old grain what to expect

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bendavanza

bendavanza

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I'm considering buying some milled AG kits from another homebrewer but they were purchased on 11/30/09 and stored in the fridge. They are AHS kits so I know they sell their kits in sealed plastic bags, not vaccum but sealed. The kits are a pale ale and a bitter. From what Ive read here, using the search feature, the general consensus is 2 weeks room temp sealed and 4 weeks sealed and refrigerated. What sort of off flavors or problems should I expect if I were to buy these grains and brew with them?
I have my own mill so I usually buy unmilled grain and crush on brewday.
 
bendavanza said:
I'm considering buying some milled AG kits from another homebrewer but they were purchased on 11/30/09 and stored in the fridge. They are AHS kits so I know they sell their kits in sealed plastic bags, not vaccum but sealed. The kits are a pale ale and a bitter. From what Ive read here, using the search feature, the general consensus is 2 weeks room temp sealed and 4 weeks sealed and refrigerated. What sort of off flavors or problems should I expect if I were to buy these grains and brew with them?
I have my own mill so I usually buy unmilled grain and crush on brewday.
Click to expand...

I am thinking that you are fine. I have Homer buckets with grains that I bought last year and have had no issues. As long as they are not stale they are good to go
 
Maybe add some fresh fruit to the Pale Ale to give it some of the flavor it may be lacking. I had grains sitting around for 4 months milled before I used them. Fellow brewer suggested some fresh fruit and it was one of the tastiest beers I've ever made.
 
I'll just add a couple lbs of fresh 2 row to each batch, I like the beers bigger anyway. SOB:
what kind of fresh fruit and are you taking about boil, secondary, ?
 
bendavanza said:
I'm considering buying some milled AG kits from another homebrewer but they were purchased on 11/30/09 and stored in the fridge. They are AHS kits so I know they sell their kits in sealed plastic bags, not vaccum but sealed. The kits are a pale ale and a bitter. From what Ive read here, using the search feature, the general consensus is 2 weeks room temp sealed and 4 weeks sealed and refrigerated. What sort of off flavors or problems should I expect if I were to buy these grains and brew with them?
I have my own mill so I usually buy unmilled grain and crush on brewday.
Click to expand...

I did the exact same thing a year ago. I did not realize when I agreed to buy the kits from him (his SWMBO didn't realize he was an extract only brewer) that it was milled. I went 6 weeks on one kit and three months on the other. I added two pounds of freshly milled base malt to the three month old kit and called it an "imperial". Turned out great, one of my better beers.
 
bendavanza said:
SOB:what kind of fresh fruit and are you taking about boil, secondary, ?
Click to expand...

I put in Black Raspberries just because we picked a bunch at my parent's farm that weekend. You can put anything you want. I've also used mango. You'll want to put them into the secondary. Take the fruit and maybe a little water (just enough to make a slurry or paste) and heat to 160 and hold for a good 10-15 minutes to kill any nasties. Then put in secondary for a week or two. You'll probably want to transfer again before kegging or bottling.
 
FWIW Both of the beers I brewed were great. The yeast was expired (white labs vial) but still made a nice starter, and the beers brewed (E IPA and Bitter) are big hits at my taps. I don't taste anything stale in the beers. I don't doubt it would have been better with freshly milled grain, but at least with the addition of a few lbs per batch of fresh grain, this was a big WIN.
 
My son had to move before he could brew a couple of milled AG kits from Midwest. It was almost a year before he could brew them. I tasted the porter, after he left the last of it with us when Uncle Sam shipped the family overseas. It was great; based on that beer, don't think you'll have any worries.
 

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