Brew it or toss it?

I bought the ingredients to brew an all-grain smoked porter. The grains came crushed in a plastic bag tied with a twist-tie. I got too busy and left the grains in my brew closet for a year (no humidity, no light, constant 70 degrees). Should I try to brew it still or toss it in the compost pile? Thanks for any advise!

There's no day like a brew day. Go for it!

Of course brew it, and let us know how it goes. Your experience may be valuable to many others if you share the results : )

Chew a pinch of the grains. If they taste stale or otherwise bad, compost. A year is a long time for crushed grain, even sealed and refrigerated.

Provided the grain is dry, go for it. It will probably have lost much of it's smoked character, so if that is what you want, you might want to get some additional smoked malt.

I wouldn't count on it performing/tasting like you'd expect. Milled grain typically isn't that good for more than a week. However, if it doesn't taste stale, give it a shot. Personally, I don't think that I would want to spend a day brewing beer that could have some serious quality issues, but that's just me : )

BREW IT !
I just brewed 2 extract kits that i forgot about that i had in my closet, not even refrigerated (i had the hops and yeast refrigerated) and they came out just fine to me. they probably don't have as good of a flavor as if i brewed them a year ago, but they taste plenty great to me and others that have had it.

Be prepared to have your efficiency be lower than usual though. I just finished cooking a "throaway" brew of some base grain I had lying around, like you, and I came 3-4 points short even though my volume was spot on. I don't expect it to be spectacular, but as long as it doesn't taste or smell vegetal, I'll be fine with the results.

I'm going to give it a shot. I bought an extra pound of smoked malt to add, we'll see what happens. I did buy new yeast also since the old wyeast pack was over a year old. My LHBS suggested burton ale yeast from white lab (a platinum strain) that haven't used before. I know the grain is dry and sealed, so i will take a chance. I'll post results, it will probably take a few months before it's ready to drink.

Taste the grain...you should pretty easilty be able to tell if they are stale. Don't waste your time if they are, unless you are brewing it as an experiment (which I would probably do, since you can't really waste too much more money).

I would still brew it - as an experiment anyway.

I did end up brewing the beer, everything turned out fine. I still hit my OG. The flavor is great. I really can't tell flavor or preformance wise that the grain sat around for a year. I understand the importance of fresh ingredients but I'm glad I didn't toss it! Cheers.