Out of Date Kits

[Chealehay]

Hi all,

New to this forum and first post here,
After a long gap in the hobby I decided to give it another go, mainly due to financial reasons.

So after a trip to my nearest shop selling kits I returned with a John Bull 40 pint bitter, mainly due to being out of date by one month and so half price, and a Young’s Winebuddy 30 bottle kit.
Following a day soaking and scrubbing out bins, ashamed to say not cleaned out since last time. I started both kits on Saturday, and are both going along nicely.

Yesterday while searching the garage for the rest of my home brewing stuff I found my old stash of kits, all out of date, but my thinking is it shouldn’t cost much to try them.
The kits are,
3 x Geordie Bitter 40 pints, date Aug 03
1 x Boots Special Dry Irish Stout 30 pints, date Mar 02 (claims to have genuine brewer’s yeast??)
1 x Grande Maison Red wine 30 bottles, date July 03
1 x Solomon Grundy Gold Cab Sav 30 bottle, date Feb 03,

So I took another visit to shops for yeast, however the only yeast they had was wine yeast, so heres my questions.

I have a beer bubbling away which should be finished in a few days, could I use the yeast from that, my thinking is just adding some of the sediment from this to my mix ? Or is that just too simple?

Should I just follow the instructions as per cans? Thinking that I could try making the four beer kit into two, would the Stout and Bitter make anything drinkable and how much sugar would I use?

Is there a simple way to test if the yeast is ok, and anything else at that?

Similar question with the wine kits, but should I ask about them it the wine section? If I can use the sediment out of the wine I have currently got bubbling for this then I'm hoping to use the yeast I bought to try making some rhubarb wine from the glut I have in the garden.

Sorry if this is a long post, but any helpful advice is appreciated

 

[mickeyt69]

Hi Chealehay i recently got given some out of date Kits from an uncle they were brewferm belgian ones these were 10 years out of date however i thought there was no harm in trying and the results were fantastic, i used the yeast suplied with them which worked fine. I rehydrated it in teppid water i think you can tell if a yeast is ok by the smell when rehydrated if it smells ok(sweet smell) pitch it. if i dosent work you can allways pitch new yeast later. Good luck let us know how it goes

Mick

P.S the boots kits used to be pretty good if i remember ;-)

 

[Chealehay]

Hi Mick,

thanks for the reply, I think I might try a couple of the kits tomorrow(if the wife lets me have the kitchen).

 

[jonewer]

I'd get some proper yeast, even if only as a backup. :thumb:

 

[Cussword]

I have to agree, you really should have some fresh yeast to hand, just in case :pray:

 

[Chealehay]

How long would you suggest to leave the origional yeast in before using the backup new yeast. The reason is I'm hoping to start two of the beer kits either tonight or tomorrow, but can't get to another shop for the yeast until possibly Thursday.

 

[mickeyt69]

if it dosent start bubbling within 24-36hrs put in the other yeast if it does dont bother with more yeast.

 

[Chealehay]

Well I started one of the Geordie bitters and the Boots Irish Stout yesterday.

The bitter is frothing up nicely but nothing from the stout yet, if nothing by tomorrow I'll add more yeast as advised.

It's nice to get virtually free beer seeing as I had completely forgotten I had these kits!!

 

[mickeyt69]

yeh man the joy of brewing its practicaly free and you created it yoursself so you love it even more.......oh and it gets you loaded :drunk: hope it all works out for you mate

Mick

 

[Chealehay]

Just to update, the Irish stout started on its own the next day. Started the third of them this morning and is bubbling already. All with the origional yeasts. Hope to start the 5g wine this weekend.

 

[unforgiven]

young's brewbuddy larger 3 years out of date a friend gave me so put it on and its bubbling away
lets see how it turns out fingers crossed, the malt was very dark when i opened the tin can't see it looking like a larger

 

[Scottyburto]

In my very limited opinion I would consider getting some hops to freshen up the beer kits. Even a small dry hop in each would make all the difference and would only be a few quid each. Crossmyloof on eBay are excellent and postage in included.

 

[unforgiven]

In my very limited opinion I would consider getting some hops to freshen up the beer kits. Even a small dry hop in each would make all the difference and would only be a few quid each. Crossmyloof on eBay are excellent and postage in included.

yes i should do i'll have a look cheers

 

[dhutch]

This thread is giving me hope.

We have a 'Coopers Ginger Beer Kit' which is best before sept 18, so around two years over date, it also appears they no longer do the kit.

Never brewed before.

Given the above, with ten year old kits being ok to use still, maybe we just give it a go! Else presumably all (most?) brewers yeast sachets are equally, nothing special for ginger beer, just order some online?


Cheers,

Daniel

 

[Slid]

This thread is giving me hope.

We have a 'Coopers Ginger Beer Kit' which is best before sept 18, so around two years over date, it also appears they no longer do the kit.

Never brewed before.

Given the above, with ten year old kits being ok to use still, maybe we just give it a go! Else presumably all (most?) brewers yeast sachets are equally, nothing special for ginger beer, just order some online?


Cheers,

Daniel

Yes, do just that - all will be fine.

 

[DavidDetroit]

Else presumably all (most?) brewers yeast sachets are equally, nothing special for ginger beer, just order some online?

In addition, I would say that a neutral yeast is preferred for your ginger beer (S-04/US-05) or whatever the UK equivalent may be.
Good luck.

 

[jof]

My son & I made a Timothy Taylor kit that was dated 2014 a couple of months ago.
Most surpised that the yeast supplied was still viable & I didn't need to use my spare pack.
But I would say that the malt extract had deteriorated over time.
It was much darker than expected & lost the hoppy-ness in the flavour.
Its drinkable - but too malt heavy. If anyone else tries this - they should consider adding more hops.

 

[dwhite60]

My son & I made a Timothy Taylor kit that was dated 2014 a couple of months ago.
Most surpised that the yeast supplied was still viable & I didn't need to use my spare pack.
But I would say that the malt extract had deteriorated over time.
It was much darker than expected & lost the hoppy-ness in the flavour.
Its drinkable - but too malt heavy. If anyone else tries this - they should consider adding more hops.

I have used four year out of date dry yeast with no issues. Took off and fermented fine.

 

[TheOsprey]

Haha I didn't realise how old this thread was! I was thinking 17 year out of date yeast and malt was pushing it...

 

[An Ankoù]

Haha I didn't realise how old this thread was! I was thinking 17 year out of date yeast and malt was pushing it...

Don't you believe it. "Out of Date" is a marketing ploy to make you throw good stuff away and buy more. I call it "advance conditioning"!