ring that’s held in a groove on the lid which gets compressed down onto a chamfered face on the body of the container to make the seal. As the threaded lid gets screwed down, the o-ring will get squished to block off the air-leak path past the lid.
Deal on BULK Grain!
When you purchase 6+ 5lb bags of the same grain MoreBeer will apply a volume discount. You can see this discount on each product page. Here is an example:
Malt Deal at MoreBeer! – choose 6 more 5lb bags of grain to see volume discounts
Get Free Shipping: Shipping is free with a qualifying $59 order to many US addresses
Example… Briess 2 Row drops to $7.65 when you buy 6 or more 5 lbs packs. Buy 10 x 5 lb packs and you’ll have the equivalent of a 50 lb sack of grain. With the discount this will figure to $76.50 AND that will include shipping to many US addresses.
Yes, free shipping works… FREE Shipping DOES Work. I periodically get questions/concerns when I post this workaround, please read… Although bags of grain do not ship under MoreBeer’s free shipping program… this is a loophole of sorts. 5 and 10 lb bags do ship for free. If you use this technique you will receive 5 x 10 lb bags of grain, not a single 50 lb sack.
Check Pricing and Available Sizes & Configurations, Review Continues Below
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I’ve long been an advocate of using these sorts of portion cups for homebrew-related tasks. I’ve kept small (2 to 2.5 ounce) portion cups in my Brew Day Box for years. See: Hands On Review: Stainless Steel Portion Cups – for Brew Day Measuring & Samples for a review of those.
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