Old grain and hops

[Goblism]

Curious if anyone has brewed with some grain that is 5 or more years old? Currently getting back into brewing after a 3-4 year break. Grain smells great still and all of it is uncrushed. I also have a few lbs of hops that have been in the freezer. All are sealed in the factory 1-4 oz packages. I opened a bag to smell and thought they smelled fairly good, not quite as vibrant as fresh hops but certainly better than I expected after years in the freezer.

The main reason I ask is I need to buy a few lbs of various grains for planned batches and don't necessarily want to waste my time with old grain if results may be marginal. My current brews would be comprised of 80-90% of the old grain.

 

[Miraculix]

No problem, just brew with it. Hops store forever in sealed vacuum packages in the freezer and uncrushed grain in dry and room temperature environment as well.

 

[hotbeer]

Looks, smells and taste. If the grain/malts pass that, then you should be good. You have munched on a few kernels of malt before haven't you? If not you should start. Malt and grain doesn't need much more than a dry bug free place for storage.

Hops, I'd probably just go by looks and smell. I'll taste them when the beer is finished. Hops need more care for storage. I use pellet hops and just push the air out of the open bag and seal them with shipping tape over the cut end. Then put them in the freezer or fridge. I do have some that have been in the refrigerator for about 10 months and they are looking a tad yellowish. Probably going bad since they were dark green when new.

If you have a vacuum sealer, of course that's best. But I'm not going to spend for one just to keep a few hops fresh when I can just buy more. And I really don't have a need for a vacuum sealer otherwise.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

With hops, there is a "hop storage index" (HSI): some hops store better than others.

 

[Miraculix]

With hops, there is a "hop storage index" (HSI): some hops store better than others.

That's true! I've had 6 year old cluster that literally lost zero alpha acid. Aroma gone, bitterness stayed.

 

[Albionwood]

Yes, I have brewed with grain that was several years old. As others said - smell and taste will give you a pretty good indication of quality. If you taste old grain and new grain side-by-side the difference will be obvious. Avoid using old grain in malty beer styles, but it's okay in IPAs, sours, fruited beers, etc.
Hops on the other hand... lose aroma pretty quickly, and flavor a little more slowly, and bitterness can fade with time as well. A lot depends on how they were stored, and some varieties keep better than others, but in general two years is about the limit for me. Unless you want to make Lambics, where aged "cheesy" hops are part of the style.

 

[mashpaddled]

If the grain smells and tastes ok, it's going to taste and smell ok in the beer. If it is slack--soft and squishy--you may want to add some rice hulls in the mash to help avoid stuck mash/sparge.

With hops if they smell ok they are at least fine for later additions. Depending on the variety you may have enough alpha loss to miss your bittering target noticeably. IMO frozen hops, especially in vacuum sealed bags, tend to have sort of a freezer burnt smell until they warm up. I've opened older hops wondering if they would do ok in the beer with that freezer burnt smell. Never had an issue.

 

[Brushwood Brewing]

Over Christmas I made an IPA with my father, using an extract + specialty grains kit that he had lying around for about 5 years. The ingredients were stored in a basement the whole time, no refrigeration. The dried extract had somehow turned into a laffy-taffy consistency, all one chunk, that took a while to break apart in the boil. We bought new yeast, but otherwise used the kit as-is.

I'm out of state so I haven't tried it, but he said it turned out decent.

Will it be the best beer you've ever made? Probably not. But if it's deciding between "brew it" or "toss it", I say brew it.

 

[MajorJC]

Reading your post reminded me that I had asked a similar question last summer... and I forgot to follow up on the thread, so I found it and posted the results of my brew.
You can see my thread here