A little visitor has been eating my grain

[IainM]

SWMBO went to visit a new nephew in the family, so I took the opportunity to make a brew after work yesterday. When the cats away, the mice come to play!

Just pulling out my bag of grain and I found this:

There was only one course of action. Instead of just doing one brew, I needed to use up all 11kg of grains, so I put on a Black IPA in the Bulldog Brewer, and made 25L of BIAB wort for a John Bull IPA kit partial mash, three DJs of 007:Golden Hop pale with a bit of Amarillo on the stove-top, and a DJ of Experimental Grapefruit single-hop beer also on the stove-top. Started at 6.30, finished at 1am, but hey ho, at least I have 52 litres of beer fermenting this morning!

 

[MyQul]

Get one of these 60L rodent proof barrels to store your grain in. Their only about 20 quid on ebay. I've got one that I originally bought to use as an FV but just store grain in there now

 

[terrym]

If its mice they are filthy creatures, which you will confirm if you find where they have been eating your grain. They will be back. Get some old fashioned traps and bait with cake, and place where you think they have a run.
I had them come into my garage at my previous house and on a good day could catch two in one trap (not together I might add). Magpies loved them for a snack.

 

[IainM]

Yeah, I suspect it is mice. I should be moving house within the month, so these brews are probably my last until then. I'll definitely be using something to store the grain in once I get there though.

 

[chub1]

Yup,need to store in a solid container.
I once stored some fishing groundbait(bread crumb) in a sack under the stairs:nono:.
Never ever seen any mice nor sign of any until then,yup they found it:twisted:.
Never had any more problems since and no sign even of mice. Just shows how clever the little b#####s are:twisted:

 

[Godsdog]

Get a cat,they will sort out your mousy problem

 

[BeerCat]

I had them and got the grains out of the garage and they went. Was starting to stink in there so many of them. I put my phone down on a box and it rang so i went to pick it up and a mouse was sitting next to it.

 

[MyQul]

I had them and got the grains out of the garage and they went. Was starting to stink in there so many of them. I put my phone down on a box and it rang so i went to pick it up and a mouse was sitting next to it.

I'd be more worried if he was answering it :lol:

 

[BeerCat]

I'd be more worried if he was answering it :lol:

Mrs said he was calling all his mates to invite them to the party.:mrgreen:

 

[Leon103]

Personally I would have thrown the grain.

 

[IainM]

Personally I would have thrown the grain.

I did chuck some of it. The mice had only gotten into the two small holes in the pics, at the bottom of the bag. There was some chewed grain there, although no faeces. The rest of the bag was fine. I scooped the 11kg I used off the top and chucked the grain at the bottom. The wort got boiled for an hour, so I'm not concerned about it.

 

[dad_of_jon]

Personally I would have thrown the grain.

or make a note to avoid a bottle swap with IAINM :lol:

 

[DoctorMick]

It happened to me before years back, I bought a cheap black bin which did the trick. Don't seem to have a problem where I am now but I always make sure the grains are stored up a height.

 

[chesters-mild]

For smallish quantities 6 to 7 kilo I've found that a Wilco 12 lit SS pot works well, that's where I store mine,the glass lid id heavy enough to keep Mice out.
Cheers

 

[MyQul]

For smallish quantities 6 to 7 kilo I've found that a Wilco 12 lit SS pot works well, that's where I store mine,the glass lid id heavy enough to keep Mice out.
Cheers

Not heard of those new Hungarian Super Mice? Guns like anvils! They'll soon have that lid off. I read it in the Sun - It must be true!

 

[foxbat]

Height might not keep them out. Here in lovely clean London we chase the mice around the 6th floor of the office. It's people that keep their breakfast cereals in their desk drawers that does it.

 

[chub1]

I did chuck some of it. The mice had only gotten into the two small holes in the pics, at the bottom of the bag. There was some chewed grain there, although no faeces. The rest of the bag was fine. I scooped the 11kg I used off the top and chucked the grain at the bottom. The wort got boiled for an hour, so I'm not concerned about it.

Don't worry about a little bit of mouse poop,just brew up as normal,if the brew goes a bit dark just tell people you managed to drop some chocy malt into it:lol:

 

[chewie]

I did chuck some of it. The mice had only gotten into the two small holes in the pics, at the bottom of the bag. There was some chewed grain there, although no faeces. The rest of the bag was fine. I scooped the 11kg I used off the top and chucked the grain at the bottom. The wort got boiled for an hour, so I'm not concerned about it.

Gawd only knows what is walking, chewing, crapping, peeing or sleeping in grain between us and the farm it came from.

 

[jceg316]

I miss having 2 cats and a yorkie, our property was rodent free for 15 years. I've moved out and my parents got a Parsons Russel X which is absolutely useless at catching anything. My whippet has caught a fair few critters though.

What might be more useful advice though is store everything in plastic tubs with sealable lids, they even got int my candi sugar once. This stopped mice eating my grain. I stored the 25kg sacks in large buckets as well.

 

[Fil]

+1 for a blue barrel, i use exmango chutney barrels with a little knocking to settle a 25kg sack of crushed grain just about squeezes in

On the subject of mice, i was plagued with a bout of suicidal mice for years, i would get up in the middle of the night to go and have a **** and find myself staring down of a drowned mouse, it took me years to realise the cat was catching them and bringing them into the house/bathroom to play with them and would end up throwing them up in the air and on occasion they would land in the bog out of bounds and ending the game and leaving me with a puzzling midnight sight..