Perhaps someone could answer this question for me and put an end to my suffering. Last Wednesday I bought ingredients for a partial mash recipe I’ve been working on lately. I was back in Seattle for a couple of days visiting family and trying to retrieve my equipment from a friend; I had left my equipment with him while I moved all my stuff to San Diego. I went to the homebrew supply shop on my way to pick up the equipment at his house. To my surprise, my 5 gallon brewing kettle was oxidized, rendering it unusable for brewing. I had to catch a plane back to San Diego later that night, and without a brew kettle I couldn’t go forward with my brew day.
What was supposed to be a very pleasant brew day on my father’s 54th birthday turned into an ingredient-storage nightmare. Three pounds of rye malt and a half pound of Vienna were milled, and five pounds of Pilsner malt extract drawn. I will not be back in Seattle for at least two weeks, so I’m a little concerned about the ingredients. I figure my yeast and my hops will be fine since I threw the yeast in the fridge and the hops in the freezer, but I’m a little concerned about the integrity of my grains and extract. I put them in a dark, dry place. Should I be concerned about quality in two weeks? Should I perhaps toss them out instead of using them?
Thanks in advance for taking the time to read this and respond.
Cheers,
Awesome. I was a bit worried. Maybe I got the wrong term. It got rusty. Any thoughts as to how to clean the rust? It’s a stainless steel kettle.
During one of my inexperienced first brew sessions as a home brewer, I added flaked oats directly to the boil without a bag, so a huge amount of scorching happened on the bottom of the kettle. I applied a substantial amount of elbow grease in an attempt to clean it, without much success. I believe the scorched oats retained some moisture, which I have reason to believe caused the rust. This wasn’t a problem when I was brewing every week, but it got the best of my kettle this summer as it sat idle in someone’s garage.
Wow. Thanks so much. This is amazing information. And I thought I would have to throw my kettle out. I tried scrubbing it and cleaning with PBW, and I figured that if that didn’t work, nothing would. Thanks once more!
I once brewed with grains that had been milled 9 months before and stored in a non-temperature controlled garage. The beer was good. You won’t find me arguing that it would be the same if the grains were fresh, but whatever changes did occur did not make it undrinkable.
gets rid of both gunk and rust AND re-passivates stainless. Sprinkle some in your kettle, add enough water to make a paste, and go to town. You’ll be amazed.
Speaking of shelf life, do hops loose their AAs if stored in the freezer? I have some old hops (like 08’ Saaz pellets n plugs). I would imagine they wouldnt be too good for flavor/aroma eh?
Depends on how they are stored. I have hops stored in glass under CO2 at 0F that are bright green after many years. Plenty bitter too. Club hop buy? Sure, I’ll take a few pounds of Tomahawk. WTF was I thinking?