Unfiltered: There are weevils in my grain

Unfiltered is a recurring CBB series featuring insights, ideas and opinions from craft beer professionals, crowd-sourced via Craft Beer Professionals, our Official Conversation Collaborator.

A thread on what to do when you spot weevils in your grain shipments broke out the other day in the Craft Beer Professionals Facebook group following this post:

Weevils. Recently our grain shipments have been coming loaded with these guys… Everything from our super sacks to specialty malts. What realistically should I be expecting from my distributor in solving this problem? I know once these things get in to a place they are a problem to get out. I have another super sack showing up today and if it is a problem again I’m going to be on the phone this afternoon.

Here is what the crowd had to say…

Jamie McMillan, Brueprint Brewing Co. “If you can place all of the grain in the cold room or if up north leave it outside. The colder the better. Call your distributor and send them the pics. If they are a good distributor they will replace all of the grain at no cost. I know Country Malt does and they have this issue regularly. They are pantry beetles by the way.”

Mitch Steele, New Realm Brewing “You have to inspect bags and supersacks when they arrive and reject the shipment. That’s the easiest way to get help from your malt supplier. Though the ones we work with have been very helpful-being in the southeast, it’s a real problem in the summer, and it doesn’t always get cold enough in the winter to kill them off. Separate any infected malt immediately – take it as far away from your other malts as possible. At one brewery, we rented a refrigerated trailer and stored all the infected grain there for a while-it killed most of the bugs.”

Sydney Porter Bradley, Southern Yankee Beer Co. “Call and get a refund. That’s totally unacceptable to send you infested products…. BSG and CMG have never not refunded me for that issue if that’s who you’re dealing with. But if you are opening them after a while in your brewery it could be coming from a local infestation.”

Alex Camilliere, Aslin Beer Co. “We dealt with this: destroy any open or infested bags, take remaining bags outside and vacuum/wipe down all external surfaces, use a new pallet to restack, lightly sprinkle food grade diatomaceous earth on the floor beneath the spaces you’re putting the pallets.”

Benjamin Ellick, CAVOK Brewing “Do you have regular pest control/inspection at your brewery? You’re going to have a hard time getting the distributor to do anything if you don’t. If you don’t get some ASAP. You need the infestation dealt with professionally. Ultimately it doesn’t matter if they came in from the distributor, you need your brewery free of them and they are there already. … if you don’t catch the weevils at delivery the distributor will want records of pest control inspections.”

Dan Ebben, Swine City Brewing “adding on to this. Try to find a local mom and pop. We have been with a lot of the bigger companies and it is worse service for more money.
- Ellick “gonna disagree on that, it’s a nice thought but if you’re dealing with a large distributor it’s easier to dispute if it’s a company they have a relationship with. We use the company our distributor recommended. Local for the cleanup would be fine though, but for monitoring you want someone your distributor trusts.”
- Phil Phillips “If the local company has the same or equally recognized certifications as whatever company the distributer may prefer or recommend they have no validity to dispute who you choose to use. Of course you do want a company who is has experience with such an issue, and it is likely that the company your distributor recommends does.”
- Ellick “Yes it’s true that a properly certified company can, but if you’re looking for quick resolution dealing with a company they already have a relationship with will be much faster and easier. Grain infestation isn’t always readily apparent at receiving, if it’s caught later do you really want it to become a legal dispute? Our distributor said use company X and there will never be a problem refunding if it’s caught after receiving.”

Georgina Solis, Walking Stick Brewing Co. “Someone correct me here if I’m wrong – I was told by a malt supplier that a good majority of grain has weevil eggs in it, they hatch if grain is stored in warmer temperatures. 🤷🏻‍♀️ Our brewery has limited space and we used to store some grain bags in an outdoor container – over summer almost each individual bag had some of those little devils. All of our grain is now in a climate controlled space and we keep less on hand. I know that’s not feasible for everyone.”

Rachel McDermott “This is correct. Weevil eggs come in off the fields. Malting should take care of it though so there must also be an infestation at the malt operation.”