Anyone know the limit of brew life of kit grains if they are uncracked?
I’ve used them over five years old with no reduction in yield. If you are talking base grains, they are usually malted. As long as they are kept dry and relatively cool, no problem. Taste them, you can tell. They should taste like grape nuts. Just make sure you do a hard boil for the entire time to get rid of the off flavors if any occur. Dark beers, such as porters and stouts also tend to hide any off flavors.
Adjunct grains usually roasted hard and keep fairly well. It varies by type but since the quantity is relatively small, if in doubt, replace them. It’s not worth it to ruin a big batch for a small quantity of adjunct grains.
If you are using liquid malt extract, the color of the beer gets darker as the malt extract ages. Again, I’ve used cans 5+ years with no problems. Throw away any old yeast and buy new and make sure the hops are fresh as old hops will ruin a beer.
I brew quite a bit. Not as much now as I like to, due to lack of time. My brew kettle is 150 gallons with a pump circulator to keep the sugars from burning. My specialty is bourbon barrel imperial stout. Problem is, it takes a lot of bottling to store 52 gallons of beer! If I put it in kegs, I tend to drink it too fast!
I’m ready for the economic crash. Purchased a ton of barley malt and planning on growing a few acres of barley this next year on my farm just to learn the malting process. Need to plant a few more hop vines including a few more varieties and I’ll be self sustaining.
Wheat or wit beers are the easiest, but watch the explosive fermentation. Use hoses for vents, not airlocks.
Rock on! Nothing like starting from dirt and making bread (or beer).
Are your hops doing ok? I remember the shortage we had a while back.
/johnny
Wow. You really, really are into it. If I brewed at your level, I’d start a brew-pub.
Thanks for your insights!