First time brewing in 2 years... what am I missing?

[tooblue02]

Good Morning All,

Unfortunately the last two years have been filled with kids, moving, job switches and everything in between and thus my brewing went to the back burner. Well I finally convinced my better half that I need to brew again to save money on beer (and surprisingly she was like absolutely!). So I have a few questions I am hoping you guys might be able to help out with/enlighten me on before I light the burner this weekend...

1) How long are grains good for if they were sealed in zip lock bags in a Rubbermaid bin in a non-humid environment? I bought them back in Oct 2016 so I am curious if they are still good? I also have several small 1 lb bags of specialty malts that are unopened and figured they should still be good? I went ahead and bought new grain for this batch anyways since I didn't know what I had stashed before I went silent on brewing.

2) What would you do with the equipment as far as cleaning and disinfecting? I got everything out last night and was happy to see that only a few small spiders had taken up residence in the fermenting buckets but otherwise it all looked clean except the ball valve on the kettle which I dismantled and scrubbed clean (looks like new). I went ahead and washed as much as I could with PBW but is there anything I should replace? I was thinking of getting some new tubing for moving the wort to the fermenter anyways.

3) Any tips for making a simple IPA. I will be doing a BIAB 5 gallon batch, west coast style just to run through the process, figured it would be best to start with a beer I can't really mess up!

4) Anything else I am not thinking of? I am not planning to make a starter for this first batch but I do I have some DME that is also still powdery and not a solid block like I expected.

Thanks for the help, tips, and general info. Looking forward to that sweet sweet smell of freshly brewed beer!

 

[Soulshine2]

I know how you feel . Moving, kids, job...yeah that all tends to put a big dent in the hobby time. But lets back up a sec, you told your wife your beer making would save you money...and she bought it??? Thats awesome.
All kidding aside. I would say if you did a thorough disassembly,scrubbing and disinfect/sanitizing you should be good to go . Yes, I'd buy new tubing for sure. About the grain sitting 2 yrs in bags ...hard to say ,go for it . Unless those bags are vapor proof and heat sealed all this time ,I wouldnt trust a regular storage ziplock because they're not technically vapor proof. I buy imported cigar tobacco that comes to me in actual vapor proof bags,theyre thicker than most common plastic bags in stores . whatever condition they go in at , is what they come out at as long as the seal isnt broken. welcome back into the game...now get brewing.

 

[bkboiler]

i just came back from a one year brewing hiatus and replaced plastic based fermenters, grommets, tubes, etc...
If you had dismantled your keg seals and stored them dry/with some keg lube on them, they’re probably fine. If stored in a compressed state, I’d do some further inspection (maybe a pressure test) before transferring beer into it.

If your rubber bungs were stored clean and dry (and out of direct light) they should be ok.
Any copper or stainless should be fine, just hit with PBW or barkeepers friend until it’s visually good then starsan if it’s a post boil tool or just rinse with water if it’s preboil.
Use discretion for things such as muslin hop bags or BIAB bags as they are hard enough to clean between brews and can attract bacterial growth. I know they’re going to get boiled, it just makes me a little queasy, personally, I’d replace it if it looked black or smelled funny.
Easy peasy!

 

[tooblue02]

Thanks guys, the wife likes the $16.99 4 packs so when I spent $90 on ingredients for 15 gallons she was cool with it. Just the time is usually what makes her cranky since she has to watch the kids.

I replaced all my tubing yesterday with some simple stuff but planning on getting a pump and some of the food grade silicone tubing with quick disconnects very soon so I can improve on my brewing. The fermenters were recently used for sanitizing some of my equipment for the 15 gallons of wine that is sitting on oak and will be bottled in September so I know they are good and ready for use and I did order a new grain bag and hop spider because I knew those were old and nasty. Thanks again and cheers!