Old ass grains

I know this question has been asked, but mine has a twist. I've returned to brewing after three years. When I was moving three years ago, I packed all my supplies (including several plastic bags of special grains as well as regular malt) in a box. The box was well sealed, but has moved from VA to NC to NY and now to TN. Besides during the moving process the box was mostly in a typical room temperature room, but may have spent a month in a hot garage.

My question is should I brew with them or toss them? I could understanding tossing the pale malt and marris otter, as who knows what my efficiency would be like. But what about the specialty grains if I'm doing some extract brews to get started or if I were putting them in a mash with "newer" pale malt?

I'd stay away from all ass grain, no matter how fresh.

taste them. If they taste stale, toss 'em.

Personally, I'd brew with them, but then again, I brew fairly often and have a pretty good pipeline going.

mcarb said:

I'd stay away from all ass grain, no matter how fresh.

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lulz

If the grain was already milled/crushed, chances are it's NFG. If whole, it could be good. As mentioned, taste it to see.

How much grain are we talking about here? If only a few pounds (under 20#) then it might not be worth even trying to use it. After three years, I would be concerned that the grain would have lost enough of it's potential to not really be worth using. Or you'd need to use more of it to get the same end result...

I wouldn't brew with it personally. Hop to grain cost wouldn't justify the effort frankly - with hops carrying more value in that equation than some old specialty grains that most likely aren't going to give your beer the potential to shine.

I would try brewing with the old grain.... If not just to use the free supplies to determine whether the rest of your gear is in working shape. If you get very low efficiency on the mash, or the beer tastes like ass, then it it is time to restock.

Use it to experiment. Wash but dont sanitize, aerate with your arm in the wort, rack using your mouth, etc. Just see how hard it really is to mess up beer and if its not see if it tastes good in the end

betting on spoiled grains... but taste & see... you will know

Well, I would if sealed well and smelled ok.

I know some people want to throw grain after just a few weeks but I just used grain (wheat and barley) vacuum sealed and kept frozen for over a year now. They smelled as fresh as the day I bought them and the beer came out great.

mcarb said:

I'd stay away from all ass grain, no matter how fresh.

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Working in farm grain bins in my youth, I have had wheat and corn run down the back of my pants.

Would that be considered "ass grain"?

jgln said:

Well, I would if sealed well and smelled ok.

I know some people want to throw grain after just a few weeks but I just used grain (wheat and barley) vacuum sealed and kept frozen for over a year now. They smelled as fresh as the day I bought them and the beer came out great.

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Vacuum sealed and frozen vs. 3 years old, moved across the country and stored at hot garage temps for extended period of time.

I'm amazed the number of people that would risk a brew day for a small qty of specialty grain. My TIME alone is worth more than salvaging something that is extremely low cost to replace. I'd make dog biscuits with them but they wouldn't go in the same room as my beer! Taste them first? No thanks...

I like thread title as the name for your beer.

I recant in the name of science. Don't throw out the base malt either. Brew side by side batches with fresh and ass grains. Then do some tasting to see impacts of freshness on flavor. Then report back to us so we all get a definitive answer on whether ass grains make quality beer. Science calls - small batch testing required!

I tossed several bags that were not sealed well without bothering with the taste test. Then after the taste test, I tossed about 1/3 of it. However most of it smelled and tasted fine...even 15lbs of Marris Otter and another 20 lbs of Dingmans 2 row base malt.

I recently just used up some Marris Otter that was a little over three years old. It was uncrushed and stored in a rubbermaid container (not airtight) and in the basement. I think it was in the hot garage for a couple of months too.

We moved and had a child so I didn't brew except once in those three years I think. The beers I just made with it taste great though. I'd do the taste test for sure but I'd bet it's fine. Waste not want not.

Do a 1 gallon batch and see. Better yet, take Mako's advice and do two 1 gallon batches and compare fresh to old stock. Either way you won't be out much, but we all may learn much.

Why bother! In the grand scheme of brewing, grain is pretty cheap. I would just toss it. Why bother wasting a brew day for nothing. Just my 2 cents though.

I've just got back to brewing after 2 and a half year break. I didn't even think about grain freshness, kinda just assumed they would be ok, and brewed 5 10gal batches with the grain I had. Just tasted the first 2 batches and it's not good. The beer has body, but has poor head retention, puckering bitterness, little flavour - and what flavour there is tastes stale/sour, and the hop aroma/flavour struggles to come through, and it's got a permanent haze.

I bought fresh grain the other day, and tasted the old and new grain side by side, in a bind taste test with SWMBO. The difference was like night and day. The old grain was soft to the bite, tasted little, no aroma. The new grain was delicious, massive grainy aroma, cruncy to the bite, and sweet and malty. So, I'm just going to use the old grain to make wort for starters.

On serving, the beer has a permanent haze after beeing stored at 43F for 6 weeks. I think it's tannins.

All in all, my worst batch to date. I'm not even sure it's good enough to use in cooking...

I never got around to using anything other than some crystal in an extract batch before the mice.

i would have used it for starters

Being that barley is only harvested twice per year and hops once, we all use older ingredients then many give thought to. The real question is to there storage conditions.