Sealed grain freshness?

[eulipion2]

Suppose a fella hasn't brewed in six or so years. And suppose he's finally getting back into it. And further suppose that he found a bunch of old grain sealed up in Vittles Vaults, some still in their original sealed bags. Would said fella have useable vittles, or should he feed it all to the deer and buy fresh?

Now if only that fella could find his old brew journals!

 

[Miraculix]

Suppose a fella hasn't brewed in six or so years. And suppose he's finally getting back into it. And further suppose that he found a bunch of old grain sealed up in Vittles Vaults, some still in their original sealed bags. Would said fella have useable vittles, or should he feed it all to the deer and buy fresh?

Now if only that fella could find his old brew journals!

Crushed or not? How warm was it stored?

If it was reasomnably cold and uncrushed, could be fine. Lost a bit of flavour of course, but still usable. If crushed, use it for starters, but not for consumption.

 

[eulipion2]

Uncrushed, stored in my basement, so anywhere from mid-50s to maybe 80°F at the peak of summer. Basement is currently in the low 70s.

 

[day_trippr]

Chew on a pinch of grains. If they taste good they should be fine. That said, 6 years even in a sealed package is a long time. I'd be concerned about rancidity...

 

[shoengine]

Chew on a pinch of grains. If they taste good they should be fine.

Exactly what I was going to say! With the addition of "sniff them first".

Your nose can detect spoilation the easiest of the senses, in my experience.

 

[sibelman]

How much is really at stake? I wouldn't invest the time and energy in even one batch with doubtful ingredients. Six years - wow.

 

[G_robertus]

As with anything food related: use your senses. If they taste stale you could use the grain to boost ABV in heavy beers where you don't notice it as much. Alternatively you can toast base malt to make biscuit, amber or brown malt. If nothing else use it for animal feed or compost.

 

[MaxStout]

Fluctuating from 50s to 80 for 6 years, even if sealed, would give me pause. For all the effort in brewing, plus all the other ingredients, I'd hate to gamble on old malts.

Do you know anyone who raises poultry? Give the grain to them. The birds love it.

 

[Brockness Monster]

I was kind of in the same boat with a good 20 lbs. of malt that was 7 years old. I ran it all through my mill to "clean" it out and gave the grist to a friend who had chickens. I like the idea of making starters with it though, wish I would have thought of that.

 

[Closet Fermenter]

If the taste and smell were not bad, I might do a run anyway as a “wetrun” just to get back in the swing of things and see what I might be lacking in materials/equipment and/or where I need to tighten up my process. The grain is already paid for, so other than your time, a few incidentals, and the heating energy; not a lot of cost to make a test run. Who knows , you might even make beer!

 

[mac_1103]

And if you make bad beer, you've got a good excuse!

 

[eulipion2]

Thanks for all the replies. I was considering just tossing it to the deer, but I tasted it today, and it's just as crisp and crunchy as if I just brought it home from the shop. Also, I'm coming back to brewing with an "upgrade" to my system, a boil condenser, and I need to dial in my boil-off.

I brewed my inaugural brew today -- with new grains -- and I was several points low on my gravity, and had a much larger volume than normal, so I'll use the old grains to calibrate the system, and since they still taste good I might even get some good beer out of it!