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I am new to the homebrewing world. In this moment I have just brewed using prepared kits (I use Brooklyn Brew Shop kits). However, I am considering trying new recipes and therefore buying the ingredients separately. As many of them come in larger quantities that I need, I was wondering

  • What are the optimal ways to store them? (for all of them: malt, hops and yeast).
  • For how long will they last?

Or otherwise, do you know any online shop (I live in the UK) that allows me to buy just the amount I need for my batch?

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DME should be kept in air tight food grade container. It has a long storage life. I buy 50 lB sack and split it with 3 other brewers We use this for yeast starters and to bump up the gravity in our all grain brews LME should be kept in cold storage after opening and should be used up quickly. We buy grain in 50 55 lb sacks and store in large dog food storage containers Specialty grains are stored in air tight food storage containers. We keep our hops in the freezer in air tight bags. we use around 6 to 8 oz when we brew. we buy from hop farms in 1 lb size.we try to reuse our yeast slurry 2 to 3 times. we are experimenting with freezing out yeast

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  • Do you know for how long do they last?
    – Ferran Brosa Planella
    Mar 14, 2016 at 19:28
  • @FerranBrosaPlanella how long what lasts? Malting houses usually give guidelines for their malts. It's up to 2 years (less strongly suggested) for not crushed and about a month for crushed most of the base ones I've read about, and huge variation for specialty ones.
    – Mołot
    Mar 14, 2016 at 22:18
  • And hops and yeast?
    – Ferran Brosa Planella
    Mar 14, 2016 at 23:03
  • @FerranBrosaPlanella hops frozen up to one year, yeast - read the friendly manual, labs provide guidelines for their strains and packaging methods.
    – Mołot
    Mar 15, 2016 at 13:21
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Homebrew Finds has a comprehensive roundup of the different storage options for grain and hops. I use 5 gallon buckets + Gamma Lids for bulk grain, and I have a vacuum sealer for smaller quantities of grain and hops. The buckets sit in my basement, and the vacuumed bags go in the freezer.

The biggest thing with grain is (if possible) not to crush it until it's needed. Much like spices, whole grains stay fresher for much longer than crushed grain. I've had buckets of grain that took more than a year to use that still were OK at the end.

Also, most local homebrewing stores on the internet in the US will sell malt by either the ounce or 1/4 pound, and I'd assume it would be similar in the UK.

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