Bucket of mixed specialty grain. What to do?

I have come across a 5 gallon bucket filled with mixed specialty grains. I don't know what the exact proportions are, but the label says:
-Vienna
-Carapils
-Victory
-Crystal 10
-Special-B
-Crystal 20
-Biscuit
-Chocolate
-Crystal 60
(Maybe greatest to least amount? Definitely not alphabetical)

I would hate for all of this grain to go to waste and want to put at least some of it to use. So, what would be the best way to go about including such randomness into a brew? What would you do with such a mixture? If I use 2-row as my base what percentage should my mixture be?


Edit:
(from page 3)

Because pictures are always fun:

I would take maybe 5lb of it and put about 10lb of 2 row with it and see what happened to it for 6 gallon batch or something.

You prolly have like 25lbs of malt there eh? Pretty neat find. Where did you happen upon that?

Use leftover portions of 1oz. hop packages and it'll be a true leftover stew sort of brew.

pinback said:

I would take maybe 5lb of it and put about 10lb of 2 row with it and see what happened to it for 6 gallon batch or something.

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this would be my suggestion!
the only problem is i bet you will make your best beers ever with this, and won't be able to duplicate them unless you find another 5g bucket of mixed grain!

I'd go more like 1 lb per 5 gallon batch, or 2 lb at the max. There's a lot of crystal in there and nothing that would really be considered a base malt except the vienna.
I'm also curious where you came upon this - should be fun!

How Big Is your mash tun?

This is so awesome. I want to know what happens with this.

thetragichero said:

the only problem is i bet you will make your best beers ever with this, and won't be able to duplicate them unless you find another 5g bucket of mixed grain!

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This was my thought exactly!

Experimental brewing is a blast. Fun to just let it go and see what happens.

Sounds like a great "problem" to have. Please post results!

Thanks for the ideas so far!

I do BIAB, and depending on grain bill, the largest batch I can make is make 3-3.5 gallons.
Based on the different suggestions I have received I think that I will use 6lbs of 2-row and 1.25lb of "mix" for a 3 gallon batch. Hops have yet to be decided, I am thinking Magnum and Willamette

As for where I got this bucket..... The details are a little sketchy...
A friend of a friend of a friend was foreclosing some property (he said it was a brewpub) and the tenants had left town taking with them a bunch of the equipment. A lot of little useless things were left behind. The only thing worth salvaging was this mix bucket.

Can you find out the name of the former brewpub? Obviously it's a mixed blend for a recipe. If you can find their old website or some info on their beers, maybe you can figure out just what beer the blend was for.

TyTanium said:

Experimental brewing is a blast. Fun to just let it go and see what happens.

Sounds like a great "problem" to have. Please post results!

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Yeah really, "problems" dont get much better than this.
I will defiantly get something brewed with this and get back to y'all.
I am in the process of moving though so it may be a little while however.

Revvy said:

Can you find out the name of the former brewpub? Obviously it's a mixed blend for a recipe. If you can find their old website or some info on their beers, maybe you can figure out just what beer the blend was for.

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That is a great question Revvy. I have looked into this and what I have found out is that
1) This is was a tiny little brewhouse on the outskirts of the city. No website, out in the boonies and not very popular
2) I also found out today that when this person was rummaging/cleaning up the property he happened upon bags of grain. Instead of keeping each bag individually wrapped to give to me, he combined them all into a bucket (not knowing any better). So it is safe to assume at this point that this mixture was not intended for a recipe.

Do the dark color grains (special B, c-60, chocolate) dominate, or do the grains look like the ones light in color, i.e. vienna & c-10, dominate?
I don't see you making anything else but a brown ale or a porter [and a weird one at that] from the mix if the grains are dark.

If it were me, I'd give away 1-2 pounds to a bunch of brewers and have them brew up something with it and give you a bottle.

midfielder5 said:

If it were me, I'd give away 1-2 pounds to a bunch of brewers and have them brew up something with it and give you a bottle.

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I like that. Mix it as homogeneously as possible, divvy it up between yourself and others, meet back or trade bottles of whatever concoction was created.

I would compare each individual grain under a microscope and divide similar grains into their own separate bags. Then you can make a real recipe (assuming you havent died of old age or boredom).

Biscuit, Victory and Special B are all very distinctive malts, and neither are very complimentary of each other (well, Victory and Biscuit might play well together, but the Special B is very much an odd ball of the bunch). I would probably only try to brew a dubbel, porter or stout with it, limiting the mixture to only 10% of the grain bill. Even then I'd be leery of using it at all. Good luck!

Try a one gallon batch two to two and a half pounds of two row and a pound of the mixed grain. Use a simple hop combo like cascade and simcoe and a
Neutral yeast and see what you get could be cool.

Or crap but at one gallon who cares.

tennesseean_87 said:

Use leftover portions of 1oz. hop packages and it'll be a true leftover stew sort of brew.

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i like the idea of this - it seems some of my best brews are always the uncharted, unrecorded forays into randomness that cannot help but refute reproduction... leftovers cooked on a dying fire on a drunken tuesday night- things don't happen twice for a good reason

The real dilema will be if this turns out to be your best brew ever you won't be able to recreat it

He'll have to save bottles and go through the long, arduous process of cloning without help from anyone else.

Great ideas and advice so far, a big thanks to everyone.
I will be taking everything mentioned into consideration.

midfielder5 said:

Do the dark color grains (special B, c-60, chocolate) dominate, or do the grains look like the ones light in color, i.e. vienna & c-10, dominate?
I don't see you making anything else but a brown ale or a porter [and a weird one at that] from the mix if the grains are dark.

If it were me, I'd give away 1-2 pounds to a bunch of brewers and have them brew up something with it and give you a bottle.

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Sadly, I don't know any other homebrewers to do this. I have tried to convert some people, but interest is minimal at best.
The mix is very light in color. For example, I probably wouldn't have known it had any chocolate in it had the bucket not been labeled.

Because pictures are always fun: