I have a 2 gal Brewdemon fermenter that came with a can of Pale Horse Pale Export unhopped malt extract with a "Best before 5-21-23" date and a can of American Prophecy Ale hopped malt extract with a "A best before 11-12-21" date and a packet of brewing yeast. I assume I'm at least going to have to get fresh yeast - I know that the kind of yeast you do breadmaking with definitely has a finite shelf life. Do you think the cans of extract are usable or is attempting to brew with them going to result in undrinkable bilge water and I need to get fresh, period? Thanks!
Liquid Malt Extract (LME) starts off stale and only gets worse. I wouldn't use either of those cans. Depending on how it's been stored (i.e. the colder the better), the pack of dry yeast might still be relatively ok. If you want to brew this as a learning experience, go for it. But don't expect great beer. I wouldn't even expect good beer.
I just brewed an IPA with 2 year old malts, and 3 year old hops(double vacuum sealed, frozen), and it turned pretty damn good. Could it have been better with fresher ingredients? No doubt. But nobody who has tasted it has complained or not asked for a couple of refills. So now I'm out of pretty much everything so I'll buy new fresh ingredients in quantities that reflect my current level of consumption, which is very, very low. But as Vikeman says, using malt extract is a real crapshoot. If you get a can of it that is fresh from the manufacturer you can make good beer. A guy in my old homebrew club won medals in the Texas Bluebonnet competition with his extract beers. The 5/21/2023 extract is probably still good, the other needs to be thrown away.
Is there any characteristic that would be discernible upon opening it that would indicate whether a particular can of extract is beyond redemption? Smell, appearance, taste? I.e. the equivalent of the smell/taste of sour milk?
Probably not sour, unless it was somehow contaminated. More like extra sweet and caramelly, and possibly metallic/twangy. You'll notice that once it's diluted it's quite a bit darker than an equivalent freshly mashed (all grain) wort, if you have experience with that.
Old liquid extract will taste tangy and metallic, in addition to darkening considerably and tasting more distractingly like caramel, with also hints of banana and paper. You can use it, but I would reserve it for a dark caramelly style like Scottish ale, doppelbock, something like that. Buy new extract, preferably dried extract instead of liquid. The dried stuff lasts much longer with minimal stale flavors, though after a few years it will become solid as a rock. Use it fresh and you'll be fine. Dry yeast, meanwhile, lasts for many years. You can use it. Hopefully it is labeled. If not, who knows what your attenuation and ABV will turn out to be. You *might* be better off buying new yeast so that you can select the attributes that you want. Obviously you are going to need to buy new hops, unless they were vacuum packed or with nitrogen and refrigerated then they might be OK.
Thanks. The Brewdemon kits are all liquid no dry components. These came with the fermenting vessel and haven't gotten around to trying it yet. The main delay has been putting together a refrigerated fermentation chamber.
homebrewing is a time investment no matter the process - and usually it's about trying to brew a great beer - so I'd recommend canning the old ingredients. Now - if you are just trying to make an alcoholic drink and don't care about a potential refined experience (like if you are an expat in Saudi Arabia) - the by all means use it. Cheeers
Brew it, learn your lesson about old ingredients, and chalk the loss of your time and effort up to experience. As much as everybody is going to tell you one thing or another, there is no better teacher than experience. You'll know better in the future not to even question it.
Thanks. What I'll probably do is order some fresh and make a batch or two then try it with the old stuff and compare the results. I don't imagine another month or two of age will make much difference.
