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Perhaps the exBEERiment boys can tell us 8)
I just assume that if the grains taste good and efficiency isn’t a concern that there is no downside.
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Oxidation is also an issue. If they taste good, yes, they are still good to use. But you will lose some malt flavor and aroma and may even pick up some metallic flavors in oxidized grain. I’m not just pulling this out of my butt, this is all stuff I have dealt with for the last few years. I have given grain away to farmers that was 6 months old and started to taste flat in the finished beer.
Understood. That was really the answer I was looking for. I wasn’t busting balls. Just curious is all.
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Thank you for putting it in better terms. Either way, it is not worth brewing with old grains IMO.
+1. Though we love it, brewing is time and effort. I’d rather spend the few bucks on fresh grain to be sure. Sort of the same thing as using old yeast - you might well make good beer. But you might not. Why not up your odds and buy fresh ?
Ahhhhmmmmennnn…brother!
These kinds of questions are valid, and people should feel free to ask them. But whats wrong with stepping back for a minute and looking at the big picture. I assume most brewers are not trying to make a “just good enough” beer. I wouldn’t mind if all of my beers were world class, and imagine thats true for most everyone. Old grain probably wont make you sick, but I cant imagine any world cup gold winning recipe calls for letting your grain sit around for a year. Sometimes I also wonder when folks debate at length the finer points like stirplate vortexes, but then kinda shrug “meh” and toss in some year old slack grain. Just sayin
I think the point was that the OP said he bought new grains and the flavor difference between the old and new was not detectable.
I understand majorvices point, and in his application, with large amounts of crushed grain hanging around a brewery environment, there is going to be flavor impacts and oxidation to the grain. I now understand that and am better off having asked.
Yet if at the homebrew level, you have grain that has been crushed and sitting around and tastes good, imperceptible from fresh grain as the OP said, then not using it seem like a waste.
Am I understanding it correctly: good tasting grain and oxidation of that grain are independent of one another, i.e. It can taste great and be oxidized?
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Keep in mind that grains (and hops, for that matter) are agricultural products that are available only after a harvest. I recognize the variations in harvest times - Northern vs Southern hemispheres, winter vs summer grain harvests, etc. But the point is still worth mentioning: the grain and the hops we use in our brews may be months (and months, and months) old when we buy them. I’m guessing that proper storage plays a huge role in grain/hop freshness.
But I can see that crushed grain may be more susceptible to staling than uncrushed, given the greater surface area exposure.
As I said in my very first post about this: It will be fine but may not be ideal. You are going to lose some of the flavor and aroma. Crush some grain and put it aside for a month or two. Then come back to it later and compare it next to fresh crushed grain.
I’m not saying don’t use them, I’m saying they may not make the best beer possible compared to using fresh crushed malt. Really, I’m not sure why there is a debate about that. I am flummoxed.
Interesting. While I feel this holds true on the AHA forum, if we’re really talking about “most” brewers my feeling is exactly the opposite.
Maybe a recipe for a world class gueuze (along with the hops)? 
I just thought that it was interesting that the OP bought brand new Pilsner malt, tasted it and report no discernible difference in flavor. All my subsequent questions were addressing this as I felt it was pertinent.
Doesn’t bother me either way. I’ve tasted old crushed grain that tasted great and I have tasted old crushed grain that did not taste very good. I used the former and chucked the latter.
One can also do a mini-mash on both new and old and see if there is a difference in Gravity and taste.
If it tasted good enough for him he should use it. That’s on him. I never said he shouldn’t use the grains. I just gave an opinion and left it up to him to decide if he wanted to use it or not. At no time did I say “NEVER USE CRUSHED GRAIN OVER 4 SECONDS OLD” or anything extreme to the like. I simply said it won’t be as good as fresh crushed.
And yes, once grain becomes oxidized it is ruined, but it also becomes less “friable” so you should be able to notice it immediately.
And I certainly notice a fuller malt character and aroma in grains that are crushed within a few weeks as opposed to that that has sat for a few months, even if the latter tastes fine. And even though the latter still makes palatable beer.
And that, my fellow forum junkies, is really all I am going to add to this convo sicne I feel like I have said pretty much the same thing in every post. Peace. Out.