How is old is too old?

So i picked up some Rye from a neighbor that was moving and selling all his worldly possessions. He gave me the little amount of homebrew stuff that he had and i went ahead and took the Rye thinking it may be good.

now i think this stuff could be anywhere from 6 months to 2 years old. How long is to long for Rye oats. They smell fine and taste ok....not stale and still have a crispness to them. They were stored in just a regular old plastic bag with a twist tie at the top so by no means was it air tight. Not a huge deal if i cant use them as it is only 4 pounds but id rather not throw them away if there is no need to. Like i said they dont taste stale they are still crisp but not very sweet....which i dont think rye would be very sweet in the first place.

Will a full boil kill of Ergot? Don't want to go starting a new round of witch trials.

D0ug said:

Will a full boil kill of Ergot? Don't want to go starting a new round of witch trials.

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lol, yea i was curious what you guys thought...my thoughts are to take it down to me LHBS and taste test it compared to what they have....

Honetly I don't know. I don't use much grain at all because I've only been doing this for a under a year and only handle enough grains for a steep.

Your plan sounds good to me though.

I bet some of the AG guys would know though, I suspect they'd say if it's not fuzzy and/or bitter it's fine.

But again, I know not of what I speak, besides Ergot is a fungus that infects rye, and can cause hallucinations.

D0ug said:

Honetly I don't know. I don't use much grain at all because I've only been doing this for a under a year and only handle enough grains for a steep.

Your plan sounds good to me though.

I bet some of the AG guys would know though, I suspect they'd say if it's not fuzzy and/or bitter it's fine.

But again, I know not of what I speak, besides Ergot is a fungus that infects rye, and can cause hallucinations.

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sounds like more than i could handle....i just want a buzz. hallucinating sounds a bit much. worst comes to worst i gotta fork out 5 bucks to get 4lbs of rye

ive been doing AG for about 6-8 months but ive always used my grain within 2 weeks of milling/buying them. so this is a new question to me.... rye is flaked if that makes any real difference, which besides in the mash i doubt that it does.

Yeah, I had to give up those sorts of activities long ago. Just wasn't fun anymore.

Beer is much nicer, and a great hobby to boot.