Brewed up an Irish Red yesterday. The plan was to use some Weyermann Carared. It was sealed in a heavy weight plastic bag. Opened up the bag, and I noticed an off aroma.
It was exactly like stale peanuts. Or old, stale cooking oil.
This grain is about 1 year. old. First time I have had this happen. The grain still tastes fine, but has that “stale peanut” odor. So we decided to use it for bird feed.
We have other grains about the same age, still in the original packaging material from the malting company. They are all fine.
I have recently used 9 year old pils malt that may have been past it’s prime, but still made a great beer with no malt repeated off flavors. OTOH, I have had somewhat that has been dump3d due to being too old. I decide on a case by case basis by chewing some. If it’s soft or tastes off, I dump it.
Sounds to me the heavy weight plastic bag allowed oxygen inside thereby causing the stale malt. May want to consider getting some food grade buckets with decent lids for malt storage especially since it’s unknown what chemicals were used to make the heavy weight plastic bag. Was the heavy weight plastic bag food grade?
BTW, if the malt is stale you’ll know it. Ever had a stale cracker or pretzel?
Since the grains are hard and it tastes OK, I don’t think you can conclude that it’s stale. And I cn imagine a matter using a bag that isn’t food grade. Have you seen anything to conclude that could be the case?
The thick plastic bag is the one that the local supplier used. Two pounds was purchased, and I had used some of the grain previously, and then sealed the bag again using a vacuum sealer, although all of the air was not removed.
As we buy grain in 55 lb bags, the grain is stored in the original bag until it is used up. Even with some grains that might approach 12 months old, never had any issues with storage.
To recap, this grain has a faint aroma of stale (rancid) peanuts. Or stale cooking oil. Very faint. But is still very crunchy, and tastes fine.
If it doesn’t pass the sniff test, it’s not worth further time and thought, and is tossed.
It’s rare for it to happen to me, but have tossed hops, dried orange peel, and grain.
The very few times that I overrode my common sense only led to a batch being dumped.
The same goes with anything the wife and I would eat or drink.
Hard lessons learned from experience.
As the old adage goes, when in doubt throw it out.
You should never question something your going to put inside your body.
“Didn’t the birds already eat it?
Ha! No, my wife put a small amount in one of her bird feeders. They have not touched it. I have about one pound (+/-) left.”
I’ve had similar experience. Animals don’t want the spent grain. That’s why I now use my spend grain for making bread, pretzels or as fertilizer, mulch in the garden.
Distillers grains are a co-product of the ethanol production process and a great, low cost alternative feed ingredient that continues to be produced in large quantities by the dry-grind fuel ethanol industry. They are rich in the protein, fat, minerals and vitamins that animals need, making them a popular feed ingredient for livestock and poultry diets.
I make cookies using this recipe all the time for my dog and the neighborhood dogs. One neighborhood pug has to be dragged past my house, he knows where the cookies are. The recipe is easy and the dogs love them. After I brew I save 8 cups of spent grain in 1 gallon freezer zip locks and freeze the grains for later. Each bag makes two batches of cookies. Works great.
I roll the dough out flat and cut it into squares with a pizza cutter. Easy peasy quick and dirty. I’ve never had a dog refuse a cookie because it wasn’t in the shape of a bone ;D
