Out of date kits, any use?

whitesands

I tried a homebrew years ago & it tasted like dishwater so I gave up. Anyway, I dug my old stuff out of storage & I have a coopers pilsener & homebrews extra strong irish stout, both expired in 2007.

Is there anything I can do with them or should I just feck them out?
I've also 2kg of brewing sugar from the same era, it's now a solid brick, any use or bin it?
What sugar are you pro's using? anything available in a supermarket? 1kg of coopers brewmaster sugar @ €8 seems a bit steep to me.

daithi55

new enouh to this myself but from what ive been told lately is the fresher the worth etc the better the beer will taste

ie if yer buying something get the longest shelf life possible so i think the coopers pilsner is not good but no harm trrting all the same
as for the sugar i wouldnt no

BeerNut

If you have it you may as well make it: it'll still be beer, unless the yeast has packed up completely.

whitesands wrote: »

What sugar are you pro's using? anything available in a supermarket? 1kg of coopers brewmaster sugar @ €8 seems a bit steep to me.

I use spraymalt rather than sugar for kits.

whitesands

Cheers lads

BeerNut wrote: »

If you have it you may as well make it: it'll still be beer, unless the yeast has packed up completely.

Interesting, I've 3 sachets of yeast from 07 here but I think I'll bin them, if tesco's are doing the yeast sachets I can get some monday.
What's the downfall of using the out of date malt extract, is it just flavour or does it affect alcohol content?

Spraymalt, I don't suppose you can get that in dublin or is it online only?

BeerNut

whitesands wrote: »

What's the downfall of using the out of date malt extract, is it just flavour or does it affect alcohol content?

It just might taste a bit stale, is all.

whitesands wrote: »

Spraymalt, I don't suppose you can get that in dublin or is it online only?

I don't know if any of the homebrew Tescos do it, but the Next Doors in Harold's Cross, Kimmage and Santry should have it in stock.

whitesands

Cheers Beernut, you've convinced me to give them a go.
I'm not near a next door offy anytime soon but since the beer is gone off I'm just going to use whatever I can get in the supermarket.
Is there a better alternative to 1kg of siucra?

Tube

BeerNut wrote: »

It just might taste a bit stale, is all.

I don't know if any of the homebrew Tescos do it, but the Next Doors in Harold's Cross, Kimmage and Santry should have it in stock.

And John has no connection with any of those outlets

The Tescos that carry homebrew stuff do carry DME.

maringo

Sugar doesn't go off. Just because its solid doesn't mean its gone bad - should be perfectly alright. Yeast will lose its potency over time.

whitesands

Tube wrote: »

The Tescos that carry homebrew stuff do carry DME.

What's it called or look like? My missus will be getting it for me & if I'm not specific enough I'll be lucky to get a bag of sugar

maringo wrote: »

Sugar doesn't go off. Just because its solid doesn't mean its gone bad - should be perfectly alright.

I'll use it so, I'll use the 07 stout kit & sugar & brew up 23 litres during the week.
If anyone cares I'll document it on this thread...

BeerNut

Tube wrote: »

And John has no connection with any of those outlets

Those outlets -- Tesco and Next Door -- are the only bricks-and-mortar homebrew shops I'm aware of in Dublin. Are there others?

evolving_doors

whitesands wrote: »

What's it called or look like? My missus will be getting it for me & if I'm not specific enough I'll be lucky to get a bag of sugar


I'll use it so, I'll use the 07 stout kit & sugar & brew up 23 litres during the week.
If anyone cares I'll document it on this thread...

Please do, i have a 2010 stout kit I've been humming and hawing about for ages.... Any idea what yeast youll use?

tteknulp

Armelodie wrote: »

Get yourself a good ale yeast for stout ,nottingham etc ,or muntons gold is another,2010 stout should be ok ,maybe finish abit darker

sharingan

whitesands wrote: »

Cheers Beernut, you've convinced me to give them a go.
I'm not near a next door offy anytime soon but since the beer is gone off I'm just going to use whatever I can get in the supermarket.
Is there a better alternative to 1kg of siucra?

Everything should be better than 1 kg of table sugar.

Get 1 kg of dry malt extract online.

evolving_doors

tteknulp wrote: »

Armelodie wrote: »

Get yourself a good ale yeast for stout ,nottingham etc ,or muntons gold is another,2010 stout should be ok ,maybe finish abit darker

Cheers will do

evolving_doors

tteknulp wrote: »

Armelodie wrote: »

Get yourself a good ale yeast for stout ,nottingham etc ,or muntons gold is another,2010 stout should be ok ,maybe finish abit darker

Cheers will do

whitesands

Armelodie wrote: »

Please do, i have a 2010 stout kit I've been humming and hawing about for ages.... Any idea what yeast youll use?

Well, I told the missus to get me yeast in tescos & she comes home with a beerkit instead :rolleyes:
So seeing as I have an in date beer kit I'll use that for this run, I'll update this thread when I get round to using the out of date kit.

Cheers lads

poitinstill

bang them both in .. ie the new kit and the old kit and use the new yeast... use the old kit as fermetables... called a toucan brew on the coopers website.

whitesands

Thanks poitinstill, I was wondering about that alright, ie extra can instead of sugar. I just done a normal one this time but I'll try that for my next brew in a few weeks & read up on toucan brew.

Cheers...