Out of Date Can's - The Verdict?

[Cookie]

Can they be used? How long out of date is too long? Is anything special required except adding fresh yeast?

On a side note, how long can homebrew be kept (once brewed and in bottle) until it is undrinkable?

[rwh]

On a side note, how long can homebrew be kept (once brewed and in bottle) until it is undrinkable?

Depends on the brew; the stronger it is, the hoppier it is, the longer it will last (alcohol and hops both being preservatives). Also, the storage conditions matter, with relatively cool, stable temperatures being best.

As a rule of thumb, 3-12 months of aging is ideal, with the average beer getting a bit long in the tooth after that.

[timmy]

I just made a partial dunkelweizen using a Coopers Wheat Kit with a b/b date of 2002, and am planning a Belgian-honey-mongrel wheat using a Beermakers Bavarian Wheat kit of similar vintage.

Had the first tasting of the dunkel out of the secondary last night and there are no off flavours apparent.

There was a thread on this recently - the general consensus was that it only affects the colour (the extract darkens with age) and you need to ditch the kit yeast and use something new.

Cheers,

Tim

[banger]

My father-in-law had a few longies of a Coopers Draught he made in 1995 that he kept under the house. we had them in early '07 and while they weren't great they were certainly drinkable.

[bellboys backyard brew]

Out of date cans, I just inherited 12 or so different ones about 2yrs out of date, I have started 2 of them, about to bottle, I will re-post here to let you know how it went.

In my single brick tin roof shed in Geelong, the temperature varies inside the shed by quite a few degrees, due to the abismal insulating characteristics of bricks and tin. In summer this has caused my bottled beer to start deteriorating quite quickly and I have noticed that some fantastic beers at 2 months now have some slightly off flavours in only 6 months or so. Temperature cycle (eg temp in shed going up and down by 10-15 degrees every day) has been BAD for my beer. Now to convince the lovely to let me keep 120 longnecks in the spare room for "temperature control".

I am sure if they had been kept at a constant 20deg, they'd be in much better shape.

[Will]

Around the middle of last year I brewed a real ale based on a Canadian Blonde tin that was maybe four years old or such. It was just an experiment to see if the ingredients would even work and I didn't bother to change the yeast or anything. At first nothing happened for several days, it appeared the yeast had died and wasn't going to ferment. We gave it until the end of the week and all of a sudden the yeast was alive and kicking, foaming up and generally going nuts.

Against better judgment, we bottled it once it appeared all the fermenting was done and gave it the usual month or so before coming back to start sampling it. After this month I come to find several exploded bottles, which was obviously not encouraging. Despite such, we sample a few beers. It was terrible, tasted very sour. Despite that, we gave it a bit more time and tried to get used to the taste, whilst more bottles exploded.

This beer was also extremely carbonated, it was extremely difficult to pour a glass without the entire thing frothing up and whilst I never tried it I'm quite sure you could shake up a bottle yourself and it would have exploded.

Anyway, we decided it was not drinkable after trying for about three weeks and so it went down the sink, frothing up the entire basin as it gurgled down the drain.

Obviously there was a lesson in this, avoid kits that are several years past the expiry date.

[warra48]

Will,
I'd say your problems were not caused by the out of date can.
I think, given the sour taste of your beer, the extreme carbonation and the bombs, that you have picked up an infection at bottling time. That's continued to fement all the flavour goodies in your bottles.

[Will]

It's definitely possible, I am pretty thorough with my sterilising though.

Either way, I would think using a kit that out of date is not likely to turn out well anyway.

[Kevnlis]

Squirt a bit of sanitiser up into the tap before you start bottling, also run the first 100ml or so off into a bucket or something as it usually has a lot of sediment in it. The tap is the most common cause of infection for home brewer, and also the most commonly overlooked.

[rwh]

It could also have been the dud-yeast, allowing some kind of wild yeast to take hold. If you're going to use out-of-date cans, definitely replace the yeast.

[bobbioli]

Have used out of date kits many times, mostly all with success. Only noticable diff. is a bit darker. I replace yeast but I allways do except for Coopers Pils.

[masman]

I recently found a Coopers Real Ale (CRA) at the back of my garage. I bought it 10 years ago. It is just about ready to be kegged (2 days time). The can didn't smell bad - although it was a darkish colour - I haven't brewed a CRA before so I don't know if the colour has changed. It looks to have brewed well. The kegging in a couplke of days will tell. I will keep you posted.

[billybushcook]

I have given up trying to use old can kits.
Using a fresh yeast is essential & the colour is darker as said above but I have consistently found that the flavours are much more rich & malty to match the colour change, rich to the point of being horrible to drink.
I still have two kits which were given to me by a mate who I some times brew & keg a batch for, After wasting my time doing a few "Hand me down" brews for him, I will not be doing any more "old" cans, they taste like crap!!!

Even when buying fresh kits, I will only use kits from a vendor with a high turnover of stock, ie, BIG W for Coopers PA. Mainly due to the fact that I have noticed slight variations in the same kit from time to time, done at the same consistant temp & same method, I put this down to variations in the age of the can & have recently started to check the date before buying, they should have at least 12 months or more left on the BB date!
I always do the same kit, which makes it is easy to pick any variation in quality!

Cheers, Mick.

[masman]

Sorry Billy I forgot to add that I did use a fresh yeast.

My HBS guy said that if the smell is fine in the tin and there is no sign of growth then give it a go. It smelt fine when mixing it. I hope to keg it tomorrow night. Will let evryone know the result.

Cheers

[billybushcook]

they should have at least 12 months or more left on the BB date!
Cheers, Mick.

Had a re-think on this one & checked my current stock,
That should be 2yrs until the BB date!

The can I put down last night was BB 4th month 2011.

Mick.

[Lentrave]

using a kit 4 year after the BB date with a new yeast but with the original enzyme pack ... can it cause problem ?