Hi after a few years break, ... returning to Home brewing again: going to do a John Bull best biter and a Geordie best bitter kit. Having a sort out before re-cleaning & sterilising stuff, I've found a bag of brewing sugar that went out of date in August 2016! been stored in the dry, the bag is sealed. in tact and feels fine, I know not expensive to buy but - we're of course locked in and that aside, waste not want not, would it be safe do you think or spoil the brew? Would you use it or go for ordinary granulated sugar instead? Thanks in advance, Wayne
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It's sugar. Sugar doesn't spoil. Honey has been known to be still good after millennia. And that's not much more than water and sugar.
MyQul
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I’m pretty certain it’s a legal requirement to put a best before date on product, for some things this matters however as long as it’s kept dry sugar should keep more or less indefinitely.
Cheshire Cat
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Best before is exactly what it says. However use by is a date which after it the food could be unfit to eat. So sugar is safe.
carljbray
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Hi Wayne,
same story for me, back into brewing and got a few bags of brewing sugar, best before 2015/2016
I started a batch of beer with one of the bags, and an out of date can of malt, also from the same time,
started two weeks ago, all seems to be going well, except the fermentation is slow, but I think this is more down to the yeast than the other ingredients (brand new yeast btw) - it's been bubbling for 12 days solid now.
Either way - I can't give you a confirmation that everything is ok, till I can bottle it and wait another couple of weeks, and taste it!
but I went through the same dilema, and figured, it should be fine - we'll see
I'd be interested to hear how yours goes :-)
Cheers,
Carl
same story for me, back into brewing and got a few bags of brewing sugar, best before 2015/2016
I started a batch of beer with one of the bags, and an out of date can of malt, also from the same time,
started two weeks ago, all seems to be going well, except the fermentation is slow, but I think this is more down to the yeast than the other ingredients (brand new yeast btw) - it's been bubbling for 12 days solid now.
Either way - I can't give you a confirmation that everything is ok, till I can bottle it and wait another couple of weeks, and taste it!
but I went through the same dilema, and figured, it should be fine - we'll see
I'd be interested to hear how yours goes :-)
Cheers,
Carl
carljbray
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So I bottled and pressure barrelled this (half and half) a week ago, after a mammoth 22 days fermentation, gonna wait another week before sampling the first bottle (or maybe 1 bottle this weekend, if I can’t stand the suspense!).
It tasted very fruity when I took a sample for a final gravity reading, but tasted like beer and ok, so we’ll have to see.
Whether the length of time it took to ferment was anything to do with the age of the ingredients, it’s difficult to know, seems unlikely and may just have been a coincidence, more likely the new yeast or maybe something unwanted got involved in the batch : yeast or bacteria.
It tasted very fruity when I took a sample for a final gravity reading, but tasted like beer and ok, so we’ll have to see.
Whether the length of time it took to ferment was anything to do with the age of the ingredients, it’s difficult to know, seems unlikely and may just have been a coincidence, more likely the new yeast or maybe something unwanted got involved in the batch : yeast or bacteria.
