Hello! I've been into craft beer for a little over a decade now and had always wanted to get into homebrewing, but never quite made the time for it. A neighbor recently gave me a 1 gallon Craft a Brew kit he was going to toss out since the ingredients were expired. The box has an expiration date of 2015 but the individual ingredients have expiration dates of 2017. I've looked for similar threads on the forum and haven't seen any quite as expired as mine, so I wanted to get you all's opinion on if the beer would be safe to consume when finished. If it is safe I am aware that it probably isn't going to be delicious by any means, but in your opinion is it going to be so vile as to be completely unpalatable? My conundrum is since I got it all for free I would like to use it as a guinea pig batch to dip my toes in the water and make mistakes without the risk of financial loss, but at the same time I'd like to know if it's gross if it tastes that way because I screwed up and not just because the ingredients are old. Sorry to be long winded and thanks in advance!
I doubt there's anything in the kit worth salvaging. You could probably make beer with it (assuming there is any viable yeast), and it would be safe to consume, but it wouldn't be good.
VikeMan is spot on. And if you go ahead and make it you won't know if your process contributed to it being not good. Assuming the gifted kit included the equipment, check out the Craft A Brew ingredients-only kits. They're ~$15, I didn't check shipping. https://craftabrew.com/collections/beer-making-recipe-kits Many homebrewers tested the waters with similar 1-gallon kits. Understand that these types of all-inclusive kits can result in less than stellar quality, but they are usually drinkable and at the least will provide a bit of hands-on education of the process. Take a peek at How To Brew by John Palmer.
I agree with the posts above, but go ahead and Brew it for practice just to see if you are interested in becoming a homebrewer. Just don't use the taste of the resulting beer be your decision maker about brewing again. BUT you should definitely get new yeast before you brew this kit. If you have a homebrewer store close by go there and ask them which yeast they recommend for the style that you're brewing.
Safe? Yes. Will it be good? No. Should you do it? Absolutely! Dive right in, take good notes so that you can improve later, and you’ll see improvement as you progress P.s. You’ll find a ton of helpful info in this forum, but you’ll also find a bit of BS as well. Cross check your facts with other sources and don’t be afraid to experiment once you’ve got the basics down. FWIW
I'd use it for batch #2 or #3. You don't need any other factors working against you on your first brew.
Well I spilled a third of the wort in my damn sink so I'm glad I used the expired stuff! Definitely a learning experience but one I enjoyed. My 2 year old probably learned some new words when that happened though
Can I guess that you may have been trying to pour your wort through a funnel into your carboy fermentor? There are certain times when brewing beer that having 4 hands is beneficial, and that's one of them.
Just wait until your first boil over...you’ll have some choice words as you’re prying charred malt from your stove...
I don’t know why I can’t get the picture to show up. It’s got two layers of white crap on the bottom, several inches thick each
You need to use a third party photo hosting site like Imgur.com, Photobucket.com, etc. in order to post a pic in a forum. Here is the Help FAQ page that will help: https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/frequently-asked-questions-faq.444392/
I'm assuming you've been fermenting for close to a month now? The layers at the bottom is called trub. It is normal and it is mostly yeast that has settled at the bottom. I didn't read through the whole thread but if you used the yeast that came in the kit, I'd be surprised if it did much and you've had that layer there for most of the fermentation.
