For anyone that mills their own wheat, have you ever had wheat berries go rancid? If so, how long did you have them stored before they went rancid? And what was the storage condition that allowed the berries to go bad?
Maybe someone from Breadtopia can chime in with info on how long Breadtopia has been able to store their wheat berries for custom ground flour. And, how does Breadtopia store its wheat berries?
Personally, I have only bought wheat berries in 4-lb or 5-lb bags and never had them around long enough to worry about them going rancid. I am now considering 50-lb bags, been thinking about the whole wheat berry storage thing.
@Otis Hi Otis! I do mill my own flour as well as use Breadtopia High Protein Bread Flour. I typically keep 5-pound bags each of Turkey Red or Red Fife berries (as my mood hits when ordering ), 5-pounds of Hard White Wheat berries and 5-pounds of Whole Rye berries. I store all my grain: the berries and the already ground bread flour in my deep freeze. I typically have a 10-pound bag of bread flour in my refrigerator and keep the rest of my ingredients frozen. I will weigh out the amount of berries I need for any particular recipe and let them thaw out to room temperature before milling them, which usually only takes about 30 minutes. At any given time I’ll have about 15 pounds of whole berries and a 10-pound bag of bread flour.in my freezer. I reorder when I find myself running low. IF you have the freezer space, or an extra freezer than I can recommend continuing to buy the size bags you already do and simply freezing them. Just remember to thaw your berries before milling them though!
I have never purchased nor stored the 50-pound bag so I’m afraid I can’t comment on that. Being empty-nesters I can assure you that quantity would go rancid in my home long before I could use it all. I do know there are specialized containers for storing that amount of grain that would be advisable to purchase if you do go that route. I also believe there are moisture-absorbing packets that would be beneficial to add to the container to definitely help lengthen storage time. I may have read that at one time. However, I would definitely recommend researching the proper ways and proper placement of the container in your home to store such a large quantity to see if indeed it would be a good fit for your home and lifestyle.
I wish you all the best in your pursuit and hope some of our Breadtopians who do store larger amounts of grain will chime in on this thread and give you their thoughts.
Thank you, Leah. I did read some of your other posts on storing wheat berries. I will expand a little, this is a bit weird, but … I am thinking of buying wheat berries 50-lbs at a time, not necessarily expecting I will be able to use all 50-lbs. That is why I asked how long before the berries go rancid.
Consider this: a 5-lb bag of hard red spring wheat berries is $7.82. And a 50-lb bag of the same berries is $31.74. If I use just 20-lbs of the 50-lbs, I will basically break even to buying just four 5-lb bags ($31.28). If I use only 21-lbs (or more) I will have saved money.
Not everyone can save money buying big bags of flour/wheat berries and throwing some away because of the cost of shipping. The closer you are to the distribution for flour/berries, the more likely you are to save money if you are ok with buying big bags and throwing away the excess.
@Otis Otis, Now I more fully understand the reason why you’re interested in getting 50 pounds of wheat berries at a time. It’s more economical for you whether you use them all or not!
Since I am unfamiliar with the longevity issue of storing grains I did find the following website that may have more information for you. I hope it helps. There may be other similar sites you can investigate for food storage safety & longevity. National Center for Home Food Preservation | How Do I? Store (uga.edu)
I’ve never had wheat berries go rancid and I keep them in my basement. The longest I’ve stored them for is about a year, and the temps in my basement range from high 50s- to mid-70s.
I should note that I’m very sensitive to rancidity too. I’ve tossed out toasted flax seeds and nuts because of hints of rancidity. And I store those things whole in my freezer. I think I would pick up on rancidity in the berries.
I keep them in air tight containers (like 5 gal buckets with those screw-on lids with a gasket) in a non-climate-controlled environment (in New England, hot in the summer cool in the winter). I’ve never had any go rancid over the course of at least 2 years (I think I would detect it…I do notice when seeds, nuts, and oils go rancid).
Not having too high a moisture content is key to long-term storage. I’m not sure if there is such a thing as too-dry, but not dry enough is definitely bad. I’ve had small amounts of grain that I’ve tempered (added moisture to) go moldy on me after maybe a month. I think Breadtopia grains probably come at the right moisture level for storage, but a local farm share that I’ve bought grain from warned to let their grains dry out before air tight storing.
I buy my hard red winter wheat in 50lb bags. I break the bag down into ten 5 lb vacuum sealed bags & store them in one of our storage freezers. The wheat berries will keep indefinitely stored this way.
), 5-pounds of Hard White Wheat berries and 5-pounds of Whole Rye berries. I store all my grain: the berries and the already ground bread flour in my deep freeze. I typically have a 10-pound bag of bread flour in my refrigerator and keep the rest of my ingredients frozen. I will weigh out the amount of berries I need for any particular recipe and let them thaw out to room temperature before milling them, which usually only takes about 30 minutes. At any given time I’ll have about 15 pounds of whole berries and a 10-pound bag of bread flour.in my freezer. I reorder when I find myself running low. IF you have the freezer space, or an extra freezer than I can recommend continuing to buy the size bags you already do and simply freezing them. Just remember to thaw your berries before milling them though!