How old is too old??

[TrustyOlJohnson]

Ok.. I took a break from brewing.. in January and February of 2016 I got my brewing WAY ahead of my drinking.. 8 batches to be exact.. and now its time to mash in again.. I have a fair amount of grains that have been stored in Ziploc freezer bags inside containers and kept in a cool dry room. Also I had a collection of opened and unopened hops and dry yeast that were stored in the refrigerator at that time. So now that I'm picking up brewing again, I'm thinking of throwing away all the hops and the yeast, or do I really need to do that with the unopened packages? I think the grains will be OK. Does anyone have experience with using their old inventory and how the batches of beer turned out?

 

[stz]

I brewed with grain, hops and yeast from 2014 earlier this year. Grain was already crushed and had been stored in plastic drums with silica gel sachets. Hops were in vacuum sealed mylar kept frozen, some still 2012 crops and yeast was dried and kept refrigerated though well past bbd. All of it was less than optimal, but not at all bad. Perform a mini test mash in a mug or something. Yeast can be rehydrated and thus 'proved'. Hops will tell you if they are OK, but if sealed in the absence of oxygen or in a purged inert atmosphere are likely to be quite good still.

 

[rippajak]

The dry yeast is definitely good. It might be suboptimal, but it will still totally make beer. At the same time, dry yeast is cheap. That's your own risk-reward calculation to make.
As far as the grain, I've brewed with grain close to a year old stored in pet food containers at room temperature. I couldn't perceive any change over time. I would say taste some of your grain. If it still crunches like grain and tastes good, use it. If it tastes bad or has a stale "squish" to it, pitch it.
I would probably just pitch the opened hops. If the unopened ones are in sealed bags that have been vacuumed or flushed, they are probably still good to use. I might assume a slight loss in potency if I were using them for bittering, or just use fresh hops for bittering, but they're probably fine otherwise.

 

[IslandLizard]

Your grain is fine, even if it was milled. Cool and dry storage is best. But let your nose be your guide. If they smell moldy or rancid, toss, or make yeast starter wort from the base malts.

The unopened hops should be fine, the opened ones need to be smelled, and if they have a cheesy aroma, better toss them, or let age out at room temps for another 6-12 months for making sours. Successful hop storage depends on how much air you were able to purge from the opened bags and how well you sealed them before storing in the fridge. Storing hops in a freezer is much better, as is flushing with nitrogen. I wish the LHBSs stored their hops in freezers.

Dry yeast is best stored in the freezer too. I used a pack of US-05 that was 3 years past the best by date, but kept frozen since I got it, and worked like a charm.

 

[TrustyOlJohnson]

Well.. I know this much so far.. I mashed a Guinness clone that was put through the flour mill 18 months ago.. used fresh EKG hops and a fresh Wyeast Irish Ale yeast.. the wort tasted good.. fermentation has gone nice so far.. I ground a rye pale ale from grains that all have been sitting for 18 months.. fresh hops and I pitched 2 packets of Nottingham expired 8/16.. dry, straight into the wort.. in 36 hours it took off like a freight train.. time shall tell

 

[TrustyOlJohnson]

And I’m still drinking that Guinness clone on nitro draft and it’s a damn fine beer.. 10 months after brewing.